Jakarta – The Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI) lambasted the government for failing to protect Indonesian workers overseas, saying more than 1,000 of them had died while doing their jobs last year.

SBMI chairman M. Miftah Farid said more than 6 million Indonesians were now making a living abroad due to the government's failure to provide enough jobs. "Ironically, the government has also failed to protect workers who are forced to find jobs overseas," he said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

Miftah said according to Migrant Care, a total of 1,080 Indonesian migrant workers died in 2009. The union also recorded at least 150 criminal cases involving Indonesian workers in foreign countries but only a few of them were given legal assistance by the government.

"We have not yet seen any breakthroughs in the government's efforts to improve the protection system of Indonesian migrants," Miftah said, accusing the government of having exploited his fellow workers to achieve its Rp 169 trillion (US$18.08 billion) of foreign exchange target.