The Indonesian government’s protection of its migrant domestic workers

Abstract EN

Working or getting a job is a human need, as well as Indonesia which is dealing with employment opportunity problem.

The large population of Indonesia, has contributed to the surplus of workforces, combined with scarcity of jobs at home, has led numbers of Indonesians to seek job abroad.

In general, they work in formal and informal sectors.

Jobs in formal sector are filled by professional workers who receive adequate training or education, while those in non-formal sector are mostly filled by women domestic workers.

In formal sector, the workers tend to have fewer employment-related problems because they know well their rights and obligations while, in non-formal sector, the workers who are mostly uneducated, untrained, and partly illegal tend have various types of problems, ranging from the most simple to the most serious, or even life-threatening problems.

Therefore, workers in this non-formal sector deserve more protection.

The mandate of the 1945 Indonesian constitution, one of which states that every citizen shall have the right to work and to a living befitting human beings (Article 27 D Paragraph 2).

In addition, Law No.

39/2004 also obligates the Indonesian government’s protection for migrant workers.

This law defines protection for migrant workers as pre-placement, placement, and post-placement.

This paper focuses on Indonesian government’s protection of migrant workers, especially women migrant domestic workers (TKI- PLRT).