Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, speaking at a session of the 100th ILO conference here on Tuesday, said "We must support the ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers which I believe will be adopted by the world labor conference."
Yudhoyono said there were around 150 million migrant workers recorded across the world. He said these workers played an important role in the current era of social justice.
He said no country should ignore the contribution of migrant workers to the world labor market.
"We in Indonesia call them heroes in respect to their hard work for the welfare of their families," he said.
President Yudhoyono is optimistic the ILO Convention could provide guidance on the need for the recipient countries to protect the workers especially those working in the domestic sector.
"This is a very important issue for Indonesia because the large portion of the country`s migrant workers abroad work in the domestic sector," he said.
In connection with that he said Indonesia had taken administrative as well as legal measures to protect and empower its migrant workers.
He said Indonesia would continue to cooperate with a number of countries to realize it especially in terms of wage and days off.
The Indonesian president was one of the heads of government/state giving a speech at the conference.
President Yudhoyono delivered his speech after Finland`s President Tarja Kaarina Halonen.
His speech would later be followed by that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.
Each head of state/government presented his/her view linked to the theme of the 100th conference which is "Building a Future with Decent Work."
(SYS/H-YH/B003)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
