On March 20, the ministry issued a regulation to temporarily halt the placement of migrant workers in foreign countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A new ministerial regulation, issued on July 29, lifts the restriction.

“To accelerate the recovery of the national economy and seeing that several countries have also reopened to foreign workers, it is necessary for us to also reopen the opportunity for our migrant workers to work in destination countries,” Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.

Labor migration offers employment prospects for many who would have little chance of finding a job at home and therefore helps to relieve unemployment and underemployment problems in Indonesia.

Ida said 88,973 migrant workers were ready to be sent abroad to 14 countries, namely Algeria, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Kuwait, the Maldives, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Qatar, Taiwan, Turkey, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Common destinations for Indonesian migrant workers are the countries of Southeast Asia, East Asia and the Middle East, with Malaysia and Saudi Arabia as the two top destinations.

“The potential remittances from the migrant workers is quite large and is expected to boost the economic recovery,” she said.

Ida added that the government and state-owned lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) would bear the costs of COVID-19 tests for the migrant workers.

“I have already met with the coordinating human development and cultural affairs minister as well as the health minister to allocate some funds from the COVID-19 task force, so that migrant workers will not be burdened by the fees to meet the health protocol requirements,” she said.

According to data from the ministry’s Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI), 3,742,440 Indonesian migrant workers abroad sent home a total of Rp 160 trillion (US$10.9 billion) in remittances in 2019. (trn)