Malaysia agrees on rights for RI workers

Ridwan MaX Sijabat ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta 

Malaysia has agreed to let Indonesian migrant workers keep their own passports, have one day off a week and to set up joint task force to monitor and settle labor disputes with employers, says a minister.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the negotiating team, jointly set up following recent talks between the two countries' heads of government, has drawn up the agreement and was waiting for an endorsement by the Malaysian parliament.

"[Indonesia and Malaysia] have planned to sign a memorandum of understanding [MoU] on the three new points early in January so that Indonesia can resume the labor supply to Malaysia next month," he said here on Friday.

Indonesia suspended its supply of labor to Malaysia in June, following the torture death of an Indonesian migrant worker who was employed as housemaid in that country.

The suspension has reopened negotiations between the two countries over bilateral ties in the labor sector with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono making a visit to Kuala Lumpur to discuss the issue with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak in the middle of November.

Both heads of government agreed on the establishment of the joint team, which recently held a meeting in Bali. The Malaysian prime minister said his country was open to foreign legal migrants and it had been facing difficulties to monitor undocumented immigrants who, to some extent, were prone to exploitation and mistreatment.

International Human Rights Watch has slammed the Malaysian government for the rampant human rights abuse of foreign migrant workers employed as housemaids and construction and plantation laborers in the country over the last two decades.

The workers have been prone to abuse, were often underpaid and exploited by being made to work up to 10 to 17 hours a day, since their passports and work visas were withheld by their employers.

Migrant Care, an NGO that provides advocacy for migrant workers, questioned the significance of the new labor agreement, saying the two countries have made many such agreements in the past but labor abuses went on.

"What we need is for both countries to follow up the MoU by making enforceable legislation ensuring the protection of migrant workers and their employers," Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah.

She called on the two countries to show their commitment to the new deal by discussing ongoing problems for their mutual interests.

"Indonesia needs job opportunities for its job-seekers while Malaysia is in need of foreign workers to support its economic development.

"The two governments should also look for joint measures to prevent Indonesian job-seekers from entering the country illegally. And they also have to take measures against those trafficking immigrants into the country," she said.

According to data from Migrant Care, a total of 679 Indonesian migrant workers have died, mostly due to physical abuse, and thousands of others were injured in the workplace over the past three decades in Malaysia.

The new labor agreement was made as two more migrant workers were found tortured to death in Johor on Wednesday.

Jumadi, 22,  and Arisanto, 24, both residents of Karanganyar, Central Java, were found dead with horrific injuries in a septic tank after working for four years on a vegetable plantation in Johor.

Eyewitnesses said they were found dead after they failed to show up to work for three days. Neighbors had not seen the pair for that time either.  

Local police were still investigating the whereabouts of another migrant worker from Lampung who went missing after the incident.

Bibit Suwanto, a relative of the two victims in Karanganyar, said his family had already received information on the incident through the Foreign Ministry and that the two men's bodies were being held at Johor general hospital for an autopsy.

Last month the government flew 1,750 migrant workers home from the Middle East, another major destination for Indonesia's labor supply.

Some 1,000 workers were brought home from Saudi Arabia an 750 from Kuwait following legal issues in the two countries. (nia)