ID :
36399
Thu, 12/18/2008 - 23:08
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/36399
The shortlink copeid
NGO URGES REVOCATION OF INEFFECTIVE MIGRANT WORKERS LAW
Jakarta, Dec 18 (ANTARA) - Non-governmental organization Migrant Care is calling on the government to revoke Law No. 39 / 2004 On Protection and Placement of Indonesian Workers (TKI) because it considers the law ineffective in protecting the interest of TKIs overseas.
Magrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah said here on Thursday the law was not yet able to fully protect Indonesian workers. This was the more evident at present when the global economic crisis was causing an increasing number of migrant workers overseas to be laid off.
Hidayat whose organization provides advocacy services for migrant workers made the remarks on the occasion of World Migrant Workers' Day which falls on December 18.
Meanwhile, Migrant Care policy analyst Wahyu Susilo said the government, among others, still treated migrant workers as a means of increasing its foreign exchange reserves.
He said the government should have ratified the United Nations Convention 1990 on the Protection of Migrant Workers and Their Families.
"If ratified, the convention should also be harmonized with various national legal instruments so that all workers' rights can be guaranteed," he added.
According to the non-governmental organization, 90 percent of 6 million Indonesian workers who were employed in some 27 countries were women with most of them working as housemaids.
The number was expected to continue to increase following domestic economic turmoil.
Based on its long- and medium-term development plan 2004-2009, the government had set a goal to increase the number Indonesian migrant workers from 700,000 to one million per year until 2009.
Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said on
Wednesday that about 250,000 Indonesian migrant workers will have to return home after losing their overseas jobs due to the impact of the global economic crisis,
The migrant workers had to return home since the industries in which they had been working were closing down because of the crisis, the minister said here Wednesday.
Apart from migrant workers who had to repatriate, at least 27,000 others had been laid off and 14,000 recommended for dismissal by their employers as a consequence of the crisis.
Magrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah said here on Thursday the law was not yet able to fully protect Indonesian workers. This was the more evident at present when the global economic crisis was causing an increasing number of migrant workers overseas to be laid off.
Hidayat whose organization provides advocacy services for migrant workers made the remarks on the occasion of World Migrant Workers' Day which falls on December 18.
Meanwhile, Migrant Care policy analyst Wahyu Susilo said the government, among others, still treated migrant workers as a means of increasing its foreign exchange reserves.
He said the government should have ratified the United Nations Convention 1990 on the Protection of Migrant Workers and Their Families.
"If ratified, the convention should also be harmonized with various national legal instruments so that all workers' rights can be guaranteed," he added.
According to the non-governmental organization, 90 percent of 6 million Indonesian workers who were employed in some 27 countries were women with most of them working as housemaids.
The number was expected to continue to increase following domestic economic turmoil.
Based on its long- and medium-term development plan 2004-2009, the government had set a goal to increase the number Indonesian migrant workers from 700,000 to one million per year until 2009.
Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said on
Wednesday that about 250,000 Indonesian migrant workers will have to return home after losing their overseas jobs due to the impact of the global economic crisis,
The migrant workers had to return home since the industries in which they had been working were closing down because of the crisis, the minister said here Wednesday.
Apart from migrant workers who had to repatriate, at least 27,000 others had been laid off and 14,000 recommended for dismissal by their employers as a consequence of the crisis.
