RSSKARAWANG, Indonesia (UCAN) — Stricter rules governing the recruitment and dispatching of migrant workers are needed to combat human trafficking, religious leaders said at a meeting recently.
Current processes are vulnerable to corrupt practices, which can only be abolished through stricter issuing of licenses and law enforcement, and greater efforts in protecting migrant workers’ rights, the leaders said.
Catholic, Confucian, Protestant, Hindu and Muslim representatives made these recommendations during their March 14-19 meeting on Human Rights-based Advocacy Training to Stop Human Trafficking in Karawang, West Java.
Karawang was chosen as the meeting venue as most Indonesian migrant workers from West Java come from this district.
The 40 or so participants also suggested that the national government spearhead government-to-government agreements with countries receiving Indonesian workers, and impose a moratorium on those known to have problems ensuring migrant workers’ rights.
Participants agreed to establish an interfaith network to fight human trafficking and care for migrant workers more effectively.
They also pledged to set up an advocacy team to address human rights violations, especially human trafficking.
They urged the district government of Karawang to establish bylaws that would safeguard the recruitment and placement of migrant workers and eradicate human trafficking.
“We will set up a young people’s cyber site and invite young people and students to join our fight against human trafficking,” one participant, Petrus Paulus Leyemin, told UCA News.
Representatives of Religious congregations, Jakarta archdiocese, and the dioceses of Bogor, Bandung, Purwokerto, Malang, and Surabaya, were among those who attended the meeting.
Organizers included the Catholic bishops’ Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant and Itinerant People, an interfaith forum in Karawang and Christ the King Parish of Karawang.
IJ09183/1594 March 22, 2010 31 EM-lines (273 words)
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