Indonesia to stop sending domestic workers abroad in 2017

Indonesia's Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri said on Monday that Indonesia planned to stop sending domestic workers to foreign counties by 2017, but would only send skilled workers from that time.

Hanif added that the policy to stop migrant workers was to address President Joko Widodo's instruction who wants to elevate the nation's dignity in international relations through such a policy.

"We had created the Zero Domestic Workers by 2017 road map program. So we would eventually send professional workers only," Hanif said in his office here.

According to the minister, the policy was part of the president 's move to protect the nation's workers and empathy towards sufferings and problems faced by Indonesian domestic workers working in countries abroad.

Through the roadmap program, the manpower ministry would conduct training programs to improve skills of domestic workers so as to make them get jobs in the country with their upgraded skills.

Besides that, the program would also serve unemployed person, expected to reduce the unemployment rate that has reached 7.2 million people at present, the minister said.

He said the program would be prioritized for unemployed persons graduated from elementary education levels.

Abuses from the employers against Indonesian domestic workers have frequently been reported in several countries. They took the lives of the workers.

As of 2013, Indonesia has sent 6.5 million migrant workers working in 142 countries, according to data released by Indonesia' s migrant workers protection and placement agency.