REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government continues to encourage the finalization of the ASEAN Instrument on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers that will serve as an unbiased basis for protecting such workers.
"The ASEAN countries have the commitment and are cooperating to finalize the ASEAN instrument on the protection and advancement of migrant workers' rights," Abdul Wahab Bangkona, secretary general of the Ministry of Manpower, stated on the sidelines of the International Labor Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday (Wednesday in Indonesia).
Wahab noted in a press statement of the Manpower Ministry here on Wednesday that one of the ways to accelerate the finalization of the instrument was to organize a conference involving all stakeholders.
The conference is expected to be held in 2016, with speakers to be invited from within and outside ASEAN circles, including dialog partners, international organizations, such as the ILO IOM, World Bank, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
ASEAN members are yet to reach a consensus on the ASEAN Instrument on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, which was drafted since 2012, in an effort to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers effectively.
Efforts being undertaken for migrant workers, include joint handling of such workers and a ban on sending underaged children to work as migrant workers.
At the 48th Meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Kuala Lumpur on August 14, 2015, the Indonesian government had submitted a proposal to discuss the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Statement on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. It contained policy directives that will support the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW) and the ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting as the institution that oversees the ACMW.
The Indonesian proposal was supported by several countries, such as Cambodia and the Philippines.
In the meantime, at the 105th ILC, the Indonesian delegation is scheduled to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Labour Ministers' Meeting, which will be chaired by Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare Iran Ali Rabiei on Wednesday (June 8).
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