Migrant Workers’ Exploitation Begins in Passport-Making Process
Middlemen’s exploitation of prospective migrant workers remains. It is alleged to have started in the passport-making process. Middlemen manipulate the prospective migrant workers’ personal information, making it difficult to protect them.
A number of workers deported from Malaysia leave the Indonesian Manpower Employment and Protection Service Post (P4TKI) at Pelindo I port of Dumai City, Riau, on Tuesday (24/4/2018). Up to 197 problematic Indonesian workers, who had just completed their sentence, and two babies were deported home by the Malaysian Government from Melaka and Port Dickson via Dumai Port.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Passport-making services are allegedly where exploitation of Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) occurs the most. Prospective TKIs often pay 10 times the official fee in processing their passports, both at immigration offices and one-stop integrated service posts (LTSA). Consequently, TKIs’ personal information in their passports are often different from those in their other forms of identification, making it difficult for state agencies to protect them.
The special passport-making fee for TKIs is set at Rp 55,000 (US$3.90) due to government subsidies. However, middlemen mark the fee up almost tenfold, with TKIs often having to pay up to Rp 500,000.