JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Kuwait has asked Indonesia to lift its moratorium on migrant workers export to the Middle Eastern country and is prepared to sign an agreement to ensure the workers welfare and safety, a senior manpower official said.
Kuwait’s request was conveyed by its ambassador to Indonesia, Nasser Bareh Al Enezi, at a meeting with Jumhur Hidayat, head of the National Agency for Placement and Protection of Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), on Friday.
Jumhur said in an electronic letter on Saturday, he had explained to the Kuwaiti envoy that Indonesia had stopped sending workers to Kuwait because Kuwait was considered unable to provide proper protection for migrant workers. Indonesia had also applied the moratorium to Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. But the Kuwaiti envoy for his part had stated his government had already prepared the draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in placement and protection of migrant workers with Indonesia for discussion and signing by the two parties.
According to Jumhur, the draft MoU Kuwait had prepared contained clauses on migrant workers’ minimum wages, payment of wages via banks, permission to the workers to own cellphones and weekly day-offs. He said the BNP2TKI had in 2007 raised the standard wages of migrant workers in Kuwait by 25 percent from USD 150 to USD 220.
"Of course, we will further study Kuwait’s draft MoU and also discuss it with other related agencies," he said.
At the meeting with the Kuwaiti envoy Jumhur also explained Indonesia’s program to promote the "live-out" system for migrant workers, meaning that the workers work at their employers’ homes but go home to dormitories elsewhere. This was meant to avoid problems that could arise if the workers stayed with their employers for 24 hours every day.
The Kuwati envoy at the meeting hoped that the two countries could discuss and sign the MoU on cooperation in placement and protection of Indonesian migrant workers as soon as possible. To that end, he said, a high-ranking Kuwaiti official would visit Indonesia in March 2012.
