No Saudi Bar on Migrant Workers, Government Says

Jakarta Globe, Ismira Lutfia | February 17, 2011

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Officials here have denied reports of a ban by Saudi business leaders on the hiring of Indonesian migrant workers.

On Tuesday, the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry was reported to have imposed the ban because of “exorbitant charges and lack of qualified workers,” as well as negative press reports about the abuse of migrant workers by their employers.

However, Jumhur Hidayat, chairman of the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI), said on Wednesday that there was no ban in place.

He said he had been in contact with Saad Al-Badah, chairman of the chamber’s National Recruitment Committee (Sanarcom), who denied a ban had been put in place. He only said that the chamber would prefer to work with a single association of placement agencies specializing in sending workers to Saudi Arabia.

Jumhur said Al-Badah expected this to improve the recruitment and placement process, which at present is done through three separate groups: the Association of Migrant Worker Service Companies (Apjati), the Association of Indonesian Labor Exporters (Himsataki) and the Indonesian Employment Agency Association (IDEA).

Rusdi Basalamah, the secretary general of Apjati, said there had been no formal confirmation from the Saudi authorities on the reported ban.

Sunarno, the director general for worker placement at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry in Jakarta, also said there had been no notification from the Saudi government of a ban.

According to the ministry, there are 367,719 Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia, 337,564 of whom are employed in the informal sector.

Rusdi also denied claims by the government that stricter recruitment guidelines were responsible for slashing the number of workers going to Saudi Arabia.

“There has been an 85 percent decline over the past four months of migrant workers wanting to go to Saudi Arabia, but that’s because of excessive media coverage of migrant workers being abused by their Saudi employers, not stricter procedures,” he said.

He added that placement agencies used to send an average of 17,000 workers to Saudi Arabia each month.

He also said claims by the government that both countries had imposed more stringent guidelines in light of recent problems with Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia were “untrue.”

Rusdi said there had been no significant changes in efforts by the Manpower Ministry or the BNP2TKI to tighten regulations on migrant workers.

“Nothing has progressed, especially at the BNP2TKI, and there are no changes toward better regulations,” he said. “It’s just business as usual.”

However, the Manpower Ministry said the stricter procedures it had imposed on worker recruitment were responsible for reducing the number of workers going to Saudi Arabia by 30 percent.

Sunarno said one of the new regulations was that anyone seeking to employ an Indonesian migrant worker must earn at least 10,000 riyals ($2,700) a month.

“This is an effort to improve the recruitment system and we’re imposing it until we settle on better conditions,” he said.

Related Article:

Saudi Arabia Suspends Recruitment of Indonesian Workers