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Migrant workers, people with disabilities remain marginalized
Some of the key problems include the fact that many regulations maintain the requirement of “physical and mental health” for jobs, educational opportunities and public activities.
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Spectators of the 2018 Asian Para Games ride a disability-friendly ojek (motorcycle taxi) driven by a disabled person at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta. (The Jakarta Post/Vela Andapita )
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n 1992, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 47/3 established Dec. 3 as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in a bid to promote respect for people with disabilities and the fulfillment of their rights, dignity, comfort and well-being.
This year’s commemoration carries the theme “Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 world”. The theme is certainly relevant to the current situation, in which the pandemic is far from over and hopes for economy recovery are facing a daunting challenge with the arrival of the Omicron variant. Some experts have even warned that new variants of the novel coronavirus will continue to emerge.
The pandemic has made people with disabilities more vulnerable, especially because the health crisis has limited their access to social protection schemes and health services because of mobility restrictions and policies that do not favor them.
This year’s theme has three keywords that need to be highlighted: inclusive, accessible and sustainable. One aspect that should also guide policy making related to the fulfillment of disability rights is the intersectionality approach or perspective.
This intersectional approach or perspective is a real necessity when marginalized groups, such as women, migrant workers and indigenous communities also have disabilities, which often plunge them into various forms and layered discrimination.
Using this intersectionality approach, Migrant CARE together with OHANA, an organization advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities, conducted a policy review in the first half of 2021 on migrant workers who were experiencing disabilities and were yet to benefit from an inclusive government policy response.
In terms of policy framework, Indonesia has already a set of instruments at both the international and national levels that seek to guarantee respect for and the protection and fulfillment of the rights of migrant workers and the rights of people with disabilities. Indonesia is a party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers. At the national level, Indonesia has enacted Law No. 8/2016 on people with disabilities and Law No. 18/2017 on the protection of Indonesian migrant workers.
