Migrant Workers May Soon Join The Flying Public

Jakarta Globe, Anita Rachman & Putri Prameshwari

After years of alarming complaints of extortion and harassment at the infamous airport terminal for returning Indonesian migrant workers, the government announced a pilot scheme on Tuesday giving workers the option of using the public terminal.

Iskandar Maula, director of overseas workers at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, said workers returning from overseas would soon be allowed to arrive and leave through Terminal 2 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, just like ordinary Indonesians and foreigners.

He said the scheme would begin “within months,” after coordination between several government departments and state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura.

There would also be a special desk at Terminal 2 for returning workers to file complaints against their foreign employers for nonpayment of wages, emotional or physical abuse and other problems, as well as to file complaints against their Indonesian recruitment agencies, he added.

Iskandar said the scheme would initially only be open to migrants workers in Hong Kong and Taiwan because they rarely experienced problems abroad.

A recent surprise inspection of Selapajang, the special migrants-only terminal also known as Terminal TKI, found one returned worker who had been waiting at the airport for 13 days because of “issues with travel and insurance agencies,” he said. “We cannot let this happen.”

Labor activists have regularly raised their concerns over Terminal TKI, saying that segregating migrant workers from regular airline passengers is discrimination and that the terminal is a black hole of corruption, extortion and robbery.

Returning workers, they say, must pay exorbitant rates for transport home as they are not allowed to be picked up by family members. Minivan drivers at the terminal have even been accused of robbing their passengers, who are carrying months’ worth of wages, and leaving them stranded by the side of the road.

Wahyu Susilo, a public policy analyst with advocacy group Migrant Care, welcomed the scheme, saying the move would reduce the chances of migrant workers being targeted for extortion.

“They are citizens of Indonesia, why should they be discriminated against?” he said.

Jamaluddin, a coordinator from the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI), however, slammed the announcement, saying it was a publicity stunt as part of the government’s 100-day program and was unlikely to be continued in the long term.

He said the ministry should allow all overseas workers to use Terminal 2, not just those working in Hong Kong and Taiwan. “What about our migrant workers in the Middle East?” he said. “Are they too stupid to be allowed into the public terminal?”

There are currently 4.3 million Indonesians working in 42 countries, according to the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI). The figure, however, does not include an estimated two to four million working abroad illegally.