PMI Shooting Response, News Of Earth Urges MoA RI-Malaysia

The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repatriated the body of an Indonesian citizen who died as a victim of a shooting by the Malaysian Maritime Authority Agency (APMM) in Malaysia, the late Basri, (ANTARA).

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Migrant Workers' extended family organization (Kabar Bumi) urges the Indonesian government to increase diplomatic efforts to achieve a memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Malaysia to protect Indonesian migrant workers (PMI).

"So, our recommendation is from Kabar Bumi to the government if it can carry out diplomacy more than MoU, but MoA, Memorandum of Agreement," said Head of Bumi Iweng Karsiwen News to ANTARA in Jakarta, Saturday.

The statement was made in response to the shooting incident of five PMIs by the Malaysian Maritime Authority Agency (APMM) which killed one person and injured four others.

Iweng said the problem of violence experienced by Indonesian migrant workers was quite complex and wide, especially in Malaysia.

Moreover, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that has been signed by the Malaysian and Indonesian governments so far is also not very effective.

Therefore, the Earth News encourages the government to increase diplomatic efforts to reach the MoA agreement, which according to him, has binding legal force and can be accounted for in the event of a violation.

"So, in my opinion, this is a lesson for the Indonesian government to make agreements that can bind to convince the Malaysian government to carry out the agreement. Then, secondly, how the Malaysian government also implements policies that also protect the rights of migrant workers," he said.

The encouragement was conveyed considering that the data he obtained showed that there were more than 200 coffins sent from Malaysia to NTT every year.

He also noted that so far there have been a lot of rights that PMI does not get in Malaysia, ranging from those who do not get a salary, long working hours, to not being able to take a day off.

Meanwhile, coinciding with the revision of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Act (UPPMI) in the Indonesian Parliament, Iweng also encouraged the government to improve policies as well as maximize protection for PMI.

"So, this can be maximized because there are some articles in this UPPMI that do not exist specifically criminal sanctions, many are still administrative sanctions against placement companies," he said.

In addition, Kabar Bumi also encourages infrastructure improvement in the regions so that it makes it easier for people who want to work abroad in managing the documents they need so that they are not trapped as non-procedural migrant workers.