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Indonesia lifts ban on sending domestic workers to Middle East
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Migrant workers from South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi, along with their children, disembark from a vessel at Tunon Taka Port in Nunukan regency, North Kalimantan, on March 6, 2017. (Antara/M. Rusman)
T
he government has lifted a moratorium on sending Indonesian citizens to the Middle East as domestic workers but has cautioned that people who take up offers of employment in the region must follow the proper procedures to ensure they are fully protected.
The decision is intended to “improve the governance and protection of Indonesian migrant workers in the Middle East”, according to Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah, who announced the policy change on Wednesday.
In 2015, Indonesia made it illegal for migrant workers to be sent to any of 19 Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, to work for individual employers, citing abuses that workers had encountered there.
A number of Middle Eastern countries have been criticized for their poor treatment of migrant workers under the kafala sponsorship system, which requires migrant workers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, take responsibility for their visas and legal status. This means employers control their workers’ mobility – including their entry into the country, renewal of stay, termination of employment and transfer of employment – powers that the International Labor Organization has warned are prone to exploitation to create conditions of forced labor.
Later in the week, minster Ida flew to Saudi Arabia for a working visit. There, she met a group of troubled Indonesian migrant workers who were staying at a shelter provided by the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah.
Ida told the workers that while everyone had a right to work that the government must respect, those who wished to work abroad had to follow proper procedures so that the government could protect them from their departure until their return to Indonesia, according to a statement from the ministry.
In 2018, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia agreed to use the One Channel System (SPSK), which stipulates that Indonesians seeking work in the country must go through an approved syarikah (Saudi Arabian migrant worker placement company). The scheme allows Indonesia to send a limited number of workers to Saudi Arabia, bypassing the 2015 moratorium.
