tifa-booklet migrant workers (4)

no

NEVERENDING

STRUGGLEThe Conditionsof Indonesian

MigrantWorkers

Jl. Jaya Mandala II No. 14EMenteng Dalam, Jakarta Selatan 12870

Tel : +62 21 829 2776 / Fax : +62 21 837 83648www.tifafoundation.org

TIFA-Booklet Migrant Workers.qxd 1/20/2000 9:51 PM

INTRODUCTION

Migration is one of important issue in the globalised world andglobal economy of our time. Each year, millions of men andwomen leave their homes and cross national borders —legallyand illegally—for higher wages and better opportunities. TheInternational Organization for Migration (IOM) and InternationalLabor Organization (ILO) respectively estimates there arearound 180 millions of the world's population working overseasand around 120 million migrant workers and their families.

After the Philippines and Sri Lanka, Indonesia is themajor source of female migrant workers in Asia. Many are un-skilled workers working in the area of service, particularlydomestic workers. The National Agency for Protection andMonitoring of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) has esti-mated around 6 millions of Indonesian citizensis working over-seas. It does not include of those who are illegally smuggledthrough the borders, or who are working without proper doc-uments. The driving forces are varies, but mostly as a way outof debt, poverty and unemployment in the village. In sum, theyare the backbone of another 30 million of lives living at home.

Although majorities of them are categorically low-skilledworkers, the contribution they made to the national economy,especially the local economy where they came from, is believedto be substantial. In 2008, the level of remittance they madecontributedto 0.7% of Indonesian GDP and occupies the secondlargest of Indonesian foreign revenue after oil and gas. It alsoconstitutes 50% of the country's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

For migrant workers families, Internet communicationprovides new dimension of communication. They are now ableto communicate with their relative abroad with less expensivemodes of communication for frequent contacts. A mother wasalerted when she saw 'a new look' of her son with a long hairthrough Video Conference.

In the area of program, additional activities, such as'Neighborhood Discussion', was organized and found anenthusiastic respond from the villagers. Beyond the need toaddress a variety of communication barriers for migrant work-ers and their families at home, educational information formigrant workers, the program also encouraged villagers notonly to consume, but also produce relevant informationthrough the initiative of citizen journalism in this area.

Without any doubt, high capital and operating costs aswell as slow connection line from Internet Service Provider areamong many problems that hindered the development ofadvanced communication technology in rural areas. But, ahandful of subsidized and supported pilot project in Cilacapwas expected to help get large numbers of rural communitieson the Internet and opening up new world that the villagershad never known before.

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Ironically, the protection they have was not equal withthe contribution they have made. As many of Indonesianmigrant workers are domestic workers, they are among themost vulnerable workers in the worlds. They are exposed tophysical and sexual harassment, violence and abuse in somecases, and must perform excessive hours of work with lowwages without adequate health insurance in many cases. Inshort, they are subjected to the conditions of modern slaveryand forced labor.

This document highlights various issues regardingIndonesian migrant workers. The stories presented here is onlya small section of the whole problem based on the experienceof Tifa Foundation intervention program to protect and advo-cate the cause of Indonesian migrant workers. It covers theperiods of engagement with Indonesian NGOs and CivilSociety Organizations between 2004 till 2009.

Globalization, Migration and Cheap Labor

The history of labor migration in Indonesia can be traced backto the nineteenth century when the country was under thereign of Dutch colonial power. The story begun in 1887 whenthe Dutch colonial regime sent thousands of Javanese peas-

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Training on Financial Management System

Studies on remittance have showed the high level of con-sumption among the migrant workers in terms of spending.Saving and investment was rare. Education on financial man-agement for migrant workers and their family was thereforeimportant on this regard.

In 2009, Tifa supported the initiative of its partner(MICRA) to develop training module regarding basic financialmanagement for migrant workers. It consisted of six trainingitems dealing with financial planning, saving, understanding offinancial products as well as remittance service. The modulewas also provided with simple manual for trainers, so ordinarypeople in the village can use it.

This module was tested in PT Barfo Mahdi TrainingWorkshop (migrant workers agency) and found enthusiasticrespond from the workers. This was then followed by trainingof trainers involving 40 representatives from four districts inSumbawa, Lombok Timur, Kupang and Flores Timur. It wasexpected from this training that they would be able to providesimilar training for prospective migrant workers and their fam-ilies in respective areas.


ants as contract laborers in their new colony in Suriname, NewCaledonia, Siam and Sarawak. Successive migrations then fol-lowed to keep pace with continuing demand of contract labor-ers for plantations developments in those colonies.

The pattern was brokenwith the coming of Japaneseinvaders and the coming of new Indonesian Republic in 1945.It has to wait for the next three decades until the mid of 1970swhen unemployment and poverty in the rural areas pushed vil-lagers to find other means of subsistence: migration.

In 1974, sixteen thousands of Indonesian male andfemale went abroad to find jobs that their countries could notgive. They became the first generation of migrant workerswhich marked the new kind of economic activities to the pres-ent. In June 2009, according to the National Statistical Bureau,there are around six millions of Indonesian citizens working in41 countries. Among them, 4.5 millions was officially registeredand documented while another 1.5 millions is finding their waythrough unofficial channels and thus officially unregistered.

Majorities of them are semi-skilled and un-skilled work-ers working for informal sectors in the labor market of indus-trial countries, such as plantations, constructions, food pro-cessingand electronic manufactures sectors. Yet, the trend forjobs in these sectors is steadily decreasing every year, but stillit constitutes the majority proportion for Indonesian migrantworkers. According to the data released in 2007, out of700,000 migrants, 72% are working for informal sectors. In2008, the figures reduced to 64% out of 750,000 migrantsworking overseas.

Since the most popular jobs are nursing, baby-sitters anddomestic workers, they are highly vulnerable from variousabuses. The main consequences are low-level of protection and

and they asked the CTC officer to teach them to operate it. Internet access (especially latest technology of video-con-

ference) is to a certain extent becomea helpful tool to reduceisolation, provide educational and economic opportunities forthe rural communities. The partnership between Tifa andMicrosoft was the first effort to make the new technology of vir-tual world visible in rural areas, and of course, for the migrantworkers and their families. This is now become a systematicagenda of Community to Community (or CTC) program.

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and gender issues for regional conference on migrant workers.Lastly, the capacity building section focused on improving thecapacity of Indonesian NGOs working on migrant workers issuesas well as capacity building agenda for migrant workers organi-zations in Singapore.

In a year, this working group successfully achieved their mis-sion. The death penalty revoked, the published research helpedto improve the attitude of Indonesian embassy in Singapore, byproviding better shelter, hotlines, and coordination with the localpolice.

The Singaporean government has also made a majorprogress regarding migrant workers issue. The governmentamended the criminal law that makes heavier penalties for abu-sive practice of the employers. They also improved the contractsystem by providing better system for working permit, the rightsfor holiday, a random monitoring of Singaporean who employeddomestic helpers. In addition to this process, the governmenthas also raised the standard of education of migrant workers (theminimum is Junior High School graduates).

Other achievement of this working group was the formationof migrant workers organization network in Singapore: IndoFamily Network. The member of this network involves migrantworkers from four different communities in Singapore.


1,5 hours to go there. But it was five years ago. On Feb. 16,2009, for the first in time in his life he made Video Conferencevia Internet.

It hosted discussion involving Tifa Officers (RenataAryaningtyas), Microsoft (SitaSupomo) and to migrant workersin Hongkong (Fitri and Mimie) and thus marked the first launch-ing of the so-called Community to Community (CTC) programbetween Tifa Foundation and Microsoft in Indonesia. The localofficials who were present in the in the launching were amazed, guarantees of their rights, underpaid jobs and minimum right

for leaves, vacation and health insurance in the workplace aswell as vulnerable to physical and psychological abuses.

Type of Abuses

The BNP2TKI report issued by Data and Information TrainingCentre has stated during the year of 2008, they received45,626 complaints, which was slightly reduced compared tothe 53,843 complaints in 2007. The biggest complaints camefrom Saudi Arabia with 22,035 complaints in those years. TheIndonesian government might claim their successful efforts onthis regard, but the number was still relatively high in compar-ative terms with other countries.

If we take a look further to the complaints reported, thepattern of violation was clear enough. The variation range fromlate and unpaid salary, physical abuses, sexual harassment, bro-ken agreement on the type of jobs provided, (PT problems),incomplete documents, unilateral termination of working peri-ods, crimes, death and failed embarkation.

The UN Road Map (A Guide for the International HumanRights System and Other Mechanism (CHRF), 2005) has clearlyindicated cycle of major of violations experienced by Asian

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Working Group For Migrant Workers

To deal with the complexity of problems related to migrant work-ers issues, Tifa initiated an agenda to consolidate and coordinateadvocacy works among NGOs and CSOs on this issue. FromNovember 2003 to June 2004, Tifa facilitated a series of meet-ings to consolidate NGOs and CSOs activities related to migrantworkers issues. The result was a working group to improve theeffectiveness of their campaign and advocacy on migrant work-ers rights (Forum Kerja untuk Keadilan PRT-Migran or FOKER),especially for those working as domestic helpers. The commonprogram for this working group are: 1) database development; 2)campaign for migrant worker's rights; 3) policy advocacy, 4)organization and 5) capacity building.

The first agenda for FOKER was advocacy for the improve-ment of migrant workers conditions in Singapore. The workinggroup on data collection and information system then conductedresearch on the cycle of migration covering recruitment, trainingand pre-departure process in Jakarta and the working conditionsin Singapore. At the same time, working group for policy advo-cacy concentrated their activities for campaign against the deathsentence of five Indonesian migrant workers. The organizationsection of the working group proceeded with the formulation ofcommon platform for migrant workers organizations on justice


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TYPES OF VIOLATIONS EXPERIENCED BY ASIAN MIGRANT WORKERS

Against Death Penalty

In 2004, five Indonesian female migrant workers were impli-cated in murder case with maximum sentence to death inSingaporean court. They are Sundarti Supriyanto, SumiyatiKaryodikromo, Siti Aminah from East Java province; PurwantiParji from Central Java and Juminem from Lampung. Thethreat of death sentence seemed to complete the story of 98deaths of female Indonesian migrants in Singapore due to ill-ness, suicide and accidents.

The nationwide campaigns against the sentence wereorganized as a response. Indonesian NGOs and CSOs lobbythe government and parliament to intervene of Singaporeancourt verdict. It involved Social Analysis and Research Institute(SARI), the Joint Secretariat of Women Yogyakarta (SBPY) andRumpunTjoetNjakDien Yogyakarta), and a working groupcoordinated by Migrant Care.

The Commission IX of House of Representative sum-moned the Ministry of Labor for hearing and proposed furtherinvestigation the performance of Indonesian embassy inSingapore in handling this case.

By 5 September 2009, the Singaporean court verdictstated that Sundaryati Supriyanto, Purwanti Parji and SumiyatiKaryodikromo escaped the death sentence, while Juminemand Siti Aminah were sentenced for 10 years and life in prison.


migrant workers worldwide. It consists of violations thatoccurred during pre-departure periods in the country of ori-gins, violations in the destination countries, and lastly, viola-tions during the periods of return to the countries of origin. Inaddition, there isanother violation, which is not part of migrantworkers rights, such as the failure of the state to protect theirown citizens.

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Help-Desk in the Airport

The arrival gate in the airport, especially in the province, is avulnerable place for migrant workers. Extortion and fraudagainst migrant workers has become a common phenomenonreported in Indonesian media. The lack of facilities to helpmigrant workers who suffered physical abuse, lost documentsand facing difficult administrative matters is one of the mainproblems. In Jakarta, the Indonesian government has set upthis facility in Terminal Selapajang (or known as DataCollection Terminal) in Soekarno-Hata airport.

As a response to the lack of such facilities in provincialairport, Panca Karsa has advocated the urgency to set upIntegrated Service Unit to function as help-desk in SelaparangAirport, Mataram, to help returning and departing migrantworkers. One of the main tasks of this service is to providecheap and fast procedure for the creation of legal documentsfor departing and placement of migrant workers abroad.

Since February 2009, this service is now available formigrant workers as well as company agents (PPTKIS) in WestNusa Tenggara.

opportunities, widening networks as well as strengthening sol-idarity among the migrant workers.

To The New World—Internet Communicationand Migrant Workers

For Akhmad Fadli, VideoConference communication throughinternet from his village, sub-district Sidareja, district ofCilacap, was something impossible and even unthinkable.Internet access only available in the town and he must spend


TIFA MIGRANT WORKERS PROGRAM

During the past few years, Tifa Foundation has initiatedseveralstrategic programs to protect and improve the conditions ofIndonesia migrant workers abroad. The program, where pover-ty has become the main reason for migrations, is based on theprinciple that every migrant workers working overseas has theright to enjoy maximum protection and safety from the gov-ernment: 1. Policy Advocacies for The Protection of Migrant

Workers; 2. Capacity Building and Consolidation of Migrant Workers

Organizations Overseas;3. Remittance policy and Empowerment of Migrant

Worker's Family;4. Development of ICT;5. National and International Campaign for Migrant

Worker's Rights

Policy Advocacy for the Protection of Migrant Workers

In the modern society, the system and the real world are twodifferent things. In every democratic country, the governmentpolicies must bridge the public interest to the problems exist-ed in the real world to the system. Unfortunately, the practiceof government in Indonesia is still far from this ideal. The caseof migrant workers confirmed this judgment. The Indonesiangovernment, in terms of her policy and rules, failed to meet

to seek information they needed. It was followed then by thedevelopment of community-based Internet communication inmajor migrant workers areas in Indonesia.

By installing computers and Internet technology, the ini-tiative offered new opportunities for migrant workers and theirfamilies as well as the general population of the village. Ithelped them frequent communication to the outside world,provide access information to find new business and jobs

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The village level strategy is also beneficial in other areas. InEast Lombok district, Tifa partner's, KOSLATA, facilitated the for-mation of the same organization in two villages, the village ofSwangi and Suryawangi. The task of this organization is to assistgovernment officials to provide the population with better infor-mation on migration, as well as monitoring and handling the case ofmigrant worker. They were also successful in advocating the tradi-tional regulation (awig-awig) to adopt the mandate for village offi-cials to take care of migrant workers problem. In addition, there arenow six migrant worker organizations established in this district.

Since 2004, PPSW has introduced a program to empower andorganize members of migrant workers family as well as prospec-tive migrant workers at the village level. The activities they carriedwere trainings related to the rights of migrant workers, capacitybuilding to increase the skill of potential migrant workers and theestablishment of cooperatives. The members of these organiza-tions ne reached around 549 members in 17 villages in 3 districtsareas. The result of their activities now are the availability of 88facilitators at the village level to facilitate pre-departure trainingsfor potential migrant workers, as well as 84 community organizersto mobilize supports and handling against trafficking cases.

In 2009, with the support from AFP, Tifa is now replicating theexperience of its partners in Nusa Tenggara province on migrantworkers issues. It cover various activities such are capacity buildingfor migrant workers family and community members, developingtraining module for paralegal network on migrant workers issues.


leave the country. However, the practice is still far from theideal. A common feature of migrant workers issue in Indonesiashowed that many workers had not adequate informationregarding procedures, the working conditions and even thebasic information of destination countries.

Access to information is therefore one important condi-tion for migrant workers. To fill this gap, Tifahas initiated aresource facility accessible online that enable migrant workers

various problems faced by Indonesian migrants workers. This condition has led civil society organizations in

Indonesia to advocate and mobilize support for better regula-tions regarding migrant workers. This was a protracted effort.In 1998, following the democratization process in the country,the Ministry of Labor proposed a draft on Migrant ProtectionBill to the Parliament. As a response to the limitation of pro-tection offered in the draft, Indonesian CSO proposed anotheralternative draft along with the government version.

But the parliamentary session for this bill vacillated untilthe uproar to the case of mass-deportation of 'illegal' migrantworkers from Indonesia in Malaysia. In 2004, Parliament hasendorsed Bill No. 39/2009 onthe Protection and Placement ofIndonesian Migrant Working Overseas. This was the first Billever introduced regarding the status of migrant workers byIndonesian government through the practice has begun sincethe mid-1970s.

The introduction of this Bill, without any doubt, helpedthe mechanisms to protect Indonesian migrant workersabroad. But still there are some weaknesses to address, suchas inefficient, complicated and costly procedures in the prac-tice of the law, as well as other gaps that let the violationsoccurred at the level of recruitment of migrant workers.

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Support System (Paralegal Network)for Migrant Workers at the Community Level

One of important method to improve the protection of migrantworkers at the early stage as well as during migration period is theestablishment of paralegal network for migrant workers at thelocal level. The strategic importance of this system was its capaci-ty to mobilize support from family, community members and vil-lage officials against the possible violation at the recruitmentphase in the village as well as systematic efforts to educatemigrant workers about their rights to face their employers andrecruitment agents. In addition, this network played an importantrole to advocate village level regulation to protect the rights ofmigrant workers.

The response to this initiative was positive. The result was theformation of Village Official Network Forum in three districts:Forum Peduli Buruh Migran Cianjur; Forum Komunikasi PeduliBuruh Migran Indonesia and Forum Komunikasi Peduli TKI inSukabumi. The importance of this forum was its role to facilitatemeetings involving local officials at village and district levels to dis-cuss and evaluate the conditions of migrant workers in their areas.The use of radio to broadcast the meetings was also important incovering wide audients to the topics. The latest product of thisforum was the creation of Centre of Information for MigrantWorkers in three villages: the village of Bangpuyung inPandeglang, Cibolang in Sukabumi and Cibaregbeg in Cianjur.


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Encourage Transparency and Guardthe Process of Migrant Workers Protection Bill

In December 2003, after twenty-five years neglect, theissue of protection for Indonesian migrant workers hasbecome serious discussion and debates in the parliament.The mass-deportation of Indonesian migrant workers inMalaysia on 2004 has added the level of urgency for thenational system of protection for Indonesians workingabroad. Alongside the proposal drafted by the Ministry ofLabor and Parliament, there are another two alternativedrafts proposed by the coalition of CSO and NGOs inIndonesia and the Faculty of Law, University of Brawijaya,in East Java. Apart from inherent weaknesses and protests,the parliament ratified on 29 September 2004 the first billon migrant workers.

Tifa supported the coalition of Indonesian NGOsand CSOs to monitor, advocate and lobby the parliamentsto ensure the legislation process in the parliament wouldserve the main interest of migrant workers. Efforts to mon-itor parliamentary meetings on migrant workers bill hasalso intensively conducted by the coalition of NGOs andCSOs, such are KOPBUMI, Kowani, Kohati, SolidaritasPerempuan, Yayasan Sekar, GPPBM, and NationalCommission on Women.

During the sessions, Indonesian NGOs and CSOshave criticized some points which was against the interestof migrant workers on the proposed bill. They organizednational and international campaign to pressure the parlia-ment. Critics and protests has also occurred in other majorcities in Indonesia such Lampung, Jambi, Yogyakarta,Semarang, Cirebon, Blitar, Surabaya, Kupang, Mataram,Makasar, Medan, Pontianak and Palembang.

Wages and Access to Financial Institution

There are still many problems regarding workers remittance.Firstly is the lack of understanding among the workers on theirsalary level. They have just accepted what the agencies paid tothem without prior knowledge of how much money they actu-ally received from their employers.

Secondly, due to the lack of money, it was a commonpractice among prospective migrant workers to borrow moneyfrom their agencies to pay the cost of their departure. This wasthe vicious circle that put the workers into the debt-trap for along time.

And thirdly, according to Bank of Indonesia survey in2008, access to financial institution (banking) constituted as onemajor problem faced by Indonesian migrant workers abroad.This situation led to the dependence on the middleman whoasked high commission charge for the money they sent backhome. The problem is also related to the low level of under-standing of migrant workers family on the banking system.

On this regard, capacity building for prospective migrantworkers and their family regarding their rights of full-salary aswell as access to the banking system is relevant. The aim wasto ensure that the workers have a full understanding abouttheir salary and banking system that will help them to enjoy thefruit of their labor.

Internet & Information Access for Migrant Workers

The Law of 39/2004 stipulated the government and workingagencies to provide their clients with adequate informationregarding working conditions worker's needed before they


Therefore, Indonesian CSO directed their attention to the dis-trict and village levels where the recruitment occurred and theapplication of the new law has found its limitations.

The campaign for district and village level regulations, inline with the spirits of decentralization in Indonesia, has becomethe main targets of Indonesian CSO and NGOs. The importantpoint of village level regulation is due to the fact that violations,such as document forgery and treachery and extortion by mid-dleman, mainly occurred at this stage. The regulation is there-fore aimed at consolidating communities (families of migrantworkers), village apparatus and institutions mechanisms to mon-itor and protect potential candidates from those practices.

The main ideas behind this initiative is an assumptionthat mobilization of families, community members and villageofficials to work together on the issue of migration, and turnedthem into active subject, will reduce the cost and improve theefficiency of monitoring and protection of migrant workers atthe early stage. Yet, besides of its strategic importance, the ini-tiative was hardly successful. It still needs more intense cam-paign and support to push the local government to enhancethe level of protection for migrant workers.

Village Regulations

Tifa has always supportive to the initiative of Indonesian CSOand NGOs to enhance the protection of Indonesian migrantworkers at local level. Regarding efforts to fill the gap left inthe national bill on the protection of migrant workers at recruit-ment phases, Tifa has supported various advocacies on locallevel regulation for migrant workers. This has been donethrough support for local NGOs for campaign and advocacy

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wage level in the Middle East. But, remittance has a significant contribution for the

economy of the home province of migrant workers. 90 % ofremittance flowed to Java Island and East Java province wasthe highest recipient of remittance with 62 % (US $ 90 million)of total remittance flowing to Indonesia.

Socio-Economic Aspect of Remittance

The immediate positive impact of remittance, in addition to theimproving living standard of migrant workers family, is ofcourse a growing reserve of foreign currencies in the country.But in the longer terms, it might contribute to the improvingstandard of living for the general population such as theimprovement of quality of life if it is spent to education andhealth, as well as increasing micro-economic activities if it isspent on investment.

However, according to the survey conducted by Bank ofIndonesia (2008), the majorities of spending of went first to thehousehold consumption needs followed then by spending foreducation. The cost of living consumed 38% of migrant workerwages followed by communication costs that consumed 24%of total wages. Venture capital and landpurchasing has becomethe main form of investment of migrant workers.

Based on this data, we can conclude that the short-termimpact of remittance is on the improvement of living standardfor migrant workers family and poverty reduction in the longer-term. Therefore, effort to educate migrant workers regardingfinancial management and spending is relevant for more sus-tainable improvement in the future.


activities in 'migrant workers areas' such as Blitar (East Javaprovince), Cianjur (West Java), and West Lombok districts.Other initiative was advocacy for the introduction of villageregulations to protect and support migrant workers and theirfamilies in East Lombok, Sumbawa, Sukabumi and Pandeglangdistricts alongside activities to organize and empowerment ofmigrant workers families.

Campaign for Citizen Services

Other type of hazard in the cycle of migration process-afterrecruitment process-is the violation that occurred in the desti-nation countries. This has become the particular conditions ofmigrant workers. The protection for migrant workers is notsolely deal with their rights as workers, but their status as non-national of destination countries.

On this regard, the protection provided by the Bill ofNo., 39/2004 is insufficient. The bill stated that they have therights to (1) freedom of thought, belief and worship, and (2)legal services according to their needs. It also mentioned theobligation to deliver and process new documents for migrantworkers as well as bearing the cost of deportation. But it didnot mention clearly who —among the government bodies—ischarge of these tasks.

Having considered its incompleteness, the governmentissued Presidential Instruction No. 6/2006 regarding the estab-lishment of labor attaché and citizen service unit in six coun-tries: South Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Jordan, Syriaand Qatar. This added existing labor attaché in Malaysia andSaudi Arabia (Jeddah & Riyadh) with its formal duties andresponsibilities.

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and the formulation of local regulation draft to protectmigrant workers in this area. Panca Karsa, with the supportof community organizers and local worker organizations,then advocate the draft for its adoption at the district level.

In 2008, the district of Lombok Barat has adoptedthe draft and decreed the Law No. 5/2008. It became thefirst local regulation in the country stipulating the protec-tion of migrant workers. The regulation is also stipulatedthe existence of migrant workers Protection Commissionto oversee the process of complaints handling on migrantworkers cases. Similar result occurred in Blitar district, EastJava province, where Solidaritas Buruh Migran Blitar suc-cessfully advocated the same type of regulation formigrant workers protection. In 2008, the Blitar districtgovernment has adopted the draft and decreed the regu-lation No. 15/2008 regarding migrant workers.

These two areas have now become the success sto-ries of NGOs and CSOs initiatives to improve the level ofprotection for migrant workers at local area. The two dis-tricts have now provided the best example of local levelhandling regarding migrant workers problems and Tifa isstill waiting another result from similar initiatives in Jambiand West Java province (through the support for PPSW inCianjur district of West Java and Yayasan Sanak in Jambi).


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The Introduction ofCitizen Services & Labor Attaché

The Presidential Instruction (Inpres No. 6/2006) outlinedthe mandate for Indonesian government to appoint laborattaché and set up Citizen Service Unit in the countrieswhere Indonesian migrant workers reside. To ensure theeffectiveness of this mandate, Tifa supported ECOSOCRights Institute to make an assessment regarding the func-tion and implementation of citizen service unit and laborattaché in Malaysia and Singapore.

The support system for Indonesian migrant workershad been in place in both countries. In Malaysia, a taskforce was set up in Indonesian embassy to coordinatelabor and immigration, military attaché, police, researchand transportation sections to monitor and handlingmigrant workers cases in Malaysia. In Singapore, which isworking at lower level of hierarchy, the labor desk of theembassy had improved administrative and hotline serviceto deal with migrant workers complaints.

The benefit of those systems was essential, but itstill needs further improvement. In their report, Ecosoc'sevaluation study has provided several recommendations toimprove the effectiveness of support system, such asimprovement of migrant database as well as close moni-toring to workers agencies as well as their employers. Inaddition, they also recommended the need to organizecommunity based monitoring organization amongIndonesians Diasporas in Malaysia and Singapore. The lastrecommendation is still underway as a project pilot inMalaysia.

Local Regulation Advocacy Protectionfor Migrant Workers

Nusa Tenggara province is the biggest concentration ofmigrant workers in the country. In 2004, according to theMinistry of Labor, the number of migrant workers from thisprovince around 147,147 migrants with daily remittancereached IDR 3 billion per-day. But this was also accompa-nied by the highest level of violations experienced bymigrant workers. An NGO who works in this province,Panca Karsa Association, documented complaints casefrom 3,275 workers from 22 villages/sub-districts in CentralLombok and Sumbawa, ranging from physical abuse, fraud,rape and other violation leading to the death of person.

In light of this situation, Tifa Foundation has sup-ported Panca Karsa Association initiative to pressurize thelocal government for the introduction of local regulation toprotect migrant workers during the recruitment phase in2006. The program was focused on the education andempowerment of migrant workers and their families cov-ering six villages (Telagawaru, Bagek Polak, Gelogor, Kediri,Kuripan and Gerse) in the sub-district of Lombok Barat.

The result of this program was twofold: the estab-lishment of two migrant workers organization in the village


However, the implementation of this PresidentialInstruction is considerably slow. Until 2010, there are only sixlabors attaché in five countries (at the level of embassy andconsulate general): Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Riyadh,Hong Kong and Jeddah. While in Singapore, South Korea,Qatar and Brunei Darussalam there are only labors attachéwithout diplomatic immunity.

The Indonesian government projected the citizen servicefully established by the year of 2007, the implementation ofthis units —which according to the mandate of presidentialinstruction to deliver quick, cheap, easy and satisfying one-stop-service for migrant workers needs—is still far lag behind.Therefore, effort to push the government to implement thepresidential instruction is strategic. Tifa has initiated assess-ment and exploration of the best models for the units to oper-ate effectively, and consider further campaign and advocacyactivities with Indonesian NGOs and CSOs on this matter.

This initiative is combined with responsive efforts toresolve various cases against migrant workers in the origin anddestination countries. Previously, this activity was organized byNGOs who had networks and competencies on migrant work-ers problems. However, there was an increasing needs andstrategy to empower migrant workers communities overseas tohandle their cases on their own initiative by creating networksof paralegal drawn from the migrant communities overseas.

Capacity Building and Migrant Workers Organization

There are complex issues related to the problems of migrantworkers. The problems began at the village level when workerswere recruited, embarked and departed to destination coun-

tries and after the arrival to the home countries. Any effort toenhance the protection for migrant workers is thus not an iso-lated activity. Therefore, it is important for NGOs and CSOs inIndonesia to share, coordinate and synergize their efforts inmore consolidated and systemic way.

Since November 2003 to June 2004, Tifa facilitated themeetings of NGOs and CSOs. It aimed at developing a com-mon platform regarding migrant workers among advocacyorganizations in Indonesia. In addition, Tifa has also supportedinitiatives to empower communities and migrant workersorganizations. It was expected that in the future the workerswill have the ability to deal with their case independently.

Workers Remittance and Empowerment

In economic terms, migrant workers have become a nationalasset for their home countries. The remittance they send backhome contributed significantly to the level of GDP of eachcountry. In Tajikistan, the share of remittance reached the levelof 45% of their GDP. It was the largest contribution for thecountry in 2008. In comparative terms, India is the country withthe highest remittance level in the world, amounted to US $ 30billion. And the Philippines occupies as the highest place inSoutheast Asia with remittance level around US $ 18.7 billionannually.

The share of remittance to the national GDP is only onepercent in Indonesia. In 2008, according to BNP2TKI, the levelof remittance reached around U.S. $ 8.24 billion, which wasslightly increase from the previous year of US $ 6 billion. Thefactors that contributed to this increase were the increasingnumber of migrant workers working overseas as well as the

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tifa-booklet migrant workers (4)

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