Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Thousands of prospective Indonesian migrant workers are on hold as destination countries have to fix new labour quotas given global downturn Chairman of the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesia Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), Mohammad Jumhur Hidayat, told The Jakarta Post that the global economic crisis was affecting workers who were supposed to start contracts overseas this year in construction, high-tech and capital-intensive industries.
He said countries like South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia had not yet announced their quotas because their governments were focusing first on their own citizens who had been laid off because of the crisis.
"Those governments are also figuring out how to help our workers, who still have work permits but whose contracts are terminated due to the crisis, by channeling them to sectors less affected by the crisis, as required under bilateral agreements," he said.
At present there are 4.3 million Indonesian workers in 41 countries around the globe, according to the BNP2TKI data.
Jumhur urged the destination countries to facilitate the laid-off workers to find other jobs before resorting to sending them home. He said the South Korean government was diverting around 300 laid-off Indonesian workers, all in the manufacturing sector, to other fields such as agriculture, plantations, fisheries and others.
According to Jumhur, the total number of Indonesian workers in South Korea is around 30,000, most of them in the manufacturing sector.
He said 1,200 Indonesian workers went to South Korea in 2006, under the 8,000 quota, and 4,300 in 2007 under the 8,500 quota. Last year Indonesia sent 11,885 workers to South Korea, well over the 9,000 quota.
"During informal talks with the South Korean government, we were informed South Korea would set the quota at 5,000 this year," he said. The quota is set every December. Jumhur said 100,000 Indonesian manufacturing workers in Malaysia may lose their jobs if manufacturing output contracts 30 percent.
"Some dismissed Indonesian workers in Malaysia are now being diverted to other sectors, including plantations" he said, adding that 300,000 Indonesian workers out of of a total of 2.5 million in Malaysia, work in the manufacturing sector.
Jumhur said earlier that Malaysian Industries had terminated the contracts of some 10,000 Indonesian workers early this year.
Concerning Indonesian workers in Taiwan, Jumhur said about 5,000 to 6,000 workers in manufacturing had been affected, out of 120,000 Indonesian workers in Taiwan.
"In Dubai, United Arab Emirates [UAE], more than 1,000 Indonesian construction workers have lost their jobs and have to return home immediately, as investors, mostly from the United States and Europe, have stopped massive projects, abandoning half-constructed buildings since the crisis began hitting their home countries," he said, adding that there are 5,000 Indonesian workers in the UAE construction sector, out of 60,000 in total.
More than 10,000 Indonesian workers, 7,000 of whom worked in Malaysia, have returned home since last December, he said.
"The number of Indonesian workers returning home may reach 200,000 if the crisis remains severe and forces manufacturing output to drop a further 40 percent to 50 percent."