Jakarta (Antara Babel) - The "Walk Free Foundation" and "Migrant Care" have recommended that the Indonesian government and business community fight for ending a "modern slavery" by ensuring decent work for all Indonesians.
In meeting the noble goal, Indonesia needs to ratify the International Labor Organization Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (ILO 189) and Protocol of 2014 to the ILO Forced Labour Convention (PO29), the Walk Free Foundation researcher Katharine Bryant said here Tuesday.
"The main problem in Indonesia is coordination across nation. The government should be concerned about that problem," she said when launching "The Global Slavery Index" report here.
Therefore, the capacity building and improvement of coordination among government officials across the country must be continued to enable the nation to end the modern slavery, she said.
She further said that, as a highly populated archipelago with a decentralized government, Indonesia faces many challenges in its fight against the cases of slavery that occurs in the modern era, cross-sector and cross-age.
The Walk Free Foundation refers the modern slavery to such cases as "the presence of human trafficking, debt bondage, forced labour, forced marriage and commercial sexual exploitation, prostitution, and the sale or exploitation of children".
According to Bryant, the Indonesian government's decision to set up the anti-trafficking task forces in 166 districts and 30 provinces in 2012 to develop local action plans and anti-trafficking initiatives was a good move.
"The task forces in districts and province level is a good thing about the government's effort to reduce the slavery," Bryant noted.
However, the government needs to increase public awareness of the danger of the modern slavery by encouraging people to report the cases to authorized agencies and working with local and international NGOs.
To the business community, the Walk Free Foundation recommends that suppliers in the high risk industries undertake due diligence measures to identify any forced labour in their supply chain.
Meanwhile, the Migrant Care urged the President Joko Widodo administration to create a road map to end the era of the placement of migrant workers that is monopolized by the private migrant worker recruitment and placement agencies (PPTKIS).
"The government should replace it with the placement and protection method of migrant workers as a public service activity," Director of Migrant Care Anis Hidayah noted.
The government should also implement the ratification of International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families as a diplomatic instrument, labour reform legislation and guidelines state institutions about the protection and placement of migrant workers, she said.
Despite the current condition that Indonesia still faces, the Global Slavery Index 2014 reveals that the Indonesian government's response to the modern slavery has a B rating, which is better than Malaysia (CCC) and Singapore (CC).
