Indonesia

Indonesia: Workers sent home $6 billion

Date: 02/01/2012 - 08:14

Despite disruptions to labor agreements last year, Indonesians working abroad managed to send home US$6.1 billion in 2011. Some argue that this figure is too small to be ignored, and challenge the government to step up its efforts to protect the safety of its citizens working abroad.

Anis Hidayah, executive director of Migrant Care, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) focused on workers’ rights, repeated the call in response to the remittances the migrant workers sent home.

Ship Carrying Asylum Seekers Sinks Off Java

Date: 18/12/2011 - 07:29

Rescuers searched for survivors Sunday after a wooden ship carrying about 250 asylum seekers, many of them from the Middle East, sank off Indonesia's main island of Java. Only 33 people have been rescued so far, an official said.

Four fishing boats searched for the more than 200 missing passengers who were attempting to reach Australia, but bad weather and 4-meter- (13-foot-) high waves were hampering the efforts, said Lt. Alwi Mudzakir, a maritime police official who was heading the rescue operation.

Indonesia has its work cut out following UN resolution

Date: 29/11/2011 - 17:50

Indonesia has its work cut out for it if it intends to implement the stringent principles outlined in a draft resolution on violence against women migrant workers that was passed last Tuesday during the 66th United Nations General Assembly session.

A spokeswoman at the Indonesian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Elleonora Tambunan, said the resolution did not stipulate any punishments for incompliant member states.

Anis Hidayah honoured by Human Rights Watch in Toronto for extraordinary activism

Date: 14/11/2011 - 08:49

In 1998, when Anis Hidayah was 20 and studying law in her native Indonesia, she heard a horrific story about a female compatriot who was raped by her employer while she was employed as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia.

The young woman eventually escaped, but her Saudi boss faced no criminal charges and she was never compensated for her wages or the crime.

Hidayah came from a village in East Java where half of the women in the country regularly left their husbands and children to go abroad, taking up posts as domestic workers in an effort to lift themselves out of poverty.

Asia Calling

Date: 07/10/2011 - 14:30

Countries	Indonesia
Type of organisation	Radio

Migrant workers as a foreign policy issue

Date: 17/09/2011 - 16:24

In a state of union address before the House of Representatives on Aug. 16, 2011, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono underlined the paramount importance of the migrant workers issue in Indonesia’s relations with other countries, in particular those receiving our migrant workers.

The President reaffirmed Indonesia’s commitment to protecting the overseas workers through diplomacy and negotiations, as well as improvement of the internal recruitment mechanisms and decisions on sending people on missions abroad.

Indonesia: Travails Of Migrant Workers – Analysis

Date: 12/07/2011 - 09:50

The surprise execution of an Indonesian maid, Ruyati binti Sapubi, without the knowledge of the Indonesian government reflects the abominable state of migrant workers resulting from poverty in South and Southeast Asia. The inability of government to provide basic amenities to the people forces them to leave from their own country for an unknown and uncertain future. The outcry over Ruyati’s life and death highlights the problem of what is often dismissed as a private matter: the use and abuse of foreign domestic workers.

Criticism of Indonesian President's speech at the ILO Conference

Date: 17/06/2011 - 08:46

President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono polished his international image on Tuesday by claiming success on labor issues before participants of the 10th annual meeting of the International Labor Organization (ILO). In a speech that activists called “arrogant”, he said Indonesia was one of the countries in the world whose laborers were less affected by the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Indonesia: Migrant workers live in havoc

Date: 16/05/2011 - 10:45

Lack of transparency in labor recruitment and placement overseas has hindered justice and the protection of migrant workers’ basic rights, the Supreme Audit Agency reveals.

Its report shows unclear policies give way to various forms of violation in almost all stages of the process, “From recruitment, training and health checks to document processing, placement and even the homecoming procedure”.

The agency examined the performance of placement and protection of migrant workers in 2010’s second semester report.

ASEAN leaders lack commitment on migrant workers

Date: 08/05/2011 - 06:23

ASEAN leaders are not sufficiently committed to implementing the 2007 Cebu Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, said Migrant Care analyst Wahyu Susilo on Saturday during the ASEAN Summit.

Wahyu said regional leaders have yet to show any intention to adopt the declaration as a tool for protecting ASEAN’s migrant workers.