Every year about 700,000 documented Indonesian migrant workers leave home to seek employment abroad. Their primary destinations are the Middle East and Asia, with the two most common destinations being Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
The latest data from the National Agency for the Protection and Placement of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) in August 2009 stated that there are approximately 4.3 million workers are presently working overseas, who contributed around US$ 6 billion and 8.2 billion in remittances to the Indonesian national economy in respectively 2007 and 2008. The number of undocumented migrants is estimated to be 2–4 times higher. Approximately 75 percent of all documented Indonesian migrant workers are women, with the vast majority working as domestic workers. In spite of the central role migrant domestic workers play in sustaining the national economy of Indonesia, their plight, and their need for adequate legal protection in Indonesia and abroad, has not yet been sufficiently addressed by the Indonesian government. As a result, domestic workers are exposed to institutionalized trafficking and forced labour practices throughout the entire migration cycle.
The Migrant Workers’ Project aims to contribute to the eradication of discrimination and exploitation of Indonesian migrant workers in Indonesia and selected main receiving countries in South-East Asia. To achieve this objective, an integrated approach is applied to comprehensively address both causes and impact of forced labour and trafficking in domestic workers. Concrete actions that have been identified are:
Advocacy and technical cooperation
The project supports advocacy and technical cooperation to strengthen the policy and legal framework for the protection of domestic workers. This entails working with project partners to draft and strengthen bilateral agreements, national legislation, local ordinances, administrative regulations and practices, codes of ethics and model contracts. This is especially important as in most countries domestic workers are presently excluded from labour laws and social protection legislation. The project further technically supports and facilitates national tripartite and stakeholder debate and involvement in the ILO international standards-setting process for domestic workers 2008-2011.
Awareness raising
Insufficient appreciation has been given to the plight of migrant workers and migrant domestic workers by the public, the media, the government or trade unions. Likewise, domestic workers and their employers themselves are largely unaware of the rights and obligations of both parties in the household. Therefore, the project supports awareness-raising activities in order to sensitize relevant stakeholders to safe migration and recognition of workers in the domestic sector.
Capacity building
The stakeholders that have a mandate of ensuring protection for migrant workers and domestic workers often face capacity shortfalls. The project therefore aims to strengthen the organizational capacity of governmental institutions at national and local levels, and strengthen migrant and domestic workers’ organizations in terms of outreach activities as well as alliance-building with trade unions and other organizations that support the cause of domestic and migrant workers.
Direct assistance and service provision
The project collaborates with national and local partners that are providing outreach, protection, livelihood and reintegration services to migrant domestic workers in source and destination countries. This entails legal and psychological counselling, help desks, hotlines, entrepreneurship training, remittance services and insurance provision for migrant workers and their communities.
Targeted research and documentation
Due to the complexity of trafficking and forced labour practices, existing knowledge gaps must be addressed and information shared. The project is therefore conducting targeted research, policy analyses and assessments, as well as compiling and disseminating information related to conditions of migrant domestic workers.
For additional information www.ilo.org/jakarta
Migrants Day 2007 - Migrants' Ambassador Rieke Diah Pitaloka discusses the hazards of migrant work.
Photo: International Labour Organisation (ILO)