Jakarta, April 8 (Antara Babel) - The National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launch a cooperation here on Monday to strengthen the management of migrant workers in Indonesia.
Besides in Indonesia, the similar cooperation, partly funded by the European Union through the IOM, also takes place in Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Philippines as a model for Colombo Process countries.
The Colombo Process is a regional consultative process on management of overseas employment and contractual labour for countries of origin in Asia.
The eleven member countries for the process are Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, and eight destination country participants are Bahrain, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
BNP2TKI Chief Moh Jumhur Hidayat said here on Monday that the Government of Indonesia was ready to make serious effort to improve the service and management of migrant workers.
Jumhur said a number of BNP2TKI programs which have been launched were among others online enrollment system to eradicate middlemen practices and illegal recruitment, and the Crisis Center to accommodate the complaints from migrant workers in terms of the violation of their rights.
It is estimated that over 2.5 million Asian workers leave their countries every year under contract to work abroad.
A large proportion of workers from South and Southeast Asia head for the Gulf States to perform various types of service, trade and construction jobs, while others move to North America, Europe and Asian countries.
Jumhur noted that BNP2TKI positively welcomed the cooperation with IOM, supported by UN Women, to increase the capacity of the front guard officers to support government program to improve the quality of service and management, and to reduce the risks the migrant workers may face.
Besides being supported by UN Women, the BNP2TKI-IOM cooperation in Indonesia is also supported by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.
Meanwhile, Chief of IOM Mission in Indonesia, Denis Nihil, said the aims of the cooperation were to increase the capacity of government institutions to promote a better practice on overseas employment, to optimize development benefits from organized overseas employment, and enhance dialogue with countries of destination.
Translating by: O. Tamindael
