JAKARTA. The government’s recent ban on sending migrant workers to the Middle East has increased human trafficking, an expert at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has said.

"When the legal avenue is closed, it will prompt the ‘mafia’ to take over, because there are no jobs here in Indonesia. People will try to find a way to get to those foreign countries anyway, even illegally," the head of Kadin’s migrant worker task force, Nofel Saleh Hilabi, said at a seminar on human trafficking on Thursday.

Kadin data revealed that 5,000 illegal migrant workers from Indonesia left for the Middle East every month despite the ban, which was introduced in August 2011.

Lewat Prolanis, Penderita Diabetes Temukan Dukungan dan Motivasi Sehat

The current government introduced a permanent ban on sending informal migrant workers to the Middle East in May.

"The government should reopen it [the channel] but properly manage it with legal mechanisms. It should also work with businesspeople and institutions like the International Organization for Migration [IOM]," Nofel said.

He also said the government’s move appeared to be spontaneous and uncalculated, without considering its negative impact on the country’s revenues.

Based on World Bank data, the workers’ remittances totaled a record high last year at US$8.55, almost equivalent to 0.9 percent of Indonesia’s total gross domestic product.

The IOM Indonesia’s project coordinator of the counter-trafficking and labor migration unit, Nurul Qoiriah, voiced the same concern.

"It may lower the number of cases involving migrant workers abroad in the short term, but what about the long-term solution? What about people who are unemployed?" she said.

There are currently 3.6 million Indonesians working in both the formal and informal sectors overseas, data of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) show. (fsu/ika)