Death Penalty and Migrant Workers: To be or Not To be
Introduction
Imagine you have a family member who has fallen victim to drug abuse, or your next of
kin was badly hurt by a drug user in your neighborhood. Your family life ruins and you have to
spend a lot of money for rehabilitation. Bachtiar Tambunan, the deputy chief for community
empowerment at BNN, said an estimated 4 million Indonesians were users of narcotics, with
death rate estimated at 33 succumbing per day because of drug usei. BNN divides Indonesian
drug users into three categories: those who have "ever tried" using drugs, totaling approximately
1.6 million people; "regular" users at 1.4 million; and drug addicts at around 943,000 people.
The BNN deputy chief also added that marijuana; crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy
pills remained the most popular products among Indonesian narcotics users. These users are
estimated to consume a total of 14 million ecstasy pills per year and use marijuana or crystal
meth a total of 158 million and 219 million grams per yearii. Economic loss from narcotics
problems in Indonesia is estimated to have reached Rp 63 trillion ($4.8 billion) in 2014.
This was the main thesis of Indonesian Government under President Joko Widodo’s
hardline stance against 8 drug traffickers who was refused clemency in December 2014 to,
among them foreigners. According to Amnesty International repost, there were least 64 people
who have been sentenced to death for drug-related crimes and there are approximately 130
drug traffickers under death sentence for in Indonesiaiii.
Imagine now how this premises correlate to the fact that Indonesia has around 281
migrant workers facing the death penalty in 2015, according to the rights group Migrant Care, 59
of them have been sentenced to death and 219 others are currently undergoing legal
proceedingsiv. These migrant workers are facing the death penalty in various countries and
Malaysia was home to 212 Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty, while 36
Indonesians are facing the same fate in Saudi Arabia, 5 of them have been convicted and are
currently awaiting execution. Behind Saudi is China with 28 Indonesian migrant workers, Qatar
1, the European Union 1, Singapore 1 and Taiwan1v. Out of these numbers, in Malaysia, more
than 60% of them are of drug related crime while 28 in China were all of drug related offences.
One will say that it is an act of hypocrisy for Indonesian Government to plead for the
safety of its citizen abroad while executing its own as well as foreigners at home. But is that
really the case?, does one positive law can be pitted against other in a similar case? Indonesia
adheres to the fact that providing protection to its citizen is stipulated in our Constitution. It is the
responsibility of the MFA to provide Indonesians with Consular and legal rights, as much as it is
the Government responsibility to safe the future of Indonesian from drug traffickers.
Death Penalty and Migrant Workers: To be or Not To be
One plus One Equals Two in Sovereignty?
In line with what was explained by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, the
easing off on the application of capital punishment will not change the fact that what drug
traffickers are doing in Indonesia is harming our future generation, nor it will completely safe
migrant worker on death row abroad. There was simply no correlation between the two issues.
Drug trafficker is an offence which punishable by death in Indonesian positive law, this has to do
with the rule of law that applies in one particular country, it is a state practice of sovereignty to
uphold its law, while the other is the Indonesia Government’s responsibility to put in the
maximum effort to protect the rights of its citizens. This is a responsibility that all nations share;
Indonesia is no exceptionvi.
There are many option in solving the root of migrant workers challenges abroad, and
none are easy because migrant workers is not just one ministry show and the challenge are
very much complex, it will take time to resolve. But one of the effective ways in trying to solve
this issue of protecting migrant worker is to ban Indonesia’s informal workers from working in a
number of Middle Eastern countries. This policy should be implemented in concert with
improvements in the national system that provided protection for workers in foreign countries.
It is understandable though that some NGO are at odds on the implementation of this
system, even to some extend accuse that the agreement signed by the Indonesian government
and the Middle Eastern countries had only made it more likely that migrant workers would
become victims of trafficking. But Indonesia, through Ministry of Foreign Affairs has adherently
apply regulation that no Indonesian migrant worker will be sent to countries where they have yet
signed overseas migrant worker agreement with Indonesia and/or if that particular country
doesn’t have a national regulation on migrant worker. Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also
implement citizen service program since early 2000 in many of its mission abroad to specifically
respond to all cases of migrant workers. This service comprises of 24 hours complaint service,
safe houses, pro bono legal aid and other action deems necessary to secure migrant workers’
rights.
But most important is also to acknowledge that throughout 2015, the government had
secured the release of 12 Indonesian citizens from death sentences in Saudi Arabia, with the
recent release, the number of Indonesians freed from death row in Saudi Arabia since 2011 has
reached 68 people. According to the records there are 24 Indonesian citizens currently at risk of
the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, whose legal processes are ongoing. The ministry of Foreign
Affairs has repeatedly taken to defend and release Indonesian nationals on death row and have
been asking for clemency from the Saudi Arabian king. Indonesian representatives abroad have
Death Penalty and Migrant Workers: To be or Not To be
continued to make use of the good momentum created such as meetings between Foreign
Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi and Saudi Arabia’s King and Foreign Minister to accelerate the
settlement of legal problems affecting Indonesian citizens abroadvii.
i
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/bnn-says-33-die-of-drugs-daily-not-40-50/
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/bnn-says-33-die-of-drugs-daily-not-40-50/
iii http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/10/drug-abuse-claims-33-human-lives-everyday.html
iv http://thediplomat.com/2015/03/indonesias-death-penalty-hypocrisy/
v http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/10/281-indonesian-migrant-workers-face-death-penalty-abroad.html
vi
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/11/abolition-could-help-ri-migrant-workers.html#sthash.oRPipGcg.dpuf
vii http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/08/04/12-indonesian-citizens-released-death-sentenceministry.html#sthash.l5l4IG3I.dpuf
ii