Govt demanded to ratify UN convention

Monday, October 19, 2009

Written and published by The Jakarta Post, Fri, 10/16/2009 2:36 PM and can be found at http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/16/govt-demanded-ratify-un-convention.html

The National Commission for Women has urged the government to ratify the 1990 UN Convention on female migrant worker protection to look after millions of Indonesian female migrant workers.

The organization's commissioner, Sri Wiyanti Eddyono, said recently the government signed the UN convention but was yet to approve it - even though the country had migrant workers in numerous countries since the 1980s.

Sri said the government issued a law on the protection of workers abroad. She said it regulated most labor-supplying companies, and prevented labor smuggling and illegal migrants.

According to Sri, if the UN convention was ratified it could be a legal base for female migrant workers to settle disputes with employers, and demand their wage, work hours and leave rights were met.

The chairman of the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, Jumhur Hidayat, admitted the government was yet to commit to protecting migrant workers, which the Constitution should guarantee.

"The convention has not seriously been considered by the government," he said. Jumhur also said he expected the next minister to propose the convention be ratified.

It was claimed the government had declined to ratify the UN convention since countries employing Indonesian workers had not yet authorized it.

Sri said Indonesia should not supply workers to countries that refused to ratify the convention.

He also said female Indonesian migrant workers consistently filed physical and sexual assault complaints they experienced in their workplaces abroad."Some employers also take their employees' passports. This means they cannot leave the country, even though they have been abused and exploited," she said.

Jumhur also said many female migrant workers who suffered from mistreatment were domestic workers. He added a great number of female migrant workers from Indonesia had suffered from abuse while some had died as a consequence. He said most domestic workers were regulated by the domestic workers law - not the labor law.

Indonesia has signed a bilateral agreement with Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea to prevent abuse in the workplace.

However, labor abuse is rife in countries that have not deployed regulation to protect employees' rights in the workplace.

Migrant Workers Pay High Price to Work Abroad

Monday, October 12, 2009

Published by The Jakarta Post Monday, (October 12th, 2009)

Indonesian migrant workers have to pay agencies a year's salary to find employment in Taiwan, and about six months' salary to move to Malaysia or Singapore, states the 2009 Human Development Report launched on Monday.

Asian migrants moving to the Gulf often pay 25 to 30 percent of what they expect to earn over two to three years in recruitment and other type of fees, the report's lead author, Jeni Klugman, said.

She added that under the agreements struck between the governments of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, recruitment fees were equivalent to four or five months' salary, processing time averaged about four months, and 15 per cent of wages were withheld pending the migrant's return home.

"In contrast, smugglers reportedly charge the equivalent of one month's salary. Given these differences, it is not surprising that only 26 percent of migrant workers in Thailand were registered in 2006."

The report, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), showed that both internal and international migration involved extensive official documentation, which could inhibit mobility or lead to illegal migration.

While there are large numbers of licensed recruitment agencies, 1,500 in the Philippines and close to 2,000 in India, many ignore the legal caps set on fees charged for their services.

"The difference between wages at home and expected wages abroad is perhaps the most important determinant of the price of recruitment agency services," the report said.

"People with less skills and who are poorer are more likely to move. But with the current economic downturn, there has been a decrease in demand for migrant workers," the report says, adding that unequal opportunities were a major driver of economic migration.

Indonesia has an emigration rate of 0.9 percent. The major continent of destination for migrants from Indonesia is Asia with 77.5 percent emigrants living there.

The US is host to nearly 40 million international migrants - more than any other country. However, as a share of total population, Qatar has the most migrants - with more than 4 in every 5 person being a migrant. Indonesia has 135,600 representing 0.1 percent of the total population.

Remittances are unequally distributed. Of the total US$370 billion remitted in 2007, more than half went to countries in the medium-human-development category, against less than 1 percent to low-development countries. In 2007, Indonesia received $6,174 million in remittances, with an average remittance of $27 per person, compared to $108 for the OECD.