"They need to be careful with the phenomenon concerning the prevalence of human trafficking cases, especially through migrant workers' recruitment," Secretary of the ministry Pribudiarta N. Sitepu said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
"Human traffickers currently not only target people with low education, but they also target people with skills and high education," he observed during the send-off event for 300 migrant workers to South Korea under a G-to-G (government-to-government) placement program on Monday.
The state is responsible for the protection of migrant workers working abroad, whether they find employment through the G-to-G placement program, Indonesian migrant worker placement companies (P3MI), or individual placement, Sitepu said.
Such protection is provided starting from before placement, during placement, and until the time Indonesian migrant workers return to Indonesia after placement, according to Sitepu.
The ministry has expressed the hope that Indonesian migrant workers leaving for South Korea would work well and have their rights met while working overseas.
The ministry said that it expects good communication between the PPPA Ministry and the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) in carrying out synergy on programs and activities to protect migrant workers from human trafficking.
"Human trafficking eradication should be done from upstream to downstream, starting from prevention program strengthening so that people become highly aware and are not easily trapped into human trafficking," Sitepu said.
While sending off the 300 migrant workers to South Korea, BP2MI head Benny Rhamdani described the workers as heroes who contribute thousands of trillions of foreign exchange to the country and stressed that they must be protected.
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Translator: Anita Permata D, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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