A report in the Jakarta Post says the Indonesian Government wants the additional costs to be borne by Malaysian employers.
The report quoted the manpower ministry’s Indonesian Migrant Worker Management and Placement Director R Soes Hindharno as saying that Malaysia’s ‘new’ migrant worker policies would impose a heavier financial burden on Indonesian migrant workers.
“In principle, we want the additional costs that result from the new policies to be covered by their employers in Malaysia,” he said.
Malaysia implemented the policies, related to immigration, health and labour tax systems, two years ago, the Jakarta Post reported.
Hindharno admitted that the Indonesian government had not been aware of the “new” policies since the very beginning.
“We sent the letter asking the Malaysian Government to review the policies three weeks ago,” said Hindharno.
Because of the policies, he said, the cost to arrange visas had increased to Rp1.15 million (RM368) per person from Rp50,000 (RM160).
The Jakarta Post reported a member of the West Nusa Tenggara chapter of the Indonesian Labour Exporters Association, Muazzim Akbar, as saying the increases in migrant worker placement costs had led many in West Nusa Tenggara to take illegal routes to go to Malaysia.
“They now must pay Rp7.5 million (RM2,403) per person, far higher than the previous cost of between Rp4 million to Rp5 million, because of the regulations,” Muazzim was quoted as saying.