By: M. Dinata *)
Indonesian migrant workers in Brunei Darussalam will soon get a better protection as a migrant worker. Indonesian Minister of Manpower and Transmigration, Hanif Dhakiri, will lobby Brunei’s government to make an agreement about the minimum salary, duty days in a week, a maximum working hours and other “normative rights”.
As a part of Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, delegation on 7-8 February 2015, Mr. Hanif Dhakiri also listened to some complaints voiced by the Indonesian worker about labour exploitation, unpaid wages, debt bondage and passport confiscation. “We hope that we can sign the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) soon. We just underwent a political transition in Indonesia after the presidential election… That’s why we need some time to bring this issue forward,” Mr. Dhakiri said.
Mr. Dhakiri has set up a joint work group to discuss and determine any issues that should be written in the MoU, after that they will held a discussion with Brunei’s Ministry of Home Affairs. This will be one of the key of Indonesia-Brunei relationship, because Brunei Darussalam has become a place to live for more than 70.000 Indonesian migrant workers.
Eventhough Indonesian workers have a better treatment and working condition in Brunei Darussalam, compared with other neighbour countries such as Malaysia and Singapore (based on non-governmental organisations data), but migrant worker still become a major political issues in Indonesia. It is because of many Indonesian migrant workers often become a victim of mental and physical abused by their employers, even in many cases they forced to give their passport in order to prevent them from escaping.
*)The Author Is Brunei Darussalam Contributors
