Jakarta – Labour activists are sceptical about the government's resolve to weed out corrupt airport officials, and believe that any plan to prevent them from extorting money from returning Indonesian migrant workers will be futile.

The government on Thursday set up an eight-member joint team of officials from various ministries to halt the extortion practice at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Indonesia's Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea also vowed to crack down on corrupt airport officials.

However, Mr Yunus Yamani, an observer of labour affairs, said the joint team would be ineffective because the officials themselves are corrupt. "I cannot understand why the Manpower and Transmigration Minister has assigned the task of halting extortion to those officials who are themselves responsible for the practice," he said.

The joint team comprises officials from the Immigration Office, National Police, the airport authority, the Ministry of Transportation, and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

Returning workers often have to pay 50,000 rupiah (S$10) to have their passports checked and are forced to convert their foreign currency at extremely low rates.