JAKARTA - Indonesia is targeting wider migrant-worker placement markets across Asia and Europe as it looks for destinations it considers economically and geopolitically favorable.
Migrant Worker Protection Minister Mukhtarudin outlined the strategy after a Sept. 17 working meeting with the House of Representatives’ Commission IX.
He named Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia among the ministry’s 2026 priorities, along with Turkey, while saying the government was seeking to expand placement opportunities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy and Albania.
“For 2026, we are selecting countries with favorable geopolitical conditions,” Mukhtarudin said. He said economic conditions and labor demand were also factors in deciding where Indonesia should develop placement opportunities.
The distinction between established markets and newer opportunities is significant. Taiwan received 35 Indonesian skilled hospitality workers on Sept. 14 as the first foreign skilled workers admitted to its hospitality sector under a new program.
Indonesia and Albania, meanwhile, signed a memorandum of understanding on migrant-worker placement and protection in July, with further technical arrangements needed to put the cooperation into operation.
The government has set a target of 350,000 Indonesian migrant-worker placements in 2026. Mukhtarudin said about 260,000 placements had been recorded by September, leaving roughly 90,000 additional placements needed to reach the full-year target.
Overseas demand is larger than the number of jobs currently being filled.
Indonesia’s placement system recorded about 290,000 verified and active vacancies as of Sept. 15, but Mukhtarudin said only around 25% had been filled. He attributed the gap partly to a mismatch between the skills required by overseas employers and those available among prospective workers in Indonesia.
The ministry is trying to narrow that gap through the SMK Go Global program, which aims to prepare 500,000 prospective migrant workers through 2029 by connecting training and skills development more closely with international labor demand.
Market expansion also depends on destination-country administration. Mukhtarudin said Turkey had about 30,000 verified job orders that Indonesia could potentially fill, while the Turkish Embassy in Indonesia could process only about 12,000 to 15,000 visas a year.
KP2MI has asked Turkey to increase visa-processing capacity, including by adding personnel, as Indonesia seeks to expand placements there.
