Govt Urged to Form Supervisory Task Force on Foreign Workers

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives (DPR) urged the government to immediately form a supervisory task force on foreign workers as to prevent the emergence of illegal labors.

“We have suggested the government to establish the task force as to monitor, inspect, and review the uproar in the employment issue of unskilled foreign workers,” said the House’s Commission IX deputy speaker Ichsan Firdaus in Warung Daun, Central Jakarta today, April 28.

The recommendation, Ichsan said, has been issued in the work meeting of Commision IX with the Manpower Ministry a few days ago. It concluded that the government should form the task force three months since the meeting took place considering the Presidential Decree No. 20/ 2018 on Foreign Workers will be valid by June 2018.

Read: Jokowi Comments on Foreign Workers Uproar

Ichsan mentioned that the government has already formed Expatriate Monitoring Team (Timpora) under Immigration Directorate General. However, the team did not fully monitor the foreign workers and the authority was limited.

“The immigration authority is limited on the office that could not reach the region [to conduct monitoring],” said Ichsan, adding that the team only had a few members of 1,500 people.

Ichsan went on to say that the task force later will be under the management of Manpower Ministry, involving the Ministry’s officials, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), National Police, Immigration Ministry’s officials, and other related institutions as well as Timpora members.

“We expected the task force will specifically handle the issue of foreign workers since it is a chronic problem over the years,” Ichsan asserted.

ZARA AMELIA