Allow one day renewal of passport to all Indonesian Migrant Workers now!

Press Statement
2 November 2007

Allow one day renewal of passport to all Indonesian Migrant Workers now!

Recently the Indonesian Consulate abolished the one-day of renewal passport policy for Indonesian migrant workers (IMWs). Due to this abolition, IMWs are now forced to wait for two weeks to have passports renewed that also meant spending extra cost to come back to Hong Kong for IMWs in Macau .

This has again proven the lack of will of the Indonesian Consulate in Hong Kong to improve their services for IMWs in Hong Kong and in Macau . The already insufficient and low standard of services of the consulate is now even worsened.

Upon inquiry for the ATKI-HK, the Indonesian Consulate said that the decision was because of the complaints from IMWs in Yuen Long that they are not allowed to also go through the one-day processing system even if they also live far from Causeway Bay . However, instead of opening the one-day processing system to everyone, the Consulate decided to abandon it entirely.

The decision was arbitrarily done by the Consulate without consultation with IMWs in Macau . Worse, the Consulate is using the complaint – that is aimed to call for an extension of the one-day processing system to also cover other IMWs in Hong Kong – to do a great disservice to IMWs in Macau and pit IMWs against each other.

Due to their geographical limitation and employment condition, IMWs in Macau will surely suffer from the Consulate’s decision. It will, however, also impact IMWs in Hong Kong as IMWs here also have limited time to conduct transactions in the Consulate. In fact, the Consulate even continues to refuse to accept passport renewal applications during Sundays because they said that the passport fee should be paid through the Government Bank which is not open on Sundays.

With the drastic increase of IMWs in Hong Kong that has reached more than 111,000 and more than 6,000 in Macau , definitely the needs of IMWs have increased. It is the responsibility of Indonesian Government through Indonesian Consulate to address these needs by increasing their services to IMWs.

Additionally, the call to abolish the high placement fee of HK$21,000 has not been addressed by Indonesian Government. Despite the demand to set the agency fee equal to one month salary, the government is only planning to reduce it to HK$15,000 which is still very high. The Indonesian government is also aware and even allows agencies in Hong Kong to illegally deduct the salary of IMWs for several months although it breaches the Hong Kong employment ordinance.

The Indonesian government has not yet answered the demands of IMWs in Hong Kong and Macau . Instead of thinking of ways to respond to the needs of IMWs, the government and the consulate seek ways to further diminish the already insufficient services they provide.

The Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia-Hong Kong (ATKI-HK) demands the Indonesian Consulate to:

1. Provide one day renewal of passport service to all IMWs in Hong Kong and Macau .
2. Full service for IMWs on Sunday.
3. 8 hours a day full services for IMWs.
4. Allow direct hiring for all IMWs in Hong Kong and make the process simple.
5. Stop Overcharging.
6. Stop potongan gaji illegal.

These are the matters that the Indonesian Consulate must address. We have enough of neglect, irresponsibility and ineptitude in protecting our rights and promoting our wellbeing.

ATKI-HK
Assosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia Hong Kong

c/o: APMM, Jordan road no. 2, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
phone: +852 23147316 Fax: +852 27354559
blog: http://atkihongkong.blogspot.com

Contact person: Eni Lestari , Chairperson Tel: 96081475