The government is continuing to uphold its commitment to protecting Indonesian migrant workers and improving the quality of management related to the migrant sector, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has said.
"The government continues to maintain its commitment in terms of protecting Indonesian migrant workers and improving the quality of management of this sector," Amin said at the commemoration of 2021 International Migrants Day on Saturday.
Working abroad is not easy since it requires an employee to be far from home and relatives in Indonesia, he noted.
The Vice President lauded migrant workers who have gone through various challenges and fought their homesickness to continue their work and struggle in a foreign country.
"Working abroad, away from home, is certainly not always easy. The migrant workers must have gone through hard times while working in someone else's country," Amin remarked.
However, he said that returning to Indonesia with work experience as a migrant worker can strengthen communities in areas where the migrant workers come from.
"If the migrant workers return to our country with new experiences, new skills, and new networks, I hope it can help strengthen the community in their respective areas," he remarked.
According to data from the Organization for Migration, in 2020, as many as 281 million people or equivalent to 3.6 percent of the global population migrated across national borders, he noted.
Of this figure, there were millions of Indonesians who sent a huge amount of remittance funds to Indonesia, Amin said.
"The value of remittances sent to Indonesia has reached Rp 160 trillion per year or the second-largest of Indonesia's earnings after the oil and gas sector," he added.
Therefore, the Vice President said that migrant workers are national foreign exchange heroes because they have been brave, worked hard, and sacrificed a lot for their family, nation, and country. (*)
Editor : Slamet Hadi Purnomo
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