VIVAnews - The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reminded all countries worldwide, including Indonesia, to increase protection of their migrant workers.
This could be set out by revising policies and regulations involving the migrant workers.
The improvement of the lives of migrant workers, according to UNDP, could be beneficial for human development. The forms of improvement may include reducing obstacles in migrations and amending treatments given to the workers.
“The advantages of migration, both within and between countries, could be advanced by reforming national and international policies,” the main writer of UNDP’s 2009 Human Development Reports, Jeni Klugman, said in a press release on Monday, October 5.
UNDP representative in Indonesia, El-Mostafa Benlamih, said migration has been taking parts in Indonesia’s lives and history for centuries. However, he said migration does not always run properly.
Migration problems, Benlamih continued, especially involve human rights protection, illegal migrants and human trafficking. “The government should overcome these problems. There must be a policy that oversees everything which could be achieved by ratifying the convention on Migrant Workers Protection that was signed in 2004,” he said.
UNDP Democratic Administration Unit Head for Indonesia, Rizal Malik, said the revisions of policies on migrant workers could help escalating the Human Development Index (HDI). HDI is a long-term human development measurer. HDI is based on three elements which are life expectancy, access to literacy level-based knowledge and the number of formal education applicants.
Another criteria assessed by the UNDP is life quality. This is known from the gross domestic product (GDP) and people’s purchasing power in US Dollars. Data for every indicator is obtained from UN Population Division, UNESCO and the World Bank. HDI is on a scale of 0 to 1.
This year Indonesia ranks 111 out of 182 countries in HDI’s list. Indonesia’s HDI is 0.734 which makes it fall under the category of developing countries.
Among other South Asian countries, life quality in Indonesia is still under Singapore which fills the 23rd position (HDI 0.944), Brunei (30th position/HDI 0.920), Malaysia (66th position/ HDI 0.829), Thailand (86th position/ HDI 0.783) and the Philippines (105th position/ HDI 0.751). However, Indonesia has a higher HDI than Vietnam (116) and Laos (133).
Malik also said the people are the core of HDI measurement. “HDI is a way to uncover human potential, increase options and human capacity,” he said. “The factors include freedom to choose places to live and work”
In Indonesia, Malik said the government should be able to guarantee the transparency of income earned by the migrant workers.
"The government should also fix coordination among state institutions with the Indonesian National Migrant Workers Protection and Placement Agency (BNP2TKI), establishing regional cooperation with ASEAN countries and ratify the Migrant Workers Protection Convention,” Malik said.
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Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
