Indonesia's sudden ban o­n the export of female migrant workers to Asia-Pacific and the Middle East has surprisingly drawn flak from o­ne of its domestic labour organisations for failing to take into account the country's present economic difficulties.

The Consortium for Indonesian Migrant Workers' Defence (Kopbumi) said the ban announced by the Jakarta government o­n Feb 10 was meant to protect female migrant workers.

Responding to Berita Harian 's report yesterday o­n the ban which also affects Malaysia, Kopbumi's executive director Wahyu Susilo said the given reason was that female workers sent abroad are generally not highly educated so they are forced to work mostly in the domestic help sector where they may be exploited.

"However, it is not their fault that they are not highly skilled workers. The government should be protecting them by investing in advancing their skills and controlling the recruitment agencies. Right now, the workers are simply just sent abroad," he said when contacted today.

The ban, said Wahyu, is an unpalatable solution as it restricts the human rights of the women to mobilise and work in a foreign country, should they choose to do so.

Double-digit unemployment

Yesterday, Berita Harian reported that the Indonesian government had stopped sending female workers to Malaysia because of alleged abuse and ill-treatment of its nationals.

Quoting "diplomatic sources", the Malay daily cited several incidents over the past two years when abused and poorly-treated domestic workers had fled their workplace to seek shelter at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

According to the report, the embassy handled a total of 263 cases of domestic abuse last year. This figure rose to 149 for January this year alone.

However, Wahyu said the Indonesian government had not emphasised this when it imposed the ban.

"We ourselves ask why the government decided to intervene at this point when there are no significant events taking place. Initially, we thought the ban was o­nly effective for those headed for Middle Eastern countries (because of the likelihood of a war against Iraq) but instead, it applies to Asia Pacific as well," he said.

Wahyu said that the decision of the government was puzzling because the move might just worsen the country's high unemployment rate of 17 percent by latest estimates.

"Should there be a war in the Middle East, our people cannot work there so the solution to the (loss of jobs) should lie in countries in the Asia Pacific region," he said.

When asked, the labour activist said that Jakarta had said it would lift the ban by the middle of this month.

However, he added that despite the ban, female workers are likely to continue entering Malaysia because of weak control at border checkpoints, particularly in East Java, Sumatera and Kalimantan.

Meanwhile, the Sun today reported Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan o­nn ( photo ) as saying that the Indonesian government should resolve any problems faced by their nationals amicably by bringing up the matter with the Malaysian government.

Commenting o­n the Berita Harian report, Fong said his ministry had not received any report or feedback of problems involving Indonesian domestic workers.

Ops Nyah II

On the situation of Indonesian migrant workers in Nunukan, an Indonesian island just off the coast from Tawau, Sabah, Wahyu said some 7,000 workers are still waiting for their permits to return to work across the border.

"However, the local government is expecting more people to be deported to Nunukan shortly because of the expiry of their social visit passes," he said.

"Since the Non-Aligned Movement conference ended (on Feb 25), the police have started deporting people again under Ops Nyah II (the anti-illegal immigration sweep operations)," he added.

Last August, tens of thousands of undocumented Indonesian workers flooded into Nunukan from Sabah after new immigration laws came into effect, allowing for the caning and jailing of any person found without a valid visa.

The influx caused a crisis in the island town when its resources and infrastructure failed to cope with the sudden increase in population. However, faced with little prospects back home, most workers returned to their workplaces in Sabah several months later o­n three-month social visit

passes.