Jakarta – The Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) chief M. Jumhur Hidayat said on Friday that around 80,000 Indonesian workers were ready to be flown to Malaysia after the lifting of a moratorium on the placement of migrant workers on Dec. 1.

"The total number is an accumulation of the number of workers who failed to depart during the implementation of the moratorium," he said on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com.

The government has imposed a moratorium on the placement of informal sector workers in Malaysia since June 2009. However, it recently decided to lift the moratorium following an agreement with Malaysia regarding the placement and protection of Indonesian workers.

He added that, for the past two days, a joint task force from Indonesia and Malaysia had been discussing necessary amendments to the agreement, which among other things, regulated 11 protection points including workers' rights to retain their own passports, have their wages transferred via an approved bank and a minimum wage of RM 700.

Jumhur added that there were around 1000 Indonesian worker-placement agencies in Malaysia. More than 100 of them have registered with the BNP2TKI to have their services used in placing Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia.