Hundreds of Thousands of Migrant Workers Face Legal Problem
Sunday, 11 February, 2007 | 11:16 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Manpower Minister Erman Suparno and Chief of the Indonesian Police General Sutanto signed an agreement aimed at protecting Indonesian migrant workers on Monday morning (02/12).

This agreement was made after the Department of Manpower discovered that hundreds of thousands of Indonesian migrant workers were prone to legal problems.

“Quantitatively, the amount of workers having legal problems has decreased. However, the quality has increased,' said Erman when giving an opening speech at the Indonesian Police Headquarters.

He revealed that there were 26 migrant workers this year who have been sentenced to death.

Fifteen of them, illegal migrant workers working in Malaysia, were accused of being narcotics and drugs dealers.

In fact, said Erman, they were all proved of having been forced to get involved in dealing by narcotics syndicates.

“Currently, nine people have been freed and we are attempting to free the rest of them,” he said.

Yophiandi