Indonesia And Japan Discuss Manpower, Produce 2 Migrant Worker Protection Schemes

Japanese flag illustration. (Pexels)

JAKARTA - Secretary General of the Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) Anwar Sanusi said, Indonesia and Japan have agreed to implement two schemes regulated in two cooperation documents related to the placement of Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) protection.

This was realized after the Ministry of Manpower received a visit from the Vice President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Kenichi Shishido, last Thursday, June 23.

"Through this meeting, I hope that the Ministry of Manpower and JICA can strengthen our cooperation and collaboration to restore conditions in the employment sector," Anwar said in a written statement, Friday, June 24.

Anwar explained that the cooperation between Indonesia and Japan is regulated in the Indonesia-Japan Economics Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) scheme, and the Specified Skilled Workers (SSW) scheme, based on the Indonesia-Japan Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC).

The SSW MoC scheme also stipulates that the PMI placement process in SSW is carried out under the Individual PMI scheme.

However, the Indonesian government proposed an amendment to the MoC to add a Private to Private (P to P) program as a new scheme.

Some of Indonesia's considerations in proposing an evaluation of the SSW MoC and the addition of a P to P placement scheme were, among others, due to a request from the Japanese private sector to involve the Indonesian private sector in the SSW PMI placement process.

"Then there are irresponsible individuals who carry out the PMI placement process from SSW and collect large amounts of money from PMI. Other considerations are also because the number of PMI SSW placements is not massive and new PMI entrants to Japan do not go through the on-line Job Market Information system facilitation. Line (GPA-OL)," said Anwar.

During the meeting, Anwar also said that Indonesia wanted to expand the field of cooperation in the tourism sector, especially in assisting the needs of international events, and increasing the placement of Indonesian skilled workers in several sectors.

"The Indonesian government also wants to conduct benchmarking as well as exchange information in order to decide on employers who meet the requirements in Japan to be approved in the official application for labor market vacancies for Indonesian citizens," he said.