REFORMER TAKES HELM OF MIGRANT WORKER PROTECTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 001056 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR EAP/RSA, G/TIP, EAP/MTS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/13/2016 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL ELAB KWMN SMIG ID SUBJECT: REFORMER TAKES HELM OF MIGRANT WORKER PROTECTION REF: JAKARTA 778 Classified By: Political Officer Stan Harsha for reasons: 1.4 (b) and ( d). ¶1. Summary. (C) After just a month in office, the head of a newly-formed cabinet-level agency to protect migrant workers is beginning to win the confidence of migrant worker rights activists and to shake up a system notorious for exploiting workers. Jumhur Hidayat, Chairman of the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesia Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI),met with workers rights advocates the day after he took office on March 9 and immediately gave civil society access to be a watchdog for the exploitive migrant worker placement system. Indonesia's leading migrant workers rights organization, Migrant Care, has been allowed to freely monitor the arrival of overseas migrant workers at Jakarta's international airport since that date, and has already saved a number of workers from exploitation. In an April 12 meeting with the Labor Attach, Jumhur told us he was "disgusted" with the exploitive practices of the Ministry of Manpower and his main goal would be to protect overseas workers. He made an ambitious pledge to abolish the current labor recruitment system, to fund some fees now paid by migrant workers, and to revise the MOU with Malaysia on migrant workers so that Indonesian workers regain the basic rights they ceded with the agreement. End summary. TIP Hero Has Renewed Hope -------------- ¶2. (C) Migrant Care founder Wahyu Susilo told us in an April 12 meeting that the head of the newly formed National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesia Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI) is a former labor activist and colleague, who he trusts to look out for the welfare of migrant workers. BNP2TKI Chairman Jumhur Hidayat met with Wahyu and other labor rights activists the day after he took office on March 9, pledging to work together with Migrant Care and the Ministry of Women's Empowerment during his "100 day program" to reform the exploitive overseas migrant labor protection system, Wahyu said. "I am hopeful that he will break the corrupt atmosphere. He should do more than the Manpower Ministry," said Wahyu, who has been selected as a 2007 State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Hero for his work to protect the rights of trafficking victims. Jumhur's first action was to allow Migrant Care and officers from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment to monitor arrival of overseas workers at Jakarta's international airport's Terminal 3, a terminal dedicated to processing returning migrant workers. Because of their new open access to returning workers, Migrant Care has stopped a number of cases in which returning workers were asked to pay bribes, Wahyu said. Exploitive System to be Abolished -------------- ¶3. (C) In our April 12 meeting with Jumhur, he told us his first task would be to socialize the new anti-trafficking law among local manpower officials so that they can use the powerful new law to protect migrant workers. (Note: See Jakarta 778, Indonesia Passes Anti-Trafficking Bill. Parliament passed the law on March 20 and it automatically goes into effect 30 days after passage i.e. on April 18. The law does not require presidential signature to go into effect and the President does not have veto power.) Jumhur explained that protection of workers rights will require a more open process to get information about those rights to local governments. He said he plans to abolish the system of unscrupulous local recruitment agents funneling workers to job placement agencies for work overseas, at a fee of between USD 100 and 300 per worker. Instead, recruitment agencies will be limited to taking job orders from overseas and placing workers. Recruiting will be handled by BNP2TKI, which will register workers directly at the local level, free of charge, and provide lists to manpower agencies. Training also would be separated from manpower agencies. Separate new businesses will be licensed to train workers, Jumhur said. Another high priority will be to revise the MOU with Malaysia on migrant workers, to change the provisions ceding basic rights, such as the right to hold on to their passports. ¶4. (C) This process could eliminate two sources of exploitation, that of local recruiters who canvas communities to lure workers at exorbitant fees, and training by manpower agencies, which usually charge high training fees but oftentimes provide little or no training. Jumhur acknowledged manpower agencies simply exploit workers. Elimination of these fees would reduce the debt which workers have to pay back out of their salaries, a situation that JAKARTA 00001056 002 OF 003 leads to debt bondage. Wahyu agreed that this proposed system could improve workers' welfare and help to prevent trafficking, provided that BNP2TKI can put a recruiting system in place from top to bottom, a major caveat given that offices would need to be established nationwide. He also agreed that separating the training function from manpower placement agencies should help to stop exploitation and improve workers' job skills. He said one advantage of the proposed system is that it is decentralized, so that workers can stay in their communities and spend minimal time in holding centers while waiting travel. Rudy Porter, Country Program Director for the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, told us that everything his staff has told him about Jumhur confirms that he is sincere in his efforts. He said Jumhur's proposed recruitment, training and placement reforms "would be a tremendous improvement" over the current system. The system would greatly reduce the costs and fees born by workers, particularly if Jumhur's promise is true to make the government recruitment process free. This system is exactly what migrant worker associations have been proposing for a long time, he said. ¶5. (C) Government processing fees of a few dollars will also be eliminated for returning workers, Jumhur said, although they will still be responsible for health insurance, passport and other such fees. When we told Jumhur that these fees also can be used to exploit workers and in any case should be paid by the employer, he paused, saying, "I agree. I will look into this." No Patience When Workers Are Abused -------------- --- ¶6. (C) When we asked him to look into case of the Indonesian worker Nirmala Bonat, who has languished for years at the Indonesian Embassy migrant workers shelter in Kuala Lumpur while her abuse case against her employer grinds its way through the courts, Jumhur immediately called his secretary in and told her to draft a letter to the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur complaining about Nirmala's case. That same week he said he had called an Indonesian diplomat in Saudi Arabia and scolded him for not pressing the Saudi police to immediately file charges in the case of a maid who died because of abuse. "We don,t want clarification. This is a crime. We want criminal charges!" he said he screamed at the diplomat. He also directly intervened in the case of an Indonesian maid, Eka Juanita, who died of apparent abuse and whose remains have been held in Taiwan for over a month. The body is being returned on April 14 because of his intervention. Jumhur informed Migrant Care so that they can be at the airport in Surabaya when the body arrives. Jumhur Disgusted with Mafia Nest -------------- ¶7. (C) Jumhur said he was "disgusted" when he first moved into his sixth floor office at the Manpower Ministry building, describing the operation as the notorious "sixth f.loor mafia nest" whose function was to exploit workers rather than protect them. Before taking this ministerial-level post, Jumhur was chairman of the Federation of Independent Workers, representing smaller unions, and he was once imprisoned for three years by Suharto during his student activism days. Jumhur also was coordinator of the People's Coalition supporting President Yudhoyono's first presidential campaign, and was handpicked by Yudhoyono for this job. "The protection of workers and improving their welfare is our main priority," he said. Jumhur added that the carrot method would take too long to reform the system, so he is using the stick instead, "I have to punish some people." Besides staff seconded from the manpower ministry, Jumhur oversees staff seconded from eleven agencies, including police, immigration, foreign ministry, health ministry, social affairs ministry and women's ministry, in an integrated approach to protecting migrant workers. This new agency, decreed by the President in August 2006, replaced a department within the Manpower Ministry that largely failed to protect workers going overseas. Right now, Jumhur still has a skeleton staff composed primarily of assistants he brought with him from outside government and a few officials transferred from other agencies, but police, immigration and other officials have confirmed to us that coordination under the new body is already functioning with regular interagency meetings. ¶8. (C) Jumhur said he plans to increase training of workers and will "review" supply of workers to Saudi Arabia and other countries where Indonesian workers' rights are not fully respected, despite the huge market there. He is lobbying to increase the budget to protect migrant workers. However, Jumhur also hopes to increase the number of workers sent JAKARTA 00001056 003 OF 003 abroad from 640,000 to 750,000, a plan that has brought skepticism from civil society given that Indonesia needs to first protect the workers currently overseas. He said that foreign worker remittances are Indonesia's third largest source of foreign income following energy and textile exports, amounting to USD 6.5 billion annually, not including the estimated USD 9-10 billion in illegal worker remittances. ¶9. (C) Comment: Wahyu Susilo and other workers rights advocates have had nothing but disdain for Manpower Ministry's protection of overseas migrant workers, and have had no access to that ministry. We have also had little cooperation from the Manpower Ministry. In just a month, Jumhur has revolutionized the system by simply making it transparent and partnering with civil society to protect workers. While his mandate does not extend to domestic workers, by far the worst abuses in the system are in the lucrative overseas market in which trafficking is so profitable. Reform in that sector will go far towards reducing human trafficking of Indonesians. Jumhur's very ambitious reforms, no matter how well intentioned, will still depend on good governance to eliminate the corrosive elements of exploitation due to corruption. However, a strong leader with integrity can have a major influence and we are prepared to help him to succeed. End comment. ¶10. Bio notes: Jumhur also is a member of the small Democratic Party and formerly chair of the People's Sovereignty Party (PDR). He was formerly chair of the Indonesian Islamic Union Party. He was executive director of the Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) think tank, the Center for Information and Development Studies (CIDES),founded by former President Habibie. He was imprisoned by Suharto while studying at the Bandung Institute of Technology. HEFFERN