The migrant workers had to return home since the industries in which they had been working were closing down because of the crisis, the minister said here Wednesday.
Apart from migrant workers who had to repatriate, at least 27,000 others had been laid off and 14,000 recommended for dismissal by their employers as a consequence of the crisis.
The dismissals or layoffs were the impact of the global economic crisis which had caused a reduction of 30 to 40 percent in export earnings.
He said the government was making some efforts to deal with the crisis, namely providing stimuli to labor-intensive industries, fiscal incentives especially for workers to encourage industrial sector growth through a smallholder’s business credit facility (KUR).
“The fiscal incentives for workers come in the form of tax dispensation for workers who receive minimum wages of 1.5 million rupiah (RM3,129)per month. They account for 87 percent of the total number of workers up to now,” he said.
He admitted the migrant workers who had returned to Indonesia would increase the number of unemployed people in the country.
