"We have coordinated with the Indonesian consulate general there and it was concluded she was merely a victim and not a drug trafficker," he said after a meeting with House Commission IX here on Wednesday.
He said the government would make every possible effort to help reduce her sentence.
Nur Bidayati (38), a migrant worker from Wonosobo, Central Java, was caught red-handed by Chinese police carrying one kilogram of heroin at the International Baiyun airport in Guanzhou in December 2008.
She is now staying at the local jail waiting for a ruling on her appeals.
The minister said to prevent a similar case from happening again in the future he would improve the education curriculum for would-be migrant workers to include two important lessons.
"The first is about how to avoid being used by a drug ring and the second is for improving their knowledge of laws and how to defend their right so that they would not be easily used by others," he said.
Nur Bidayati was a migrant worker sent by private manpower supplier PT Dinding Berikat in February 2008 and placed in Hong Kong.
After working for eight months in Hong Kong she was fired by her employer. However she was not then sent back home but was even returned to the agency in Hong Kong which then sent her to China.
The minister quoted low education as one of the factors causing her to be easily deceived and unable to fight for her right.
"Most of our migrant workers are innocent. They easily agree when someone ask them to help carry his/her bag later found to be of illegal drugs. Of course some are indeed naughty," he said.
Muhaimin said he had "complained" to the education minister about manpower conditions in the country that show 51 percent of Indonesian workers are elementary school leavers.
"The education minister has pledged he would reduce the rate up to 20 percent by 2012," he said.
The minister said he hoped with the improvement in the education of the country`s workers later no case like becoming a victim of a drug ring or an illegal worker would be seen again.(*)
H-YH/HAJM/A014
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
