TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt steps up efforts to protect migrant workers
Change Size
Struggle for life – Passenger vessel KM Thalia, which carries hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers from West and South Sulawesi, ties up at a dock in the Tunon Taka Port in Nunukan regency, North Kalimantan, on Sept.19. From Nunukan, they continued their travels to Sabah, Malaysia, to work. (Antara/M.Rusman)
T
he government has developed centers in border areas to better help the documentation of Indonesian people seeking jobs abroad and to empower migrant workers who have become trapped in illegal employment in neighboring countries, an official has said.
"The center in Nunukan has assisted hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers employed illegally in Tawau so that they can obtain proper documentation - such as resident IDs [KTP], family cards [KK] and visas. In the center, they also can be retrained and redeployed for work," the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister’s deputy minister for women and children protection, Sujatmiko, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
He said the success of the center since its establishment in March in North Kalimantan, a province that bordered with Malaysia, had given the government confidence to continue to expand the system.
Two more centers are expected to be completed by December, he continued. One center will be located in Entikong, which also borders with Malaysia, while the second one will be in Batam and is aimed at reaching Indonesian migrant workers in Singapore, he added.
"These workers are most vulnerable to being exploited since they have fallen victim to illegal employment," Sujatmiko said.
He said cooperation with regional governments to boost industries and provide jobs for its residents were also being developed to prevent locals from being easily lured into dubious employment schemes abroad.
West Java, Central Java, East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara and West Kalimantan are the six biggest provinces of origin of migrant workers, official data says. (ebf)
