The global economic meltdown has slowly taken a toll on Indonesia as 250,000 of the country's migrant workers have returned home, exacerbating the already high jobless rate, a minister says.
Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said Wednesday the workers, who are mostly semi-skilled, had to leave for home early before their contracts expired as their employers were hit by the financial crisis.
"The cause is obviously the global economic downturn. Employers are facing financial problems due to sluggish demand," said Erman, adding the employing countries included Malaysia, South Korea, Hongkong and Middle Eastern countries.
He believed the return of these workers to Indonesia would severely add to the country's unemployment.
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), 9.43 million people were unemployed as of February this year. As the country has no social security for the jobless, it is estimated there are actually 40 million unemployed people.
These people are now working doing just about anything to make ends meet.
According to the National Commission for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), there are around 5.8 million Indonesian workers abroad, mostly in Malaysia and the Middle East.
In 2006, remittances from migrant workers reached around Rp 60 trillion (US$5 billion), providing an impressive contribution to incoming financial flows alongside foreign direct investment, according to BPN2TKI chairman Jumhur Hidayat recently.
Aside from overseas migrant workers, there are also indications of mass return of internal migrant workers into Java as a result of tumbling commodity prices forcing plantation companies in Kalimantan and Sumatra to scale down their workforce.
Java is Indonesia's key economic island, the center for all labor-intensive industries.
Erman said the government would try to limit the impact of unemployment by providing training for labor-intensive industries and by intensifying the internal transmigration program.
-- JP/Suherdjoko
