TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has found multiple problems in the insurance for Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) during its audit into TKIs’ placement and protection.
“We call for the evaluation of TKI insurance,” said BPK’s chief of public relations and international relations, Raden Yudi Ramdan Budiman, in his office on Wednesday.
Yudi said new TKIs leaving abroad were obliged to pay an insurance policy of Rp400,000 a year, while those extending their contracts were charged Rp170,000 annually.
There are at least three insurance companies dealing with TKIs at present, viz. Jasino, Askrindo and Mitra TKI, but none of them have representative offices overseas, thus forcing TKIs to return home everytime the want to caim their insurance payments. “This is troublesome,” Yudi said.
He added the insurance’s complex administration had resulted in problematic insurance claims for TKIs. “Last year, there were problematic insurance claims for TKIs worth Rp6.83 billion,” he said.
Thus, the BPK said revisions to regulations and agreements for TKIs were necessary to deal with these issues—including to address the overlapping roles of the Manpower Ministry and the Agency for the Placement and Protection of the Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) in taking care of TKIs.
Earlier, Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri called on insurance companies to facilitate the payments of TKIs’ insurance claims. “For other insurance companies, please ease the procedures so TKIs won’t face any problem,” he said in Ponorogo, East Java in late March.
PINGIT ARIA | NOFIKA DIAN NUGROHO (PONOROGO)