Ismira Lutfia – Several prominent women's activists are spearheading a campaign aimed at securing government ratification of the International Convention on Migrant Workers, which they say would protect the rights of workers and their families.

The activists involved in the campaign are Azriana from the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Manna Maria Nababan from the migrant worker task force of Komnas Perempuan, Umi Farida and Yohanna of the Women's Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), and Apik and Nanda Takarai of Solidaritas Perempuan.

"The government included the plan to ratify the 1990 convention in its 2004-2009 National Human Rights Action Plan [Ranham], but it still hasn't acted on it," Azriana said during a visit to the Jakarta Globe office on Monday.

She said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights had expressed support for the convention's ratification, but the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, as the main institution tasked with the issue, had been reluctant to ratify the convention.

Azriana said the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry was not interested in ratifying the convention because it would oblige the government to protect the rights of foreign workers in Indonesia.

"But we all know that the majority of foreign workers in Indonesia do not fit the definition of migrant workers in the convention," Azriana said.

She added that even if there were such foreign workers in the country, they were still far outnumbered by the Indonesian migrant workers employed in countries around the world.

Azriana said there had been numerous reports of Indonesian migrant workers, particularly maids, being abused by their foreign employers, and the government had often found itself powerless to help them.

The activists said that by ratifying the convention, Indonesian migrant workers would be protected by the principles laid out in the document.

"By ratifying the convention, the government would also have to bear responsibility for undocumented or illegal [Indonesian] workers," Umi Farida said, adding that it would also ensure that the families they left behind would be protected.

"That would also mean that the families would receive remittances in full," Umi said.

Azriana said the Philippines was the only country in Southeast Asia to have ratified the convention, while Indonesia has been a signatory to the convention since September 2004.

She said that another objection raised by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry was that the ratification would allow foreign workers here to own assets such as land and houses in the country, though she added that could be regulated by an accompanying law.