Cilacap, Central Java – The amount of cash sent back home by Indonesian migrant workers to families in Cilacap regency last year reached Rp 372 billion – almost one-third of the administration's annual budget of around Rp 1 trillion this year.

Cilacap manpower office secretary Aris Munandar said at present up to 50,000 Cilacap residents were working abroad. They mostly work in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Middle East, he said.

"They send home quite a lot of money," he said Thursday. The amount had peaked in the past four years, Aris said, from Rp 271 billion in 2007 to Rp 324 billion in 2008.

The increase was in line with an increasing number of Cilacap residents going abroad for work, which he estimated had increased by up to 10,000 new workers each year.