TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - It is a fact that foreign workers have spread to industrial zones all over the country.

The government should do something because this phenomenon shows that there is something wrong with the permit and monitoring system of foreign workers so far.

At the beginning of this year, we were startled with the raid done by Bogor immigration officers to a mining worker barrack in Cigudeg, Bogor regency.

The officers came after receiving information on the increasing number of foreign workers working at the C mining company.

Those workers were not only found at the office but also at the mining sites.

Dozens of workers without visas in accordance with their presence at the location were arrested with the conviction that there are more foreign workers hiding inside the forest of the industrial zone.

Some of those who were arrested have different skills with the permits they proposed. For example, they claimed to be experts but it turned out that they were only blue-collar workers. There were also some workers who only had business and tourist visas.

Previously, immigration officers also came to a smelting iron plant in Cileungsi and arrested 18 foreign workers with the same reason.

In Serang Baru, Bekasi regency, at least nine illegal foreign workers have also been proven to be hiding behind the fence of their company. Among them were given permit to enter Indonesia as a director, but it turned out they were only blue-collar workers.

This raises a question: how has the monitoring system work so far?

Regional government may no longer throw the monitoring responsibility to the central government.

We must not also calculate benefits from the taxes of extending the permit, which in Bekasi regency, for example, can reach tens of billion rupiahs. But look at the people around the companies. So many remain poor because the companies do not employ manpower from the local areas. Not the mention the benefits of transfer of technology that is missing.

Regulation of the Minister of Manpower states that every permit for foreign workers must be accompanied with transfer of technology or competence to local workers. The same regulation also notes that regional governments have the monitoring role.

Every company who obtains permits to employ foreign workers must report it to regional governments after seven days. Regional government can also ask the central government not to extend the permits.

So, there’s no reason for regional governments to claim they not data on the number of foreign workers in the respective regions.

It is very difficult if the monitoring only relies on a team to control foreign people that have been done so far.

They work based on the information from the people.

In fact, locations of industries can be spread to remote areas in the country.

It would be a different story if agencies in the regional government have a mapping of foreign workers that is always updated, then take the initiative to do periodical monitoring. That way, there will be no more surprises of illegal foreign workers hiding in the forests.

(*)