The Responsibility of Government in Protecting Indonesian Migrant Worker

Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy the day. In this note, I will talk about Indonesian Migrant Worker (IMW). Maybe some of you surprised, why in this blog contains the issue about IMW. Just FYI, I was working for Non Government Organization that concern in the developing of IMW’s knowledge capacity. So, I just want to share about the conditions of IMW. The first condition that we will discuss is about the responsibility of government in protecting IMW.  

The government should be responsible towards PJTKI/ PPTKIS (private company that dispatched IMW placement) supervision. They also should be supply information, carry out selection process and dispatch approval for candidate of IMW. All of these responsible are not only carried by one sector.

There government sectors included Ministry of Labor of Indonesia, BNP2TKI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, and the Regional Institution.

• Ministry of Labor of Indonesia. This sector has responsibility to manage migration system for IMW based on the Law 2004 Number 39 about Placement and Protecting IMW. They are especially responsible to make agreement and supervision with PJTKI and insurance company (stated in 12-26 & 68 section of Law 2004 Number 39). The agreement of License Letter of Conscription is also a task of this sector. The Ministry also should be responsible to make MoU/ agreement with country placement. He or she has to be able to negotiate bilateral agreement and decide to choose country placement. The most important of the negotiation is about the collateral protection for IMW.

• BNP2TKI. Ministry of Labor of Indonesia also has a support from BNP2TKI to supervise IMW. This sector is formed by President in 2006. The chief of BNP2TKI should be responsible to the President (not to the Minister of Labor). BNP2TKI is responsible to implement the regulation of Protecting and Placement for IMW. This sector has to check the document of IMW. They also give final dispatch provisioning to IMW. Some of expertise said that the Ministry of Labor and BNP2TKI have overlapping authority and functionality. 

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia. The Embassy and Consulate are responsible to IMW in country placement. They have the duty to supervise quality of employers and labor agencies in country placement. They are also giving approval to IMW document before they enter country placement; register IMW arrival; announce problematic labor agencies in country placement to the public.

• Regional Institutions. There are some regional institutions such as Labor Office in Provence; BP3TKI; Labor Office in Regency. They should be responsible towards basic document of IMW and make data list of PJTKI in their area.

So, these are the responsibility of the government to IMW. But when we talk about the reality how the government carries the duty, there are many problems. Maybe some time, I will share about it.