The Role of Government in Ensuring Justice for Migrant Workers

as a Victims of Brokering
Muhammad Iqbal Tawakkal
(8111417235) muhammadiqbaltawakkal29@gmail.com
International Undergraduate Program, Faculty of Law, Universitas Negeri Semarang

Abstract

The more people in a country will cause some fundamental problems, this is because
the greater the human population in a country will automatically make the needs that must
be met by the country more and more. When the state is unable to meet all the needs of its
people it will arise a variety of fundamental problems, one of which is the problem of
employment. The problem is the lack of available employment that forces people to seek
employment abroad. The state with its powers has the duty to make regulations on the
sending of workers abroad, and it is the duty of the Indonesian government to guarantee
the justice and the rights of Indonesian workers. However, in practice there are still many
villagers who do not know the rules and conditions made by the government, so they are
very vulnerable to become victims of brokering. These victims will then be treated and
exploited inhumanely because they have no sound legal basis. This is the work of home for
the government to be able to still guarantee the rights of its citizens as human beings who
have the right of nature. Although they are classified as illegal workers, that does not
mean depriving them of their status as human beings. So it is the duty of the government to
prevent its citizens from falling into the practice of brokering, if it is already the
government must have a regulation that contains the guarantee of justice of the victim
workers as a whole man.

Keyword: Migrant workers, brokering, justice guarantee, government role

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1. Introduction

Indonesia is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, due to the
population density, it will automatically arise some of the social problems that occur.
Quantity of human resources is very sufficient but in terms of human resource quality is still
far behind with other countries. From the problem membludaknya population is thus causing
many new problems are more complex. If we see from the number of population, then
Indonesia is one of the rich countries of the population so that it becomes the center of
economic activities and so on, but this population does not mean will always give a positive
impact on a country, the more in a country that means more needs to be fulfilled by the state
and individuals to continue their lives.

One of the main issues for densely populated countries is the lack of employment due
to the unbalance between employment and the rapidly growing population. This is further
exacerbated by the lack of public awareness of the importance of education to make them
skilled workers, not only because of the misfortune of the community, it is also due to the
lack of government's role in providing justice in the education world in Indonesia. Millions of
Workers from Indonesia are forced to work abroad, both legally and illegally, as a result
because the state is unable to meet their needs for employment. Malaysia and Saudi Arabia
are the main destinations for migrant workers, the majority of them run low-skill and un-
skilled jobs in dirty, difficult and dangerous categories in agriculture, construction and
households so that local communities are not wanted (Tjitrawati, 2017, p.54)

Given the problems of shortage of employment that then arise a need in the
community to seek employment abroad as Indonesian labor. Then the government saw the
desire of people to seek luck abroad, so the state will be helped to reduce the number of
unemployed. So the government as the authorities to provide facilities to people who want to
work overseas. This is where the beginning of the problems of employment in Indonesia.
Workers from Indonesia who work abroad are commonly referred to as migrant workers,
when they serve as overseas workers, there must be regulations designed to provide for the
protection of their rights as human beings and ensure justice for all Indonesians. Article 28D
of the 1945 Constitution provides that everyone is entitled to the equitable recognition,
guarantee, protection and legal certainty and equal treatment before the law and shall be

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entitled to receive fair and equitable remuneration and treatment in the employment
relationship (Ferricha, 2016, p.141).

The government as the authorities has made rules and regulations regarding matters
relating to employment in the written law, but in practice there are still many injustices felt
by the migrant workers, such as the violence experienced when they work outside country
and also one of the other cases is the protection of the right for the victim of brokers. In this
journal will be discussed about the roles of government and legal experts as regulators in
ensuring the rights of workers and membrikan legal protection fair.

2.Discussion
Understanding of Indonesian migrant workers

In this context the so-called migrant worker is no different from the definition of
labor, it's just that migrant workers work abroad. Definition of the concept of labor according
to Article 1 Sub-Article 2 of Law Number 13 Year 2003 concerning Employment is
Everyone who can perform a job to produce goods or services to meet their own needs as
well as community needs. As for migrant workers themselves is one of the parts called labor,
but they work abroad and do the work and get a salary in the country, as well as for the law in
the country also applies to it. However, the country of origin must still guarantee the rights of
its citizens working in the country. Referring to Article 27 of the 1945 Constitution, where
the point is to provide protection to every citizen who exercised his right to obtain
employment, especially work abroad, so that they obtain fast and easy placement of
employment services while maintaining good labor safety physical, moral, and dignity
(Armansyah, 2016, p.225)

Definition of Legal Protection

Every Indonesian citizen has the same right to get justice from the government, as
well as for those who work as laborers abroad. It is an obligation for the government to
provide legal protection to migrant workers, especially to those who are victims of violence
by their employers. Legal Protection According to Law Number 23 of 2004 in Article 1
paragraph (4) are all efforts aimed at providing a sense of security to victims committed by
the family, advocates, social institutions, police, prosecutors, courts or other parties, either
which is temporary or based on the determination of the court

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Main Issues of Employment Issues

Indonesia is one of the most populous countries, making Indonesia a country with
many migrant workers working abroad. This happens because there is an imbalance between
the number of jobs with a very rapid rate of population growth. By this unequal comparison
this causes more and more unemployment in Indonesia, only those who qualify will get
decent jobs. Finally, many Indonesian people who choose to work abroad to connect his life
and his family at home. Along with the growing trend of working abroad the growing illegal
practices in the process of sending workers abroad. A lot of victims are deceived by the lure
of some money and then they are willing to be sent illegally. Those who are sent illegally do
not have documents from the state so that they will have difficulty in terms of legal protection
because they are not legally guaranteed the right. This is what causes the many cases of
violence that occurred in Indonesian migrant workers. Poor women in rural and urban areas
are forced to choose to work abroad as domestic workers because of the opportunity to obtain
domestic work is limited without status, illegal immigrants are the target of exploitation. they
are in the hands of their employers and may be required to accept any work, as well as in
poor working and living conditions. They rarely seek justice for fear of being revealed and
expelled. In a recipient country with illegal status wages may be suppressed. On this issue,
the state can actually be considered to be discharging its responsibilities for allowing illegal
practices in the labor document process to continue and unable to avoid situations where
migrant workers are in long-term illegal status in the destination country (Kusniati, 2009,
p.47 ).

According to a survey from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) in 2016 the
population in Indonesia reached 255 million people with a percentage increase of 1.7% per
year. In 2016 the number of job seekers reached 16 million, but the number of employment in
Indonesia is not that much. So the way they go to stay working is to work abroad with a
relatively large salary but also with a very dangerous risk. There are 4 main problems that
occur to Indonesian migrant workers abroad namely: the pattern of employment relations
between employers and workers, the right to associate, minimum standards of wages
received, conflict (Hidayati, 2013, p.207).

We know that as stated in the 1945 Constitution states that Indonesia is a state of law
and every citizen is entitled to obtain equal justice before the law. Therefore it is an
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obligation for the government and law enforcement agencies to grant the rights that should be
obtained by every Indonesian citizen who is inside or abroad especially those Indonesian
migrant workers. As stated in Law no. 13 of 2003 on Manpower Chapter CHAPTER VI
Article 31 states that "Every worker has the same right and opportunity to elect, obtain or
move employment and earn a decent income at home or abroad"

Illegal labor migrants and human trafficking workforce still take place due to several
things namely, the first because of the many legal provisions so confusing and duplicate
arrangements and multitafsir that complicate the implementation, the second is the weak
supervision in line with the government structure, the third is the legal protection policy is
still not obviously especially in terms of pre-placement and post-placement, the fourth is that
there are still provisions relating to protection without sanctions (Prihatinah, Asyik, &
Kartono, 2012, p.313).

Indonesia's effort in the protection of migrant workers

The government has already made some regulations, but there is still a lot of unsettled
by the government so there are still many irresponsible people who use the innocence of the
people in the village. Uncertainty here can be seen clearly because these rights and
opportunities are sometimes misused by irresponsible parties, especially to workers who will
be employed or placed to work abroad, Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKI). There are so
many cases of brokering that occur in this case, such as violence before they go to the
destination country and in the end there will be neglect then they will be exploited inhumanly
in the country people. Various labor migration laws in Indonesia do not allow workers to
access justice. Much of the legal rights and obligations of law enforcement agencies are
lacking and law enforcement mechanisms, and the law does not emphasize the compensation
of migrant workers or the accountability of PPTKIS to prevent and indemnify migrant
workers (Farbenblum, Nicholson, & Paoletti, 2013, p .18)

The Government as an institution authorized to make the rules and regulations have done its
duty by making the Law in which regulate all matters concerning the protection of rights and
obligations of a worker of migrant workers from Indonesia, the government has also ratified
several international agreements between countries on the rules of this labor . There are
already many laws that are being made to resolve these cases but not happen again in the
future. However, there are still some regulations that are still deemed not to show a justice for

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migrant workers that is budgeted for the process of guaranteeing the rights of migrant
workers, while so large foreign exchange gains derived by the state due to the sending of
these workers abroad.

Indeed the government has done its duty to make the rules, but the government is still
considered not assertive in the enforcement process. So also with legal experts who still can
not really provide legal protection with its regulations. Similarly, Indonesian legal institutions
are still not assertive and tend to provide space for brokers to continue their investigation into
illegal smuggling and violence to prospective migrant workers who will leave. This is the
task for us as candidates for jurists and prospective stakeholders in legal institutions in
Indonesia to be able to create equitable and humanitarian law products, and to provide justice
without discriminating against each other, and to seek ways to combat illegal brokering or
smuggling practices requires migrants.

Solutions for Preventing Employment Problem

Governments as regulators and those in charge of government have full authority to

undertake a preventive settlement that positively impacts the solution of employment
problems and also has long-term impacts so as to minimize the problems experienced by
Indonesian workers abroad.
This employment problem stems from the rapidly expanding population and the rapid
growth of the occupation in Indonesia, so this can be solved by family planning programs.
The fundamental purpose of this family planning implementation is to realize the control of
the population so that the harmony and balance between the population and the environment
that includes the carrying capacity of nature, the capacity of the environment and the
development of economic, social and cultural conditions can be realized (Uwiyono, 2014,
p.34). With the reduced population growth it will reduce the number of people and
automatically will make the happiness between the number of employment with the number
of people who need jobs, so they do not need all the way to work overseas.In addition, the
government can also do an expansion program of job opportunities, with the number of job
opportunities available in Indonesia will reduce unemployment and the community does not
need to think to work in the country people. The fundamental objectives of this effort are the
realization of the right of employment and decent living for humanity, in accordance with
their talents, interests and abilities and equal distribution of employment opportunities and

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the provision of manpower in accordance with the needs of development (Uwiyono, 2014,
p.36).
Another program that can be done by the government is the Transmigration program
by doing the distribution of the population so that it will create new jobs and absorb the
workforce of Indonesia. The fundamental objective of this program is to improve the welfare
of transmigrants and accelerate development equity (Uwiyono, 2014, p.41).
The most important and the most medically important program to be undertaken by
the government is the educational equity and education system alteration program, thereby
increasing public awareness of the importance of learning to become a workforce with good
working ability so that they not only become workers, can create new jobs.

3. Conclusion
The government as the authorities has sought to guarantee the rights and obligations
of migrant workers by making laws relating to employment, but still many people who do not
know this rule diakrenakan lack of government role in socializing existing rules. This has an
impact on the vulnerability of violence and deprivation of rights to Indonesian migrant
workers. In legal protection, governments and legal institutions have done their best to apply
justice to all migrant workers. However, there are some obstacles that still need to be dealt
with like inter-state agreements that consent to the dispatch of labor, this makes the law in
Indonesia will not really be carried out properly abroad because they are also bound by the
law of the country.
It is expected that the government and legal institutions can be more assertive in terms
of legal protection and the rights and obligations of Indonesian workers, especially migrant
workers working in Indonesia. In addition we as a society must also continue to increase
awareness of the importance of knowing the problems that occur in Indonesia and also find
out what legal products that exist in Indonesia, so that we will become a punished society.

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