South Korea Reopens Door for Indonesian Migrant Workers

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah said that South Korean government has opened its doors to migrant workers and revoked the limitation of foreign workers willing to work in the East Asian country. The reopening also applies to the migrant workers placement under the scheme of Employment Permit System (EPS) for Indonesia.

"Today, Minister of Employment and Labour Ahn Kyung-deok decided to reopen and revoke the restriction to the number of migrant workers entering [the country] by considering the implementation of a quarantine before entering and after leaving South Korea," Minister Ida said in a written statement on Friday, November 5, 2021.

Ida said the efforts to re-employ Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) to Korea has been starting since July 2021, considering the decreasing number of Covid-19 positive rate in Indonesia.

Indonesia appreciates the South Korean government policy. According to Ida, the country has become one of the most favorite placement destinations for Indonesian migrant workers. The data shows that there are more than 10,000 Indonesian workers willing to enter Korea.

In 2019, 9,946 PMI made it to Korea. A year later, it decreased to 2,422 workers and kept decreasing to 2,290 in 2021.

Indonesian workers aiming to enter South Korea must bring vaccination sertificate and PCR test result which valid for 3 days or 72 hours, said a Manpower Ministry official, Suhartono, in his meeting with Lee Junho.

Suhartono said that if the workers are vaccinated with complete dose, two people may share one room in 10-day quarantine. Meanwhile, if they are yet to be vaccinated, the quarantine rule is one room for one person for 10 days.

Read: Minister: Indonesia's Economic Growth Higher than South Korea, Japan

Caesar Akbar