A total of 68 Indonesian migrant workers have submitted their complaints about 24 P3MIs (regarding the overcharging case).
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) will revoke the permits of Indonesian migrant worker placement companies (P3MI) that are proven to have overcharged migrant workers (PMIs).

"BP2MI has asked the P3MI to resolve the overcharging cases in two weeks," BP2MI Head Benny Rhamdani informed here on Friday.

He said that his agency is currently preparing a mechanism and standard operating procedure (SOP) to revoke the permit, which is called the SIP2MI.

The attempt is being conducted in accordance with BP2MI’s authority, which is regulated by Law Number 18 of 2017 Article 47 Letter a Point 2, namely on issuing and revoking SIP2MI, he added.

The BP2MI head said that his agency will also send a recommendation letter to the Manpower Ministry to revoke the SIP2MI of companies that have not completely resolved the overcharging cases within two weeks from June 16, 2023.

"BP2MI will also report the case to the Indonesian Police," he said.

A number of corporations have been reported to have charged excessive fees to migrant workers, especially those working in Hong Kong, he added.

"A total of 68 Indonesian migrant workers have submitted their complaints about 24 P3MIs (regarding overcharging)," Rhamdani noted.

He said that his agency has tried to clarify and mediate complaints. Currently, 17 migrant workers have completed their mediation with 15 P3MIs.

Furthermore, 34 other PMIs are being mediated with 10 companies, while complaints from 17 workers about four P3MIs have not been handled.

The BP2MI head continued that his party has asked state-owned bank PT Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) to not provide any unsecured debt facilities to three companies, which are suspected to have continued to charge excessive fees from migrant workers while the cases were still ongoing.

He informed that the three companies are PT Dwi Tunggal Jaya Abadi, PT Sukma Karya Sejati, and PT Sumber Tenaga Kerja Remaja Abadi.

Rhamdani said that each of the PMIs lost about Rp25 million to Rp40 million (US$1.66 thousand to US$2.66 thousand) due to overcharging.

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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Uyu Liman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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