Anita Rachman, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has taken the manpower minister to task over the government's apparent lack of protection for migrant workers and called for a freeze on sending labor to Saudi Arabia.
Monday's hearing before House Commission X, which oversees labor affairs, was called in the wake of allegations of torture and even murder of Indonesian maids in Saudi Arabia by their employers.
Commission chairwoman Ribka Tjiptaning, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said most of the nine parties at the House were agreed on not sending any more workers there until regulations to protect them had been sorted out.
"A moratorium, that's what the parties want," she told Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar. "It's not just the opposition saying this, but other parties like Golkar and the PKS [Prosperous Justice Party] too. If the government keeps on sending workers to Saudi Arabia, then it's nothing more than a trader."
Ribka also accused the government of caving to pressure from migrant worker placement agencies (PJTKI) rather than coming up with solutions to keep workers from having to go overseas in the first place. "The government has chosen to send workers abroad rather than hand out cash aid or create jobs," Ribka said.
She called on the government to show some political will in resolving the problem, citing the Philippines' success on this issue. "Look at the Philippines – its president comes out directly to defend migrant workers, but what about here?" she said.
Muhaimin, however, said imposing a ban on sending workers to Saudi Arabia was not a viable option. "Our experience from similar actions that we've taken with Jordan, Kuwait and Malaysia shows that a ban is not an option for Saudi Arabia," he said.
"We have a long history of sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia. If we go ahead with a moratorium, there will be an increase in workers going there illegally." He added at least 20,000 Indonesians went overseas in search of work every month.
Muhaimin said that in the meantime, his ministry would tackle various factors contributing to the problem, including evaluating about 100 out of 565 PJTKI flagged for questionable practices in sending migrant workers overseas.
He added these agencies could face forced mergers to improve their quality or even closure. Only 37 percent of the 565 agencies are categorized as "good" by the ministry, while 43 percent are deemed "adequate" and the rest "unsatisfactory."
"We'll monitor them before we decide on what action to take against them, though I can't say how long that will take," the minister said. "It could be months." He added that he would also reconsider the option of a moratorium, but stressed it was a very remote possibility.
Should one be issued, he went on, it would require the approval of not just the Manpower Ministry, but also the Religious Affairs Ministry, given the large number of Indonesians who go to Saudi Arabia during the hajj to seek work illegally.
"A moratorium should only be imposed in the case of human trafficking and poor treatment of our migrant workers." He said this was the rationale for the Jordan moratorium.