Indonesia: President Calls for an End to Export of Domestic Workers
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INDONESIA -
The Jakarta Post
April 13, 2011
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says Indonesia must stop sending workers overseas for placement in the informal sector, in particular as domestic helpers. “We should try, resolve to reduce the numbers, and one day we can eliminate [such placements] it completely,” he said Wednesday at a meeting of the National and Regional Tripartite Cooperation Institution in Jakarta, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Yudhoyono said Indonesians working overseas should work as professionals in the formal sector. “This has become [a matter of] nationalism and solidarity,” he said. Yudhoyono added that the export of workers should eventually be stopped by providing more employment opportunities in Indonesia. He said he had established a team to evaluate countries deemed as providing insufficient protection to Indonesian workers, which could face a moratorium on labor exports from Indonesia.
Manpower and Transportation Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, who leads the team, said the evaluation of these countries should be complete within three months. Until now, the government has forbidden the placement of workers in three countries, namely Malaysia, Jordan and Kuwait. He said Indonesia might impose moratoriums on more countries,especially those in the Middle East, considering the current political climate there.
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