MINISTRY TO ESTABLISH MIGRANT WORKERS CRISIS CENTER IN BATAM

Batam, Jan 22 (ANTARA) - Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said Batam as a transit point for Indonesian migrant workers returning from Malaysia and Singapore needed a crisis center for the depressed among them.

"We will cooperate with the social affairs ministry to establish a temporary crisis management shelter," Suparno said after visiting Batam's social service shelter here Thursday.
The groups of Indonesian workers transiting in Batam on their way home from Malaysia and Singpore usually include mentally troubled ones because of the hardships they had experienced in the neighboring countries, he said.
To help the troubled workers overcome their depression, a crisis center needed to be set up in Batam, he added.
"After they have recovered by treatments, they can continue their trips home," he said.
Some activities would also be conducted in the shelter for the workers development, he added.
One of recovery efforts that would made by the manpower ministry was to facilitate visits by relatives of the depressed workers while they were still staying at the crisis management center.
The number of Indonesian workers becoming depressed in the neighboring countries was rising but the crisis management center could only be set up in Indonesia, not in those foreign countries.
The minister said the center in Batam would be set up jointly by his ministry, the social services ministry and the reginnal administration.
Besides the crisis management center, the manpower and transmigration ministry would also build debarkation and embarkation terminals for Indonesian workers at Batam's Hang Nadim airport.
Earlier, a staffer at the Indonesian consulate general in Johor Bahru, Luky Angga, had said the majority of Indonesian workers returning home were suddering stress.
He said the workers had not been prepared to face the problems they had met while working out of the country. The stress levels varied and was caused by not only physical maltreatment but also harsh conduct and verbal abuse.