Jakarta – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, and Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower have signed a Technical Agreement committing them to improve protection for migrant workers and combat human trafficking in the country’s eastern province of Nusa Tenggara Timur.

The agreement will focus on IOM support for the ministry’s Productive Migrant Villages (Desmigratif) programme, which targets the home villages of migrant workers to improve services for prospective migrants planning to work abroad and to improve the economic self-reliance and living standards of their families.

Nusa Tenggara Timur, one of Indonesia’s poorer regions, experiences high levels of outward migration, both to other parts of Indonesia and abroad. 

At a signing ceremony in Jakarta on February 19th, IOM Director General William Lacy Swing highlighted IOM’s global experience in working with government partners to maximize the benefits of labour migration programmes. “The Desmigratif programme is an impressive initiative that combines the tools for protection and empowerment of Indonesian migrant workers and their families,” he noted.

“The Desmigratif programme is our newest approach to improve the protection of Indonesian migrant workers directly in their home villages,” added Hanif Dhakiri, the Indonesian Minister of Manpower.  “We truly appreciate IOM Indonesia’s activities on the protection of these migrants.” 

“Traffickers often prey on the vulnerability of migrant workers who are first and foremost looking for ways to provide for their families. In Nusa Tenggara Timur, where labour migration has become a way of life, comprehensive public private partnerships that empower migrant communities are essential,” said IOM Indonesia Chief of Mission Mark Getchell.

The UN Migration Agency is currently implementing a project in Nusa Tenggara Timur with funding from the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP.)  Since 2005, IOM Indonesia has helped over 8,900 victims of trafficking with shelter, psychosocial, legal, educational, and economic empowerment assistance.