REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MANILA -- The Indonesian delegation to the ASEAN senior officials meeting in Manila struggled alone for a legally binding agreement on the protection of migrant workers in the region, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Wednesday.

"All other ASEAN member states have actually agreed to the migrant worker protection scheme. But we are still working alone to struggle for the legally binding agreement," Director General of ASEAN Cooperation at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry Jose Tavares told reporters in Manila. 

ASEAN member states have been facing a heavy problem about migrant workers due to the busy migration of workers with low skills. Worker exporting countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines are still at odds with receiving countries such as Malaysia and Singapore over the issue.

Nearly 2 million Indonesians are working in Malaysia. In 2015, Malaysia recorded some 600 reported cases involving Indonesian migrant workers employed in the neighboring country, according to the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia.

The low-paid migrant workers must reportedly work without holidays and work for 14 hours per day. The local authorities also discriminate against migrant workers in terms of salaries.

Actually, at a regional level there has been agreement on the free movement of migrant workers since the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) began to take effect in 2015. However, the agreement only applies to workers employed in several fields, including nursing, architecture, medicine and technical sectors.

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