Children of Migrant Workers Miss the Attention

Name: Children of Migrant Workers Miss the Attention
Uploaded: 2021-03-08T04:45:46Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: The fate of the children of migrant workers in a number of regions is neglected. Apart from not getting proper care, they are also vulnerable to violence and are at risk of dropping out of school.

The fate of the children of migrant workers in a number of regions is neglected. Apart from not getting proper care, they are also vulnerable to violence and are at risk of dropping out of school.

Kompas Team

· 5 minutes read

The fate of the children of migrant workers in a number of regions is neglected. Apart from not getting proper care, they are also vulnerable to violence and are at risk of dropping out of school.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Indonesian migrant workers face numerous problems. Among these is that the decision to work abroad has forced them to leave their families for years. As a result, the care of their children is neglected, thereby threatening their growth and their future.

Based on data from the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI), 113,173 people were placed as migrant workers in 2020. More than half of them worked in the informal sector and were predominantly women. A total of 49,898 of them had gotten married and 22,136 others were divorced.

Many children left by their parents to become migrant workers do not receive proper care like other children. The lack of care and protection has made many of them malnourished and vulnerable to physical, psychological and sexual violence.

Also read: My Grandmother, My Parent…

Apart from limited access to education and health, they also have difficulty getting citizenship documents, such as birth certificates, so they are unable to access several government programs.

Many children of migrant workers who do not receive parental care become child workers, victims of child marriage and are vulnerable to becoming victims of trafficking.

Based on Kompas\' investigation, many children of migrant workers have had their education disturbed, and have even dropped out of school. Many children of migrant workers who do not receive parental care become child workers, victims of child marriage and are vulnerable to becoming victims of trafficking.

The psychosocial development of a number of children of migrant workers is also disrupted because they are born from unwanted pregnancies or born overseas. They experience bad stigmatization, even bullying. Various negative labels are attached to them, including being considered unwanted children.

Children who experience bullying and stigmatization tend to be quiet and avoid relationships. Meanwhile, children who grow up without parental care often seek attention and face the law.

Gender unfairness

Children of migrant workers, especially when both parents or only the mother leaves, face a bad situation. When only the mother leaves, the father often delegates childcare to a grandparent or other close relatives, such as aunts or uncles.

"This happens because childcare does not yet have a gender-fair perspective that divides parenting opportunities equally between male and female parents. When the fathers work, the mothers automatically take care of the children. If the mothers depart, the children are taken care of by their grandmothers," said executive director of Migrant Care Wahyu Susilo, in Jakarta, Saturday (6/3/2021).

Also read: Pandemic, the Illegal Recruitment of Prospective Migrant Workers Uncontrolled

In fact, grandmothers and grandfathers are a vulnerable group of elderly people. This is increasingly becoming a problem because the majority of migrant workers or those working abroad are women or mothers.

The situation is different when the father departs to become a migrant worker. It is often the mother who continues to do the childcare, despite being a single parent. This is the case for Nurmayani, 30, a resident of Pandan Wangi (Pandawa) village, Jerowaru, East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. She takes care of her own children, Nita Hartini, 10, and Muhammad Zain, 18.

She helps her children when they experience bullying. "If someone says my children are not loved by their father, I always convince them that it is not true. Their father works in Malaysia for them,” said Nurmayani.

The lack of care and protection for migrant workers\' children is a phenomenon in the pockets of migrant workers, such as West Java, Central Java, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

https://cdn-assetd.kompas.id/vlGq9MwUCaF3ddbLSpC_oFnXGXk=/1024x683/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F05%2F20200521NDU09_1590067445.jpg — Kompas
Indonesian migrant workers maintain physical distance while queuing for their health and immigration check on Thursday (21/5/2020) at the Batam Center International Ferry Port in Batam, the Riau Islands. Afterwards, the workers were placed in quarantine at the Tanjung Uncang Dormitory in Batam.

In Pandawa village, there are four children of migrant workers, including those under 3 years old, who are being raised by their grandmothers. Their parents are migrant workers in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

As a result, they could not access social assistance programs, such as the Smart Indonesia Card (KIP) and the Healthy Indonesia Card (KIS).

In this village, in 2018 alone, there were 425 children of migrant workers. Apart from being raised by their grandparents, some of them also did not have birth certificates and were not included in family cards (KK) because their parents had been migrant workers for a long time. As a result, they could not access social assistance programs, such as the Smart Indonesia Card (KIP) and the Healthy Indonesia Card (KIS). "There are four problems with children of migrant workers, namely care, education, population documents and vulnerability to violence," said Suharti, director of the Tunas Alam Indonesia Foundation (Santai), a nongovernmental organization that assists 2,200 children of migrant workers in East Lombok and Central Lombok.

Also read: Migrant Worker’s Fight Against Chronic Trauma

The problematic situation about children of migrant workers also occurs in NTT. In Southwest Sumba, the education of nearly 500 children of migrant workers in eight villages has been disrupted. Some of the children born in Malaysia are brought back to the village without a family card and do not have baptism certificates to enter school. "We want to be useful children for ourselves and the surrounding community in the future," said Aloysius Bole Ngongo, 13, the child of a migrant worker who was born in Malaysia and received assistance from the Umma Pande Community in Southwest Sumba.

Head of BP2MI Benny Ramdhani emphasized that Law No. 18/2017 on Indonesian migrant workers protection is progressive because it mandates the protection of migrant workers and their families as a joint responsibility of the village administration to the central government. Protection includes legal, social and economic aspects before, during and after the placement.