Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta – Though activists and businesspeople have welcomed a ministerial decree ending a dispute between two bodies with overlapping mandates on migrant workers, many doubt it will actually improve services.

The decree, issued by Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar on Thursday, clarifies that migrant worker placement is the job of the National Commission for the Placement and Protection of Indonesia Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), while the ministry will act as a regulator.

The long-running dispute began in December 2008 when then Manpower Minister Erman Suparno amended the decree that established the commission in a way that effectively took over the body's placement functions. Fa'a Daely, the deputy head of the Malaysian division of the Migrant Worker Service Companies Association (Apjati), said the new division of tasks was "an ideal composition."

"But we will have to see the actual implementation. I hope they will soon give us practitioners an explanation of this new decree," he said.

He added that the power struggle had made it difficult for migrant workers' agencies to determine which body was in charge of issuing overseas employment cards, KTKLNs.

The KTKLN contains all the necessary information about overseas migrant workers, including name, fingerprint, photograph, passport number, workplace, employer's name and address, skills certification and embarkation and debarkation dates.

"Each body would reprimand us if we tried to get it [the card] from the other [government institution]," Daely said.

Migrant Care head Anis Hidayah welcomed the decree, but doubted its implementation would go smoothly, particularly when it came to the protection of migrant workers' rights, which she said was rarely a priority regardless of which body was in charge.

"Their focus is always on the placement, not on the protection, especially as the 2004 Law on the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Abroad remains unamended," she said.

The Indonesian migrant trade union, known as the SPMI, said the end of the dispute would clear the way for the amendment of the migrant workers' placement law.

The law's amendment is listed in the House of Representatives' National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) but is still in the early stage of deliberation.

"Since there is no more power dualism in migrant worker matters, it will be easier to push for the amendment," SPMI secretary general Aryo Judhoko said.

"We already have mounting problems with migrant workers and there is no need to make it worse by having conflicting authorities," he said.