Indonesia
recently experienced a new breeze promising to bring a wind of change when the
new president took drastic action to protect the welfare of Indonesian
international migrants (who are known as Tenaga Kerja Indonesia or TKI meaning Indonesian
overseas worker) by asking the relevant government apparatus to “really treat
them as heroes” (as indicated in the government official documents)[1]
but also to “remove some of the special treatments” or privileges associated
with or given to them. The apparent contradiction between these two requests lies
at the heart of the issue.
Due to the
lack of job opportunities in the domestic economy, millions of Indonesians are
currently working abroad, mostly as low-skilled workers but with incomes at
least five times higher than those of their counterparts working in the same
job domestically. According to official figures from the National Authority for the
Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI), on average 563,262 Indonesian
migrants worked abroad each year during the period 2007 to October 2014. This number is far below that of
the unrecorded migrants who leave the country using various means. The majority
of the TKI work in Southeast and East Asia and the Middle East, and the top
five destinations from January to October 2014 are Malaysia (30% of total),
Taiwan (19%), Saudi Arabia (11%), Hong Kong (8%) and Singapore (7%). They are
mainly employed as domestic workers
(33%), followed by caretakers (12%), plantation workers (11%), factory workers (11%),
general workers (5%), seamen (5%) and others (24%).
The TKI
directly contribute to the domestic economy by reducing unemployment and
providing foreign exchange income via remittances, which could only otherwise
be obtained through exports. Thus, this labour export policy is a “win-win” for
the government, for it doesn’t need to provide jobs for those who leave while the
economy reaps the benefit of their remittance inflows. Thus, the government has
decided to treat them as foreign exchange heroes who must be respected accordingly.
This is reflected, for instance, in provisions made at the airport. The TKI are
given a special terminal, a special immigration lane, a special lounge, special
trolleys, a special transfer bus or transportation, and other special things (the
pictures below illustrate some of these provisions). The list of special
provisions is in fact more extensive than outlined here, as some local governments
add supplementary benefits such as temporary accommodation. In some cases, additional
special treatments are given to those joining the G(overnment) to G(overnment)
programs operated in conjunction with Japan, Korea and Taiwan for example. These G
to G programmes provide benefits in the form of special seminars, financial
management and exchange rates for the salaries of the TKI involved.
So what
is the problem then?
The
problem is the gap between the policy and the reality of implementation on the
ground. In a nutshell, these special treatments provided by the government have
been used by corrupt government bureaucrats and their accomplices, often located
in the private sector, to extort money. They set up a range of tariffs,
exchange rates, and mark ups for their own benefit. The findings of a series of
undercover and surprise inspections by the anti-corruption committee that were also
exposed by the media have revealed the bad practices. Moreover, during the
video conference between the President and Indonesian workers in: Brunei
Darussalam, Egypt, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea
and Taiwan, which took place on 30 November 2014, the exposure of further corrupt
practices led to the President taking action to remove some of the special
treatments afforded to the TKI. The crackdown on these extortionate practices
is welcome, and include the thwarting of a syndicate allegedly engaged in human
trafficking of Indonesian migrant workers through Malaysia to destinations in
Middle Eastern countries. But more work is needed to address this issue since what has been exposed so far is just the tip
of the iceberg! The new government needs to systematically solve the problems
by better facilitating migration and protecting migrants’ welfare, throughout
their migration cycle from the stages prior to their departure up to their
return home.
To start
with, the deployment system must be improved, including better preparation of migrant
workers. In connection with this, serious concerns must be addressed in
relation to recruitment agencies. Their role has become very dominant (partly
due to the lack of appropriate government intervention) which has resulted in migration
becoming very commercial. Many agencies now also act as employers, creating a
situation in which the migrant worker has become very vulnerable to abuse and
exploitation in different forms. The widespread practice of “fly now and pay
later” which renders migrants indebted to the agencies until they repay the
cost of their flights, and of agencies having full control over all the
arrangements: from the migrants’ passports to their contracts and deployment
etc., should be seen as worrying.
Last
summer I met a new migrant on her way to Malaysia where the recruitment agency had
organised her trip, obtained her passport and visa, provided domestic and
international transportation, and made all the other arrangements, while she had
made practically none of the preparations herself. She was just told to go to the
airport, board the aircraft, and somebody would pick her up at the destination
airport. She had no information at all about the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia
and less than Rp2000 (less than 20 US cents or around 10 GB pence) in her
pocket because the agent also told her that she would not need any Indonesian
money. What if just one step in this elaborate process went wrong? How would
the aspiring migrant worker cope? The outcome of her desperate action is anybody’s
guess!
Even more
concern will be revealed if we scrutinize the job contract and other details, and
ask basic questions such as: what kind of job will she be doing? What are the
terms? How much will her salary be? How many months will it take her to repay
all the costs associated with her departure that have been prepaid by the
agency? And so on…
The potential
problems and complexities stemming from this kind of arrangement are
predictable. To illustrate, the official data shows that 181,193 migrants
arrived back in Indonesia through 14 different airports from January to October
2014. Many of them returned before their contracts were completed due to
various problems, such as incomplete documents, work-related ill health, an inability
to work or communicate properly, and other reasons. Who are to be blamed for
these outcomes? I hope that the new government is not going to blame the
migrant workers for they are more the victims than the culprits! Their only
mistake is to try to escape from poverty by entering into the wilderness of the
international labour market. And they only took that route because the domestic
market did not provide them with any other opportunities….
[1] This kind of treatment is not unique to
Indonesia as many other developing countries adopt similar policies.
Fig 1: Examples of airport special facilities for the TKI - Indonesia's foreign exchange heroes
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