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Placement companies should send more skilled migrant workers: Govt
The government recently announced that it would restructure the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI).
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Illegal dispatch -- Migrant workers recruited from several areas across Indonesia wait for their departure in their tiny room in a shelter in Karanganyar, Central Java. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
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s the government revamps an agency to reshape the future of migrant labor, it is urging private placement companies to follow suit by changing the way they operate.
The government recently announced that it would restructure the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) to focus more on protection-oriented operations, a shift in approach from a probusiness perspective as mandated by the 2017 law on migrant worker protection.
The organization will be renamed the Agency for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BP2MI) and its role in worker placement will be included in three major protection tasks before, during and after people work overseas.
BNP2TKI acting head Tatang Razak said the proper placement of workers was an important part of protection that should be accomplished with selective steps. “The goal is to conduct safe migration [by] examining the job sectors, the [targeted recipient] countries and the type of job.”
Currently, migrant labor placement is also performed by private placement companies called the P3MI under the auspices of the BNP2TKI.
The role of these companies, Tatang said, should change in accordance with the government's ambition to seek new sectors of employment abroad and to increase the distribution of more skilled and professional workers -- which is part of efforts to reform the migrant labor industry.
The agency’s data shows that domestic workers still top the list of preferred professions for Indonesian migrant workers. In 2019, there were 80,762 domestic migrant workers, although the number has decline from the previous year. It also shows an increase in the departure of workers in more skilled professions, such as caregivers, operators, hydraulic technicians and construction workers.
