Dessy Sagita

Officials Say They Will Take Tough Line Over Worker Abuse Claims in Malaysia

The government will suspend sending more migrant workers to Malaysia in response to the number of complaints it has received of contract violations and physical abuse involving Indonesians working in the neighboring country, a labor official said on Sunday.

Mardjono, director of labor protection at the National Labor Placement and Protection Agency, said Indonesian authorities received between 100 and 150 complaints a month involving Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia. His disclosure follows the death last Saturday of an Indonesian worker in Kuala Lumpur.

Mardjono said the government would re-evaluate the migrant-worker system, and would not send more workers to Malaysia until a new agreement was reached between the countries.

“This will cause difficulties for Malaysia, especially for the plantation industry, because most of the workers are from Indonesia,” he said.

Mardjono said 23-year-old Nurul Widayanti, of Ngawi, East Java, had worked in Malaysia for the past two years and she apparently committed suicide in the Kuala Lumpur home of her employers’ parents.

He said Nurul’s death was the fourth major case in the last month involving Indonesian workers in Malaysia.

“First, some workers died when a supermarket collapsed during demolition, then we have a boat carrying illegal workers that sank in Tanjung Balai Karimun, followed by Siti Hajar, who was abused by her employer, and now Nurul committing suicide,” Mardjono said.

He said there may have been a violation of Nurul’s contract because she should not have been working at the parents’ home.

“Transferring a migrant worker is a serious contract violation and it is a weak point that we will bring up in court,” Mardjono said of the possibility that there could be legal action in the case.

The labor placement agency, known as BNP2TKI, said it would question Nurul’s agencies in Indonesia and Malaysia.

“There must be a reason why she decided to end her own life, if she really committed suicide,” Mardjono said.

BNP2TKI is still investigating Nurul’s status in Malaysia to determine whether she was working in the country legally, which would entitle her to insurance coverage and, in the event of death, the payment of associated costs.

For the time being, Mardjono said, “we will pay for the flight back to Indonesia and we will give an allowance to the family.”

Siti Hajar, a domestic servant, made headlines in both countries last week after claiming to have been abused by her Malaysian employer and not having been paid for almost three years.

Mardjono said BNP2TKI and the Foreign Ministry were planning to create an early-detection system to prevent the abuse of Indonesian migrant workers.

“We will call them [workers] every day to determine their whereabouts and situation, so we’ll know immediately if there’s a problem,” he said.

Indonesian and Malaysian government representatives will meet on July 15 to discuss a 2005 bilateral manpower cooperation agreement, in light of the abuse of Indonesian workers in Malaysia, according to I Gusti Made Arta, the director general for manpower management.

“Everything in the MOU relating to the placement of Indonesian workers in Malaysia will be reviewed,” he said.

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