Gov’t to Provide Pre-Employment Card Program for Migrant Workers Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziah delivers her press statement after attending a Limited Cabinet Meeting through a video conferencing, Thursday (30/4). (Photo by: PR / Ibrahim).

The Government has announced it will provide the Pre-Employment Card program for Indonesian migrant workers through labor-intensive programs.

As of 26 April 2020, Ministry of Manpower reported that there are 88,759 Indonesian Migrant Workers who had returned from neighboring Malaysia and Singapore as well as from Hong Kong. In May, as many as 16,812 workers are expected to return home.

According Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziah, the Government will include Indonesian migrant workers as recipients of unemployment benefits through the Pre-Employment Card program.

“Ministry of Manpower continues to coordinate with Indonesian migrant worker placement companies (P3MI) to enable the workers to independently register themselves. We will submit the data of Indonesian Migrant Workers to the Project Management Office,” Ida told reporters, Thursday (30/4).

Ministry of Manpower, she added, will also coordinate with employment agencies regarding Indonesian Migrant Workers in the regular program.

“We will provide the workers who have returned with several regular programs, including productive labor-intensive program, infrastructure intensive work, offline-training programs,” the Minister said.

“Insyaallah, we can accommodate around 223,035 participants through several programs to expand employment opportunities as well as vocational training programs in training centers,” the Minister added.

The Government has also suspended the departure of 34,644 Indonesian migrant workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic; thus, the placement of migrant workers overseas is temporarily postponed. (MAY EN)

Translated by: Syarifah Aisyah
Reviewed by: M. Ersan Pamungkas