Tifa Asrianti, Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) called on the government and the House of Representatives to ratify a 1990 UN convention on migrant workers, saying it would improve the welfare of overseas workers.
The commission hosted a two-day meeting to measure the country's preparedness to ratify the convention with the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers.
Concluding the meeting, Komnas Perempuan commissioner Agustinus Supriyanto said Tuesday that the government had stalled on the ratification for too long.
"The Indonesian government signed the convention in 2004 ratification has been stalled ever since," he said, adding that the public called for the ratification for years, with no response from the government.
"However, the [execution by beheading in Saudi Arabia of Indonesian migrant worker] Ruyati really shocked the country. It showed that we need to better protect our overseas workers," Agustinus said.
Ruyati was found guilty of killing her employer. Her family in Bekasi, West Java, was not informed of her execution.
The ratification of the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families could reduce such unfair treatment, he said.
Under Article 13, migrant workers and members of their families have the right to freedom of expression, include the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds.
Article 33 of the convention states that adequate information shall be provided upon request to migrant workers and members of their families. "The ratification of the UN convention would create a basis for laws to better protect migrant workers," Agustinus said. The government could also use ratification to revise the 2004 Placement and Protection of Migrant Workers Law, which is currently the only regulation governing migrant worker issues.
Agus warned that ratification would not immediately erase violence against migrant workers, but said the law would give Indonesia a better bargaining position.
Indonesia, one of 44 convention signatories, has approximately 5 million overseas workers throughout the world.
The government's slow progress in ratifying the convention has been criticized, particularly after the Philippines, another ASEAN state with a large migrant worker population, ratified the convention.
Manpower and Transmigration Ministry spokesman Suhartono said the "long road" to ratification was stalled by the "complexity of related ministries involved in the issue". (lfr)