Muhaimin Iskandar.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government has decided to impose a moratorium on the dispatch of domestic helpers to Syria beginning August 9, 2011, a minister said.
Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said here on Tuesday that the government imposed the moratorium in an effort to provide the best services and protection for Indonesian migrant workers.
"After carefully studying the protection and welfare aspects of migrant workers in Syria, the government finally decided to impose a moratorium on the sending of house maids to that country," the manpower minister said.
He said that so far cases which befell and disadvantaged Indonesian domestic helpers in Syria had increased sharply. After all, the governments of Indonesia and Syria had yet to sign a memorandum of understanding on the placement and protection of workers.
The minister expressed hope that during the imposition of the moratorium all sides were expected to improve their worker placement and protection system so that undesired things that happened so far would not take place again.
Data at the ministry of manpower showed that in the January - July 2001 period, a total of 3,726 Indonesian migrant workers were sent to Syria.
The figure consisted of 284 workers to be placed in the formal sectors and 3,442 in the non formal sectors.
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