Jakarta, IO – Nukila Evanty is a gender equality and human rights activist who conducts advocacy and training in border areas and regions with the most extensive distribution of migrant workers in Indonesia.
She recently visited Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), end of March 2023-early April 2023. While there, she held a series of special workshops for prospective female migrant workers to be assigned to Malaysia and Hong Kong.
NTT is one of the provinces sending the largest number of migrant workers, besides East Java, Central Java and West Java. Unfortunately, many of NTT’s migrant workers choose the irregular path (they work without proper documents or fail to comply with regulations set by the government).
“From my minutes of meeting with the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Service Center (BP3MI) of NTT in Kupang, activists in local organizations and discussions with Pastor Emy and Meriance Kabu (former migrant workers who were duped into human trafficking and tortured in Malaysia), many problems must be jointly addressed between the Task Force on Migrant Workers and the Task Force on the Human Trafficking at the central and regional levels. The saddest thing is when I heard the story of Pastor Emy and Mr. Geo from BP3MI NTT, who had just returned to pick up the bodies of the deceased at the NTT airport, most of which were undocumented migrant workers,” said Nukila when presenting at the Legal Awareness, Migrant Workers’ Rights and Awareness on Human Trafficking and Drug Trafficking.
Nukila also heard another story from Yanti, who lives in Bokong Village, Taebenu District, Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Yanti is a migrant worker who became a victim of human trafficking. She wanted to improve her life and support her family because employment was scarce in her village, not to mention that she had only graduated from primary school. At the age of 19, Yanti was persuaded by a friend who had worked in Malaysia and was promised a salary of MYR 400 per month.
When she arrived in Malaysia, Yanti worked to support her parents. Unfortunately, she did not get paid as promised. She often had to endure psychological abuse, such as being yelled at and scolded by her employer. After returning to her hometown, she does not expect much but to find jobs in her village for people with low education like her and her friends.
