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NTT struggles to keep tabs on migrant workers as death toll rises
Many of the migrant workers had worked as domestic workers or as laborers on palm oil plantations in Malaysia.
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A crew member assists a migrant worker as she arrives at a port in Nunukan, East Kalimantan. The workers were deported by Malaysia for being employed illegally. (Antara/M.Rusman)
T
he East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) administration has struggled to keep track of the number of migrant workers from the province who have died abroad, as the majority were employed illegally, an official from the Manpower and Transmigration Agency has said.
"Most of the workers who died abroad were working illegally. They did not possess a work permit and we only learned about their cases when we returned their bodies to their hometowns," Sisilia Sona, the agency's head, said on Tuesday.
Many of the migrant workers had worked as domestic workers or as laborers on palm oil plantations in Malaysia.
According to the agency’s records, 5,007 illegal migrant workers from NTT were in Malaysia from 2016 to 2018. Sisilia said that not counting those who had died throughout 2019, there were around 4,900 workers in Malaysia. However, it is likely the number of illegal migrant workers from NTT in Malaysia exceeds the agency's data
She added that the NTT administration had imposed a moratorium on the sending of migrant workers since 2018 to give it time to fix the recruitment system. Following the moratorium, migrant worker placement companies (PJTKI) have temporarily halted their operations. The agency also stopped accepting recruitment requests from abroad.
Sisilia also stated that the agency had stopped accepting requests to open PJTKI branch offices in NTT. The majority of placement companies are centered in Java and Sumatra. The agency also plans to fix its integrated services system (LTSA) to improve the long and complicated process that often discourages migrant workers from seeking employment through the proper channels.
Meanwhile, the head of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement, Protection and Monitoring Agency (BP3TKI) in Kupang, NTT, Siwa, said that as many as 104 illegal migrant workers from the province had died in Malaysia.
