VZCZCXRO5446
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #8182/01 1810305
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 300305Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6535
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 9678
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0922
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
ZEN/AMCONSUL SURABAYA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 008182 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM AMCONSUL SURABAYA 1726 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/IET, EAP/RSP, G/TIP 
ALSO FOR USAID ANE/SPOTS, ANE/SEA, IGAT/WID, DCHA/DG 
DEPT OF JUSTICE FOR ICITAP AND OPDAT 
DEPT PASS TO DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: NA 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ELAB EAID KJUS KCRM ID
SUBJECT: West Nusa Tenggara: Migrant Labor Exodus Creates 
Economic Gain but Causes Social Disruption 
 
Ref: A. JAKARTA 5081 (Notal - Document Fraud in Surabaya) 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The Indonesian province of West Nusa 
Tenggara (NTB)--comprising Lombok and neighboring Sumbawa-- 
is one of the leading sources of legal and illegal migrant 
workers leaving Indonesia, due to weak local economic 
conditions.  The exodus of NTB workers overseas is creating 
economic dependence on foreign remittances and producing 
high social costs in the impoverished province.  National 
policies for overseas workers have had the perverse effect 
of encouraging illegal overseas workers and has helped 
create a robust market for false documents.  The limited 
local government response is likely due to corruption and 
officials' financial involvement with overseas migrant 
worker (TKI) agencies recruiting locals for foreign 
employment.  That conflict of interest has allowed serious 
abuses of TKI workers and has contributed to a growing human 
trafficking problem.  A high profile trafficking case in 
2005 raised public awareness and anger surrounding 
trafficking, motivating East Lombok Regency politicians to 
enact regulations protecting TKI workers.  End Summary. 
 
West Nusa Tenggara's #1 Export - People 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) During a recent visit to Lombok, ConGen Surabaya 
Pol/Econoff spoke with local officials, NGOs, and legal 
experts regarding West Nusa Tenggara's (NTB) status as a 
major source of legal and illegal overseas workers and the 
growing problem of human trafficking.  The number of NTB 
residents looking for work abroad skyrocketed after the 
Asian Financial Crisis and the two terrorist bomb attacks in 
neighboring Bali decimated the area's nascent tourism 
sector, causing the closure of many hotels and the loss of 
thousands of jobs in the province.  In 2005, NTB became 
Indonesia's second biggest labor exporter sending more than 
42,000 "authorized" workers overseas (East Java Province is 
number one by a small margin but has ten times NTB's 4 
million residents).  The number of workers officially 
leaving NTB in 2005 was nearly double the 2004 total of 
24,000.  According to the Department of Manpower (Disnaker) 
statistics, 29,796 TKI from NTB headed to Malaysia (mainly 
men as manual laborers and women as domestic staff or other 
unskilled labor) and 8,986 to Saudi Arabia (mostly women 
working as domestics.)  Disnaker also reports demand for NTB 
workers is outpacing supply with 55,891 official requests 
for workers coming into the province.  Lombok-based NGOs 
that work on TKI worker protection issues estimate that 
there were an additional 8-13,000 "unauthorized" TKI which 
left NTB illegally in 2005, mainly to destinations in 
Southeast Asia and the Middle East.  The total of both legal 
and illegal workers adds up to nearly 2 percent of the 
population of the province who left to work overseas during 
¶2005. 
 
High Social Costs of Migration 
------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) As with TKI in other areas of Indonesia, those from 
NTB are poorly educated; according to Disnaker, 
approximately 80 percent of TKI from NTB have a junior high 
school education or less.  The rapid depletion of the NTB 
workforce is straining local society in what local NGOs 
describe as a "vicious cycle" of migrant work. Residents 
leave the province for one to three years to obtain money to 
support their families, and return with enough funds to 
temporarily raise their standard of living; however, most 
have little idea of how to budget these funds, and quickly 
run through the money, forcing another overseas journey. 
Generally considered a conservative Muslim area, NTB has 
increasing rates of child abuse and domestic violence, 
problems which most NGOs say are directly linked to migrant 
worker issues.  Another social cost of the wave of migrant 
workers is a soaring divorce rate.  There is a sharp 
increase in the instances of "divorce by mail", where a wife 
receives a divorce letter from her husband and ceases to 
receive any further financial support for the family.  With 
few job prospects locally, she is often forced to work 
overseas herself to support her children.  Local NGO leaders 
 
JAKARTA 00008182  002 OF 003 
 
 
lament the large number of NTB children being raised by 
maternal grandparents. 
 
TKI Overseas Workers - NTB's Growth Industry 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Foreign remittances generated by NTB workers have 
become a driving force in the provincial economy.  At USD 
425 per year, NTB has one of the lowest provincial per 
capita GDPs in Indonesia.  TKI workers remitted close to USD 
70 million to NTB in 2005, contributing over four percent of 
provincial GDP.  With the sharp increase in TKI in 2005, 
local officials expect remittances to double in 2006. 
Virtually all of the TKI come from the lowest economic 
strata of NTB society, making the impact of these funds even 
more pronounced.  The significance of remittances in the 
local economy creates a number of perverse incentives for 
local government officials and police.  In meetings with 
three local NGOs who provide assistance to TKI in NTB, they 
all commented that local corruption surrounding the business 
of TKI is rampant.  The head of the NTB Legal Aid Society 
(LBH APIK) added that some local government bureaucrats, 
especially Disnaker, accept bribes from TKI brokers to 
ignore some of their more dubious recruiting activities, or 
financially benefit from overseas workers by operating TKI 
employment agencies themselves.  The NTB provincial police 
force has taken a hands-off approach to regulating 
recruitment or treatment of TKI and is implicated by locals 
as frequently a part of the problem. 
 
¶5. (SBU) There are now 156 TKI overseas employment agencies 
officially registered with Disnaker in NTB.  However, there 
are hundreds more unregistered agents operating illegally in 
the province.  Several NGO contacts in Lombok told 
Pol/EconOff that this network of unregistered brokers 
operates "like mafia" taking advantage of the surge in 
residents seeking work overseas.  Since few workers seeking 
overseas work are educated or have any experience with 
government procedures, most TKI have no idea which of the 
agents are legitimate and if the procedures they are asked 
to follow are legal.  Many TKI are willing to go overseas 
illegally, fearing they cannot meet GOI age or education 
requirements to obtain a legal permit for overseas work. 
Many workers traveling illegally are under-age girls.  False 
documents are generally procured in Jakarta for illegal 
workers traveling to the Middle East and in Surabaya for 
workers headed to Southeast Asia. 
 
False Documents In High Demand Due To GOI Policies 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The GOI has imposed significant restrictions on 
overseas workers headed to the Middle East.  Ministerial 
Decree #204/MEN/1999 stipulates that all workers headed to 
the Middle East may only do so if issued special passports 
only available in Jakarta.  This decree creates a 
significant barrier for residents outside of Jakarta to 
obtain a Middle East worker permit using legal documents and 
has contributed to the growth of the document fraud industry 
in Indonesia.  To date, ConGen Surabaya has identified 16 
document fraud operations in East Java alone (Reftel), many 
run and supplied by Indonesian immigration officials.  These 
operations use real passport stock, original software, and 
printers to essentially issue an original Indonesian 
passport.  These "original but false" (aspal) documents are 
widely used by TKI in NTB as well as from other provinces. 
The head of the Panca Karsa Foundation (PCF) based in 
Lombok, the largest NGO assisting TKI in NTB, estimates 60 
percent of NTB foreign workers leave Indonesia on aspal 
documents.  Many TKI agents in NTB are little more than 
middlemen, recruiting for large TKI agencies in Jakarta and 
Sumatra.  The local agents view the process of officially 
obtaining a permit and travel documents as protracted, 
overly complicated, and subject to illegal levies.  They 
send the workers off to transit destinations where they can 
be more efficiently documented, usually with aspal 
documents, and sent abroad. 
 
High Percentage of TKI Face Problems 
 
JAKARTA 00008182  003 OF 003 
 
 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) The director of the Panca Karsa Foundation outlined 
the extent of the problems NTB TKI face.  PCF was referred 
3,336 cases of "TKI problems" by the victims and their 
families during the six months from December 1, 2005 through 
May 31, 2006.  These cases ranged from workers not receiving 
the jobs or salaries they were promised, to torture and rape 
by employers and employment agents.  They are currently 
working with 73 human trafficking victims. (Note: Our NGO 
contacts indicate that the number of trafficking cases 
reported to the NGOs and police is lower than they real 
figure because there is reluctance among victims to report 
their cases due to a lack of strong evidence, complex 
process/procedure, and cultural factors. The victims are 
also reluctant to report the case if the traffickers 
(brokers) are members of their own families.)  PCF's 
director estimates that three or four times as many TKI are 
victimized during their transit or employment tenure but 
they are too afraid or embarrassed to report the crimes. 
LBH APIK handles legal cases for trafficking victims 
directed at local perpetrators.  A notable case occurred in 
mid 2005 in Krukah subdistrict, East Lombok Regency. Two 12 
year old girls escaped involuntary captivity and were 
referred to LBH APIK.  They complained that they had given 
USD 320 to a TKI agency that promised them jobs as domestic 
workers abroad.  They said that the agents held them captive 
and raped them and that the agents had many other girls. 
LBH APIK notified the police, who conducted a raid.  Fifty- 
five other young girls were being held captive and subjected 
to rape and torture.  The perpetrators were arrested, 
eventually convicted of defrauding the girl's parents of the 
placement fees and sentenced to only nine months in prison. 
Local NGOs are convinced, but have no evidence, that local 
judges were bribed to limit the conviction and sentences. 
 
Local Government Finally Responds 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Local government's response to the social and legal 
issues surrounding the outflux of residents as TKI has been 
to encourage as many people as possible to work overseas. 
Many local leaders see only the regional revenue and 
personal economic benefits of this new "natural resource," 
ignoring the social costs of the exodus.  However inadequate 
the sentence was for the convicted Krukah traffickers, NGOs 
see the case as a victory.  It was the first time police 
raided a TKI agency and arrested human traffickers.  More 
importantly, the local community responded to the abuses 
highlighted by this crime and the lack of governmental 
response with indignation and calls for action.  With the 
help of LBH APIK, the East Lombok Regency DPRD recently 
approved local regulations (perda) specifically designed to 
protect local TKI.  The perda must still be ratified by the 
local parliament prior to implementation.  LBH APIK hopes to 
use the perda as a model for the other regencies in NTB to 
implement local level protection for their workers. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) While there will likely be little impetus to tackle 
the social issues raised by the overseas workers "industry", 
especially give the economic gain, we are now seeing a 
growing awareness of that lack of legal protections for TKI 
has made them vunerable to illegal TKI recruitment agencies, 
corrupt agencies officials and human traffickers. Our NGO 
contacts hope to build on the recent attention the Krukah 
case has focused on the issue and work with local government 
agencies to improve protections for the tens of thousands of 
residents that leave each year.  Better yet, they stress, 
would be national level action, in particular regulations 
regarding government officials involved in private 
employment agencies.  Increasing public, police and 
political awareness of the existence and prevalence of human 
trafficking in the province could bring positive changes in 
attitudes needed to combat this problem. 
 
PASCOE