Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – With the global financial crisis starting to affect Asian countries, hundreds of thousands of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea could be laid off, officials and civil society groups warn.

In South Korea, a few thousand Indonesian migrant workers have been made redundant due to the recent slowdown in the economy, while in Malaysia some 300,000 Indonesian workers could be laid off early next year when factories cut costs to cope with the economic downturn.

"We have had many complaints from workers in South Korea that they have been laid off. They said thousands of them are now out of work," Migrant Care founder Wahyu Susilo said Friday.

Wahyu, an activist in helping migrant workers, said the workers told him they would not return home but preferred to stay in South Korea as illegal workers.

"They know they will be jobless in Indonesia if they come back. They will do anything, including becoming illegal workers, to get an income," he said.

Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Da'i Bachtiar said that of the 2 million Indonesian workers in the neighboring country, 300,000 working in various industries could face a similar fate because of drops in production orders.

"We are afraid that the crisis, which is forcing firms to cut costs, will put some 300,000 of our workers out of work," he said.

Da'i said the workers would still have contracts with their companies until early 2009. "But after that, we are afraid the wave of layoffs will begin. We'll wait and see what the Malaysian government will do about it," he said.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said layoffs are haunting Indonesian workers in Taiwan and Hong Kong also. "We will see our workers, especially those working in the manufacturing sector, being sent home. I don't know how many of them yet," he said.

According to the National Commission for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), there are around 5.8 million Indonesian workers abroad, mostly in Malaysia and the Middle East.

Around 125,000 Indonesians work in Taiwan, 120,000 in Hong Kong and 25,000 in South Korea, with the rest in Japan or Brunei Darussalam.

In 2006, migrant workers sent home Rp 60 trillion (US$5 billion) in foreign exchange, equivalent to three times the country's foreign direct investment, BPN2TKI chairman Jumhur Hidayat said recently.

Erman said Indonesian workers in Japan, the Middle East and Brunei were still safe from mass dismissals.

Foreign Ministry director for protection of Indonesian migrant workers Teguh Wardoyo said there was no official confirmation yet of how many Indonesian workers had been laid off due to the current global crisis.

"We are still gathering data from our representatives abroad to get a clearer picture. But I don't think it is that gloomy," he said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said embassies in those countries were ready to help Indonesian migrant workers laid off by their employers.