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With Everyone in Agreement, Workers Set to Return to Malaysia
Ismira Lutfia | November 17, 2011

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The moratorium on sending workers to Malaysia is about to end and the northern neighbor says it is ready to start receiving Indonesians again, officials said on Wednesday.

Muhaimin Iskandar, the manpower and transmigration minister, discussed the matter with his Malaysian counterpart, S. Subramaniam, in Bali.

“During the meeting, both sides agreed that the placement of domestic workers in Malaysia is ready for a restart,” Muhaimin said in a press release. “The Indonesian and Malaysian governments have agreed on 11 points.”

Those points include arrangements on contracts, wages, methods of payment, days off, access to passports, training and visas.

Muhaimin said the two sides were also ready to implement an amended version of a 2006 memorandum of understanding on migrant workers, which was signed in Bandung last May.

That 2006 MoU was suspended in 2009 because of complaints over the treatment of workers

Muhaimin said significant progress had been made in discussing the implementation of the amended MoU. He said the two governments had also agreed on the terms of evaluation, to ensure everything runs smoothly.

The moratorium on sending domestic workers to Malaysia was imposed in mid-2009 after multiple cases of physical abuse there. Indonesia and Malaysia have formed a joint task force to oversee the resumption of worker placements.

“The joint task force will help to quickly and appropriately deal with any problems that might arise in the field,” the Indonesian minister said.

The task force has already decided on a placement scheme, though the details have yet to be announced. Both countries have said they will strictly enforce all rules and regulations.

Muhaimin added that the joint task force would have offices in both countries.

In Indonesia, it will be made up of officials from a number of different bodies, including the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI) and the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta. It will have a similar structure in Malaysia, but will also include officials from the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Migrant worker advocates last month urged the government to seek a stronger presence on the international stage if it wanted to adequately protect Indonesians working overseas.

Lita Anggraini, from the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT), said the government’s negotiation skills put workers at risk. “As long as our government is spineless, nothing will change,” she said.