Migrant Workers Contribute US$6.6 Bn to State

Malaysia is still the favorite of Indonesian migrant workers to try their luck. According to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, up to February 2010, Malaysia is still the country having the most Indonesian workers.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister, Muhaimin Iskandar said there are up to 1.2 million migrant workers in Malaysia out of the total of 2,679 Indonesian workers throughout the world. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia ranks below Malaysia with the second most Indonesian workers of 927 thousand people.

“The amount of foreign exchange obtained from remittances sent by the workers until late 2009 reaches IDR60 trillion (US$ 6,615 billion),” Iskandar said in Jakarta on Sunday, February 28.

Aside from the two countries, Indonesian migrant workers are also working in Taiwan (130 thousand people), Hong Kong (120 thousand people), Brunei Darussalam (40,450 people), Singapore (80,150 people), Jordan (38,000 people), Bahrain (6,500 people), Kuwait (61,000 people), UAE (51,350 people) and Qatar (24,586 people).

Iskandar also said the migrant workers have been dealing with several issues which are mostly unilateral discharges. “There have been 19,429 cases,” he said. There are also other cases such as congenital illness (9,378 cases), diseases caused by overworking (5,510 cases), unpaid work (3,550 cases) and abuse (2,952 cases).

The government has also been performing various efforts to solve, protect and save the workers. They include law enforcement based on Law no. 39/ 2004 on Indonesian Migrant Workers Assignment and Protection Overseas and the Presidential Decree 2007 on Regional Autonomy.

“Currently, the government is conducting a serious review on some MoUs on Migrant Workers Assignment and Protection that are considered irrelevant to the recent condition,” Iskandar said.

There have been 10 MoUs signed by the Indonesian government and the governments of countries where the workers are assigned, which are Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Kuwait, Jordan, UAE, Syria, Lybia and Qatar.

The ministry has also established a Migrant Workers Assignment and Protection Supervision Task Force to minimize the issues starting from the ones occur during the departure preparation in Indonesia. Iskandar also said his office has been holding 200 hours-long training sessions for the future workers.

source : vivanews.com