Public Relations UPNVJ - Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) Veteran National Development University Jakarta (UPNVJ) in collaboration with the Rights Project from University van Amsterdam (UvA), held a Pressure Cooker's Workshop around the issue of migrant workers.
Taking place at the RA Suite Simatupang Hotel, Jakarta on 24-25 June 2024, this workshop is aimed at training the skills of students from several universities in Jakarta in preparing policy proposals or policy briefs on emerging issues related to migrant workers from Indonesia, especially related to their rights. rights that should be obtained by those who work in various countries of the world.
This activity was held against the background of many issues of violations of the rights that Indonesian migrant workers should have, where this has also become the concern of the UPNVJ and UvA academic community.
Apart from that, this workshop is also a form of implementation of cooperation in the field of tri dharma of higher education that has been established by the UPNVJ Political Science Master's Study Program with the Rights Project and UvA since 2023.
Representative from the Rights Project, Annisa Sekaringrat, said that "the problems faced by migrant workers from Indonesia are many, especially regarding low wages."
"Usually employers from other countries use the excuse that migrant workers from Indonesia have low skills so they are given very low and inhumane wages," he said.
With these conditions, the idea emerged to hold a Pressure Cooker's Workshop, which contains new learning methods to encourage students to analyze and develop problem solving from the perspective of stakeholders.
The Urgency of Migrant Worker Issues
The students who took part in the Pressure Cooker's Workshop were exposed to stakeholders from the government sector, NGOs and labor unions to develop ideas they had regarding low-wage Indonesian migrant workers. At the end of the session, students reflected on the work process they carried out.
The head of the activity implementation team, Dini Putri Saraswati, stated that "it is important for us to provide knowledge to students, in this case from various campuses in Jakarta so that they understand the problems faced by migrant workers from Indonesia, as well as providing skills for them to prepare a policy proposal based on academic studies from the results of discussions with various stakeholders."
Several stakeholders attended the workshop and provided materials, including representatives of Migrant Care, the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI), as well as from the United Cities and Local Government Asia Pacific. The stakeholders present provided materials based on case realities, and the results of these materials were analyzed by the participants and then used as a basis for formulating policy proposals or policy briefs which were discussed together.
Participants in this activity included students from several campuses in Jakarta, such as UPNVJ, National University (UNAS), Satya Negara Indonesia University (USNI), Budi Luhur University, 17 August 1945 University Jakarta, and STIA LAN Jakarta Polytechnic.
Alma Nur Syahbani, one of the students participating in the workshop, said that "issues or topics of discussion regarding Indonesian Immigrant Workers which are rarely discussed or less discussed are discussed comprehensively in this event."
"Discussion of problems and socialization of various protection efforts made us as students aware of the urgency of the migrant issue in Indonesia," said Alma.