Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Demand for Indonesian migrant workers in the overseas formal sector is on the rise, with hospitals, hotels and transportation and construction companies the main employers, an official says.
Head of the National Labor Placement and Protection Agency (BNP2TKI) Mohammad Jumhur Hidayat said his office prioritized sending migrant workers to work in the formal sector.
"From a safety point of view, it is better for workers to be in the formal sector because they are protected by labor laws," he said.
He said Indonesia's migrant workers employed in the informal sector, such as housemaids, far outnumbered those employed in the formal sector. Of Indonesia's estimated 4.3 million migrant workers, 64 percent are employed as domestic maids.
"Around 95 percent of migrant workers facing problems work in the informal sector," said Jumhur on the sidelines of a regional coordination meeting in Makassar on Wednesday.
"They are susceptible because their work is not regulated by labor laws, so we prioritize those in the formal sector. We will increase our scrutiny in the housemaid selection process."
He said the recruitment process for jobs in the formal sector took into account skills and expertise, command of English and knowledge of manpower regulations, especially those concerning rights and obligations.
Jumhur said thousands of Indonesians were employed as nurses in the Middle East. They work in hospitals or private homes, earning between Rp 5 million (US$403) and Rp 6 million monthly in the private sector and from Rp 10 million to Rp 12 million at state-run hospitals.
South Sulawesi is set to send up to 1,000 nurses to Kuwait. "We are ready to send another batch of 1,000 nurses to Kuwait. We have already sent 2,129 migrant workers to various Asia Pacific and Middle Eastern countries this year, including nurses, drivers, construction workers and plantation workers," South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo said.
This year, migrant workers from South Sulawesi sent home a total of Rp 4 billion in remittances to their families.
"The most important thing is that our migrant workers become the motivating factor for others as a way to minimize unemployment. We hope in 2010 the number of migrant workers from South Sulawesi will reach 20,000," he said.
Responding to questions on how Indonesia can protect its migrant workers from rights violations, Jumhur said his office was continuously coordinating with recruitment agencies in the province to safeguard migrant workers' rights and jobs.
He said his office had also coordinated with foreign recruitment agencies to provide Indonesian migrant workers with insurance, outreach centers and monitoring posts in airports as places for them to lodge complaints.