Promoting fair migration

Towards a fair migration for Indonesian migrant workers

Considering millions of Indonesian workers and their families have to travel to countries other than their own to find work, the two-day seminar on “Promoting Decent Work for Indonesian Migrant Workers” concluded with recommendations for Indonesia to apply fair recruitment principles and to promote universal coverage of the social security system for all Indonesian migrant workers.

News | Jakarta, Indonesia | 26 December 2016
An interactive discussion on decent work for all Indonesian migrant workers
Considering millions of Indonesian workers and their families have to travel to countries other than their own to find work, the two-day seminar on “Promoting Decent Work for Indonesian Migrant Workers” concluded on 19 December with recommendations for Indonesia to apply fair recruitment principles and to promote universal coverage of the social security system for all Indonesian migrant workers.

The fair recruitment principles promoted by the ILO include no charging recruitment fees or related costs to workers and allowing them to keep their own identity and travel documents as well as workers' right to terminate employment or change employers and to return freely to their countries of origin.

BNP2TKI has mapped the top migrant workers origin areas which consist of 2,347 villages spreading over 52 districts in Indonesia. Thanks to the village development decentralization as mandated by the Law No 6/2014, the Government currently tries to build a linkage between the village development and the village fund programmes as an effort to strengthen labour migration governance and migrant workers protection."

Nusron Wahid, the Head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesia Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI)
Other recommendations included the urgent need to ratify the ILO Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers as part of the protection for Indonesian migrant domestic workers as well as the better protection for migrant workers in the plantation sector through the bilateral agreement between the Government of Indonesia and destination countries.

Nusron Wahid, the Head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesia Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), strongly supported the application of fair migration through the revision of the Ministerial Regulation No. 22/2014 on Implementation of Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers. The revision could simplify complicated procedures and unnecessary permits causing high recruitment costs for migrant workers.

The Government of Indonesia should apply zero tolerance to private recruitment agencies involved in human trafficking. We found that more 3,000 migrant domestic workers still departed to Saudia Arabia this year despite the moratorium between Indonesia and Middle East countries."

Anis Hidayah, the Executive Director of Migrant CARE
“BNP2TKI has mapped the top migrant workers origin areas which consist of 2,347 villages spreading over 52 districts in Indonesia. Thanks to the village development decentralization as mandated by the Law No 6/2014, the Government currently tries to build a linkage between the village development and the village fund programmes as an effort to strengthen labour migration governance and migrant workers protection,” Nusron exclaimed at the seminar jointly conducted by the Migrant CARE, an NGO deals with migration issues and the ILO.

Meanwhile, Anis Hidayah, the Executive Director of Migrant CARE, reminded that Indonesian migrant workers remain vulnerable from being exploited due to government's weak enforcement when handling cases experienced by migrant workers.

“The Government of Indonesia should apply zero tolerance to private recruitment agencies involved in human trafficking. We found that more 3,000 migrant domestic workers still departed to Saudia Arabia this year despite the moratorium between Indonesia and Middle East countries,” she said.

Anis also criticized the long pending approval of the revision of Law 39/2004 on migrant workers, “We are disappointed with government and parliament who failed in finalizing the revision of migrant workers law this year. Delaying the revision means that we have prolonged the sufferings of Indonesian migrant workers. The government should push the parliament to prioritize the revision of law on migrant workers in 2017,” Anis demanded.

The importance of social dialogue was highlighted by Irham Saifuddin, the ILO's programme officer. “The Government of Indonesia along with the social partners should continuously promote social dialogue in labour migration governance, including on the protection of Indonesian migrant workers, particularly for those working in vulnerable sectors such as domestic workers and migrant workers in fishing vessels and palm oil plantation,” Irham said.

Four thematic group discussions were held during the seminar. The discussions raised issues on: 1) decent work for migrant domestic workers; 2) decent work for migrant workers in fishing vessels; 3) decent work for migrant workers in palm oil plantation; and 4) local government initiatives in promotion of migrant workers’ protection.