"Such agreements will provide protection for our migrant workers abroad and prevent violation of their rights," Nur Harsono, an activist of Migrant Care, said here on Tuesday.
Harsono made the statement in response to reports that a number of Indonesian workers abroad were facing various legal charges for criminal acts and heavy violations such as homicide and drugs.
About the 23 Indonesians in Saudi Arabia and around 300 more in Malaysia who were facing the death sentence, he said the government needed to actively conduct lobbies to obtain forgiveness or reduction of the their sentences.
Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his annual state address said the government had formed a task force specifically undertaking the crucial diplomatic missions to defend Indonesian workers involved in legal cases abroad.
"Thank God, despite the highly-challenging nature of the mission, since every country possesses its own system of justice, our efforts have come to show some results. A number of Indonesian citizens facing death penalty have been granted forgiveness and sentence reductions," he said.
Learning from the experiences and lessons, he said, onward the supervision towards the preparation and dispatching of Indonesian workers by the private employment recruitment agencies (PPTKIS) would be constricted in order to ensure that the workers about to be dispatched had thoroughly comprehend the law, rules and norms applied in the destination country.
In relation to bilateral agreement with destination countries, the president said the government continues to work on diplomacy and negotiation with the government of the friendly countries, so that through the right MoU, Indonesia Work Forces could truly receive a good protection and assurance of their rights as well as their justice.
He added current policy to halt the dispatch of Indonesian workers to Saudi Arabia was also aimed to increase protection and right-assurance of the work force abroad.
"Truth to be told, the decision is in line with the acceleration and broadening of Indonesia`s economic development that we will undertake within the next 15 years, we hope there will be more job opportunities at home so that our brothers and sister will no longer have to work in informal sectors and become maids abroad. This is very important as it has to do with our dignity and self esteem as a nation," he said.
(Uu.A051/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
