Desty Luthfiani, Jakarta – Director General of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Budi Santoso, responded to the issue of imported goods belonging to Indonesian migrant workers being held up at the Tanjung Emas Temporary Storage Place (TPS) in Semarang, Central Java on April 4, 2024.
This was blamed on the Trade Minister's Regulation (Permendag) No. 3 of 2024 on carry-on import restrictions.
Budi claimed that the goods had just arrived in Semarang and that they were not detained for a long time as rumored.
"There are also indications that the goods do not actually belong to migrant workers, and the quantity exceeds the regulated limits," Budi said in a written statement on Sunday, April 7.
The Trade Ministry, he added, would further coordinate with the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) to address this misunderstanding. He expected migrant workers to understand and comply with the provisions of the Trade Minister's Regulation No. 36 of 2023 in conjunction with Regulation No. 3 of 2024, which relaxed import restriction policies for migrant workers so as to ensure the smooth process of the delivery of their goods.
Previously, BP2MI highlighted a viral video on social media showing many imported goods belonging to migrant workers being stored in Semarang. BP2MI Head Benny Rhamdani confirmed that he had visited Tanjung Emas Port together with the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) to directly inspect the goods that were subject to the import restrictions.
Budi Santoso further emphasized that the Trade Minister's Regulation 3/2024 aims to solve the problem of hundreds of containers being stuck since December 2023. The regulation also aims to facilitate migrant workers as the heroes of foreign exchange to import consigned goods while protecting domestic industry, especially labor-intensive small and medium enterprises, from massive imports.