"In the last two years, the agency had handled 80,099 troubled PMIs. Some 95 percent of them were deported from abroad because they were illegal," Rhamdani noted at a press conference in Jakarta, Tuesday.
In the same period, the agency also handled 3,060 sick PMIs and 1,459 PMIs that had died abroad, he stated.
The BP2MI head reminded that migrant workers, who violated the placement procedures, were prone to various risks, starting from the legal side, as they were illegally entering the territory of another country due to incomplete documents as workers.
"They can experience economic and social problems because they are prone to exploitation, physical violence, sexual violence, salaries that are not paid in full, and unilateral layoffs," Rhamdani stated.
Without a placement document, PMIs are also vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking by trading them from one employer to another.
Rhamdani stated that the BP2MI recently succeeded in thwarting the departure of 160 PMI candidates to Saudi Arabia after conducting an inspection of a shelter in Bekasi City, West Java, on September 29, 2022.
The placement is allegedly conducted by a company, whose license is currently being sanctioned by the Ministry of Manpower for the temporary suspension of activities regarding the prohibition of placing PMIs on individual users in countries in the Middle East region.
Rhamdani said his side continued to encourage synergy and collaboration with other parties, including the National Police and Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI), to prevent and handle the PMIs' illegal placement.
Apart from sanctioning the perpetrators of PMIs' illegal placements, the government must apply impoverishment for those who regulate the non-procedural departure of PMIs, he added.
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Translator: Prisca Triferna V, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
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