COMPLETION REPORT

Mr. Ali Maksum
Research Fellow
Centre for Policy Research and International Studies,
Universiti Sains Malaysia <Malaysia>
Malaysia and Japan are the two attractive destination for many Indonesian workers for work and improving theireconomic situation. In 2015, approximately 95,785 Indonesian working in Malaysia alone. The IndonesianEmbassy Kuala Lumpur reports that Indonesian who worked in Malaysia have reached two million people andhalf of them work and live undocumented or even did not have any single official identification document. Whilein Japan it just 2,036 which extremely lower compared to Malaysia. Interestingly, in 1990 the Japan Ministry ofJustice have deported roughly 1,217 Indonesian workers or 2.8% of the total number of deported illegal workers
by 1996-2000.
In the midst of the increasing number of migrant workers, Indonesian government absolutely gained advantages
especially from their remittances. Malaysia has become special attention due to the number of the cases involving
migrant workers notably Indonesian informal workers extremely high. In 2010 alone for instance, Indonesian
government has released that around 345 Indonesian workers have faced death penalty which mostly from Aceh.
In contrast to this, Japan is one of the country with lowest risk use of forced labor.
The three factors portrayed overall condition of Indonesian illegal workers in Malaysia; demanded, exploitedand humiliated. In Japan, some employers were also conducted exploitation towards Indonesian workers. Yet, thenumber is very low and did not gain huge media coverage as in Malaysia. Under this condition, have forced someIndonesian workers to escape from the old employers. They were triggered by some Indonesian colleagues thathave promised a better job and salary albeit very risky.
Nonetheless, the researcher propose some recommendations to the government of Malaysia and Japan toimprove their service and policy particularly as listed below:
1. The Malaysian government as well as Indonesian government should transform their policy and formulate aneffective and accountable policy.
2. The Malaysian government should not serve Indonesian illegal workers under criminal law and neglect theirhuge contribution toward Malaysian development.
3. The Malaysian government is expected to learn from Japan’s immigrant workers policy where Indonesianillegal workers have different experience during their illegal life.
4. The Japanese government should ensure that all Indonesian workers candidates have a minimum Japanese
language requirement so as to could communicate with the locals properly.
5. The Japanese government should monitor and supervise the TITP (Technical Intern Training Program) and takeaction once whether workers or employers abuse the agreement signed.
6. The Japanese government should ensure all problems related to Indonesian workers such as bad treatment, lowwages, exploitation and other human rights abuses should be declined, while the NGOs are continuously giveassistances to Indonesian workers.
All in all, most of Indonesian illegal workers perceived that the local government whether Malaysia or Japan weremarginally positive. Despite the fact that some weaknesses were definitely existed, yet they continue to return tothese countries.
Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Maksum, Ali. (2015). “Illegal Workers Policy: Malaysia and Japan Experiences in Dealing with IndonesianIllegal Workers.” Jurnal Administratio Vol. . Published by Department of Public Administration, Faculty ofSocial and Political Sciences, University of LampungBook (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)