Combating Forced Labour and Trafficking
Writer of the month, Mrs Lotte Kejser, is Chief Technical Adviser, Combating Forced Labour and Trafficking, ILO, Jakarta
On 27 November 2008 Norwegian Ambassador Eivind Homme and ILO Director Alan Boulton signed a three-year funding agreement for 2008-2011 in the amount of NOK 16.2 million for the continuation of the ILO Project “Combating Forced Labour and Trafficking of Indonesian Migrant Workers” in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The project builds on the results achieved from the first phase of the project from 2006-2008.
The project aims to eradicate forced labour and trafficking of migrant workers in South East Asia, with a particular focus on migrant domestic workers, who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation both in Indonesia as well as in destination countries.
Indonesian migrant domestic workers are predominantly unskilled women from rural areas with low education levels, who have few employment options, apart from going overseas as domestic workers. However, domestic workers are neither protected by labour legislation in Indonesia, nor in destination countries, and as domestic workers are working in the employers’ private households, hidden from the public eye, they are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
A number of studies have found that compared with migrant domestic workers of other nationalities, Indonesian domestic workers suffer particularly a high prevalence of human trafficking and forced labour practices. These differentials reflect the documented deficiencies in the labour migration placement system of Indonesia: paradoxically Indonesian migrant domestic workers are charged very high fees by both private recruitment agencies and government agencies, which constitute from 30-48% of the total income they can earn under the maximum-lenght contract of two years. These high fee levels saddle Indonesian migrant domestic workers on a very low salary with an unprecedented debt burden. Furthermore migrant domestic workers receive inadequate information, services and training in preparation for their assignment overseas, although payment for these services is included in the high fees charged to them.
Meanwhile, the main recipient countries for migrant domestic workers have a poor track record of protecting them, as the high number of documented abuse and exploitation cases annually testify.
Given such pervasive human rights and labour rights violations against migrant domestic workers in Indonesia and in destination countries, the project’s main strategic components are technical assistance for policy development and capacity-building, support for advocacy and awareness raising, direct assistance and service provision and targeted research and documentation.
These activities are implemented by a broad range of stakeholders in Indonesia and the main destination countries, such as national and local government departments and agencies, human rights commissions, trade unions, migrant workers organizations, NGOs and recruitment agencies.
The Norwegian Government’s funding of NOK 16.2 million for 2008-2011 will enable ILO and stakeholders in Indonesia and the main destination countries to continue this important work, for the benefit of Indonesian migrant domestic workers and their families who depend on them, as well as for the benefit of Indonesia and its destination countries.