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119 migrant workers from NTT died abroad throughout 2019: Agency
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Three Indonesian immigrant workers from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) are sent home because of illness. Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement, Protection and Monitoring Agency (BP3TKI) in Kupang revealed 119 Indonesian workers form NTT died abroad throughout 2019. (BP3TKI Kupang/-)
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s many as 119 migrant Indonesian migrant workers from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), most of them without proper documents, died abroad throughout 2019, the Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement, Protection and Monitoring Agency (BP3TKI) in Kupang has revealed.
The agency recorded that 117 workers without legal documents died in Malaysia. Only two out of the 119 workers who died abroad were recorded in BP3TKI data. These workers worked in Senegal and Singapore respectively.
BP3TKI Kupang head Siwa said that the agency handled a total of 411 cases concerning migrant workers throughout 2019. Some 371 cases, 90.27 percent of the total, were resolved, while 40 cases are still in process.
Siwa explained that the cases — which included deaths, salary disputes, deportation, illness, communication troubles and workers who asked to be sent home — involved 395 non-procedural workers and 16 official workers.
Of the 119 dead workers, 112 bodies had been sent home while six workers were buried in Malaysia and one body was still being processed for being sent home.
Siwa also said that his agency would continue to cooperate with other parties to solve Indonesian immigrant workers’ issues.
“We maintain cooperation with religious and public figures to introduce the importance of fulfilling administrative requirements to become a legal worker. In the future, we will intensify this joint cooperation to reduce the number of non-procedural workers,” Siwa said.
The National Network Against Human Trafficking (JarNas Anti TPPO) secretary Gabriel Goa said that the number of deaths among immigrant workers from NTT kept on increasing every year.
According to JarNas’ data a total of 124 workers died abroad. Of the figure, 119 were in line with the data recorded by BP3TKI Kupang while two others were still being processed by their respective families and the other three had been buried in Malaysia.
Gabriel further urged the Indonesian government to sign a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Malaysian government regarding Indonesian workers in Malaysia as the old one had expired. (dpk)
