The 1945 Constitution mandates state protection for all Indonesian people, including migrant workers. Wajid Fauzi, Indonesian Ambassador to Syria, who is a doctoral candidate in Administrative Sciences, Postgraduate Program, Faculty of Administrative Sciences UI, said that the state needs to protect them because of the high-risk occupations.
“They work because of pull factors in the host country. One of the pull factors in host countries is the opportunity to work abroad as an unskilled workforce that is often not pursued by local people. The quality of their work is usually categorized into 3D (dirty, dangerous, and difficult). Therefore, the state must protect them,” said Wajid.
The governance policy for the protection of migrant workers in Law No. 18 in 2017 is considered very revolutionary. This policy changes and improves the previous governance in Law No. 39 in 2004, that what was initially business-oriented became protection-oriented. Nevertheless, Wajid notices there are still many problems faced by migrant workers, such as the practice of brokers during recruitment, training that does not align with regulations and coordination problems between stakeholders.
In his research “Implementation of Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Governance Policies”, Wajid analyzed how to implement policies and the factors that influence them, and as a means to formulate directions for improving policy implementation. This study found that the implementation of governance policies for the protection of Indonesian migrant workers was not fully implemented according to the Law.
“Several mandates of the Law have been implemented, such as the implementation of exemption from placement fees, the establishment of One-Stop Integrated Services, and social security. However, there are still regulations that have not been completed until now. The law mandates a time limit of 2 years for the formulation of implementing regulations. The role of regional governments in preparing budgets, registration, and training is not yet optimal. So there are still many migrant workers who take non-procedural practices,” said Wajid.
Three factors influence Indonesian migrant worker protection policies. First, the characteristics of the problem, the indicator is the behavior of migrant workers who choose the non-procedural practice. Second, policy characteristics, including the availability of funding resource allocation, hierarchical integration between implementing agencies, and clarity of implementing regulations. Third, the policy environment. The commitment of high leadership is the main factor in implementing migrant worker protection policies.
Therefore, this research formulates alternatives to improve policy implementation by referring to the concept of network governance from Bovaird and Loeffler (2016). Implementation improvements ensure the commitment of the highest leadership at every level. Implementing regulations must be finalized immediately and the socialization needs to look carefully at the quality so the migrant workers can avoid non-procedural practices. In addition, supervision and law enforcement must be implemented for perpetrators of negligent protection.
Wajid succeeded in becoming the 40th doctorate in Faculty of Administrative Sciences and the 228th with a Highly Satisfactory graduation. The promotion session took place on Tuesday at the Auditorium, Tower M Faculty of Administrative Sciences UI, and chaired by Prof. Dr. Chandra Wijaya, M.Si., M.M. with Promoter Dr. Roy Valiant Solomon, M.Soc.Sc. and Co-Promoter Prof. Dr. Eko Prasojo, Mag.rer.publ. The examiners consist of Prof. Dr. Agus Pramusinto, MDA, Dr. Ir. Dwi Untoro P.H., S.H., M.A., Prof. Dr. Amy Yayuk Sri Rahayu, M.Sc., Prof. Dr. Irfan Ridwan Maksum, M.Sc., and Dr. Lina Miftahul Jannah, M.Sc.
