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View all search resultsActivists slam restart of migrant worker placement
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C
ritics have decried the government’s recent decision to lift a ban on the recruitment and placement of Indonesian migrant workers, which was suspended in March when the country was dealing with the early emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wahyu Susilo from labor rights group Migrant Care said the decision could lead to haphazard recruitment and placement processes and encourage illicit activities by illegal migrant worker placement companies (P3MIs).
“This could lead to a haphazard recruitment process in Indonesia's migrant-sending regions," he said.
He said that sending migrant workers abroad was a risky move at a time when COVID-19 in Indonesia showed no signs of abating and while other countries were confronting a second wave of outbreaks.
Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah signed on July 29 a ministerial decree that essentially revoked an earlier decree that had put restrictions in place on March 18.
The new decree stipulates that the government gradually allows worker placement to selected countries that have declared that they are open for migrant workers. The recruitment and placement processes are subject to health protocols, the cost of which may not be passed on from the P3MIs to applicants.
Prospective migrant workers who already have visas in hand, are already registered with the Agency for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers’ (BP2MI) protection system and whose application processes are handled by registered P3MIs will get priority in being sent abroad, the decree states.
