Ismira Lutfia & Anita Rachman – Indonesia and Malaysia are looking for ways to lower fees involved in the recruitment and transportation of Indonesian migrant workers to Malaysia, an official involved in bilateral talks said on Sunday.
The meeting, held over the weekend, aimed to revise a 2006 memorandum of understanding to improve the working conditions and protections for Indonesians working in Malaysia.
"We are still waiting for input from labor recruitment agencies," said Arief Havas Oegroseno, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official in charge of international treaties and legal affairs.
In the absence of a fee regulation, labor recruitment agencies, known as PJTKI, often charge high fees to people wanting to work overseas, leading many applicants to borrow money from loan sharks.
Under the revised MoU, the two countries would agree to allow Indonesian workers at least one day off per week, a minimum monthly salary of 600 Malaysian ringgit ($170), and the right to hold on to their passports.
According to Arief, a joint task force to implement the revised MoU was also discussed.
The temporary ban imposed on June 26 by Indonesia on more migrant workers traveling to Malaysia would remain in force until a new MoU is signed, Arief said. He added that the talks would resume after Idul Fitri.
Separately, the head of the Foreign Ministry's unit in charge of protecting Indonesian nationals living overseas, Teguh Wardoyo, said 62 Indonesian migrant workers would be repatriated from the Middle East and were scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Sunday afternoon on flights from Amman, Jordan.
"The 62 workers are part of a group of 400 troubled workers currently sheltered in our embassy in Amman," Teguh said, adding that the repatriation program would continue until all 400 were returned to Indonesia.
Teguh said the workers had experienced a variety of problems, including unpaid wages, having children out of wedlock and fleeing their employers after being abused.
"Some of them even had police charges of theft filed by their employers because they ran away," Teguh said.
There are currently about 2 million migrant workers in Malaysia, Indonesian's top destination for migrant workers, but only 1.2 million of them hold legal documents.