Providing better economic protection to Indonesian migrant workers

Indonesian migrant workers and their families need to have a good understanding about the financial implications of migration, including the earnings, costs and deductions inherent in placement and employment overseas, as well as hazards and conditions. Financial education plays an important role in enabling Indonesian migrant workers and their families to administer, save and invest the earnings which migrant workers remit to their families on a regular basis throughout their employment overseas.

Press release | Jakarta, Indonesia | 19 March 2012

JAKARTA (ILO News): Indonesian migrant workers and their families need to have a good understanding about the financial implications of migration, including the earnings, costs and deductions inherent in placement and employment overseas, as well as hazards and conditions. Financial education plays an important role in enabling Indonesian migrant workers and their families to administer, save and invest the earnings which migrant workers remit to their families on a regular basis throughout their employment overseas.

As an effort to provide better protection and empowerment to Indonesian migrant domestic workers, the International Labour Organization (ILO), in collaboration with SmartFM Network, a leading radio station in Jakarta, will organize the second forum on migrant workers, “Providing Better Economic Protection to Indonesian Migrant Workers”, on Tuesday, 20 March 2012, at Upper Room, Annex Building, Wisma Nusantara Complex, Jakarta.

The goal of this Forum is to discuss the financial implications of migration faced by the Indonesian migrant workers as an effort to generate better policy recommendations and developments for strengthening the protection of migrant workers and their families. The Forum is also aimed to share best practices on the empowerment of Indonesian migrant workers and their families during the reintegration stage.

The Forum will be divided into two sessions. The first session will highlight the significance of the financial implications of migration, in particularly concerning costs and deductions inherent in placement and employment overseas presented by the representatives from relevant ministries and institutions. The second session will share best practices on the empowerment of Indonesian migrant workers and their families after their return home based on livelihoods and entrepreneurship activities conducted by the ILO and its implementing partners.

The Forum is part of the series of migrant workers forums that are held on a Tuesday for three weeks in March 2012. The first forum was conducted on 13 March on policy development concerning migrant workers; while the final forum will be conducted on 27 March 2012, raising issues on the vulnerabilities of migrant workers to HIV and AIDS. The Forums are aimed to raise the awareness of both public and targeted policy makers to comprehensively protect migrant workers through a national strategy of advocacy.

The Forums are conducted by the ILO through its Combating Forced Labour and Trafficking of Indonesian Migrant Workers Project. Funded by the Government of Norway, the Project aims to strengthen the protection of migrant workers against trafficking and forced labour practices as well as empower them financially to provide financial alternatives to hazardous overseas labour conditions and migration practices.

The Forum will be attended by around 75 representatives from Government, trade unions, employers’ organizations, academia, civil society and mass media.

For further information please contact:

Albert Y. Bonasahat
The ILO’s Programme Coordinator on Migrant Workers
Tel.: +6221 3913112 ext. 125
Email

Gita Lingga
Media Officer
Tel.: +6221 3913112 ext. 115
Email