(MENAFN- Jordan Times) Claiming that a ban on the recruitment of Indonesians had cost domestic helper recruitment agencies millions of dollars, a representative of the agencies on Sunday urged the government to resume issuing visas to Indonesian workers unilaterally.
"We have lost more than JD2 million paid to the labour ministry for thousands of work permits before the Indonesian government decided to impose the ban" in addition to nearly one million already paid to Indonesian recruitment agencies," Domestic Helpers Recruitment Agencies Association (DHRAA) President Khaled Hseinat told The Jordan Times.
Both the Indonesian and Sri Lankan governments forbade agents from sending domestic helpers to the Kingdom in 2010, two years after the Philippines did so, on the backdrop of numerous alleged violations of these workers' rights.
"Despite the ban, Indonesian domestic helpers continued to find a way to travel to Jordan via a third country; however, the ministry stopped issuing visas to female Indonesian workers earlier this year, which doubled our losses," Hseinat said, calling on the ministry to reconsider this decision in order to help the recruitment agencies offset some of their losses.
The association, he added, is willing to cooperate with all parties involved to ensure the workers' rights are secured and protected so that the violations that prompted the ban do not recur.
"At the moment there are nearly 300 Indonesian workers staying at their embassy seeking refuge after they fled their workplaces. We offered to meet the financial claims of 50 of them as a gesture by our side to help address the problem," he said, noting that the offer was made during a meeting at the embassy with representatives of the Indonesian government.
According to the DHRAA president, the Jordanian government pledged to compensate more than 100 domestic helpers staying at the embassy as well as their employers, provided that the Indonesian government address the financial rights of the remaining employers.
Hseinat said the embassy had yet to provide the association with a list of workers whose financial and legal situations can be rectified quickly in order that they may leave the country.
During a meeting in March with Mahir Wakid, who was labour minister at the time, an Indonesian delegation sent to discuss means to settle the issue of domestic helpers suggested holding a follow-up meeting in Jakarta in April, but according to Hseinat, the meeting never took place.
Officials at the labour ministry and the Indonesian embassy were not available for comment despite several attempts by The Jordan Times to contact them.
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