JAKARTA - Indonesian labour confederation K-Sarbumusi has called for an investigation into allegations that unofficial fees were collected during the registration of domestic-worker contracts in Malaysia.
K-Sarbumusi President Irham Ali Saifuddin urged the Corruption Eradication Commission and the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) to examine the claims.
“Digitalisation of public services such as SI Permit should make services easier, protect workers and close opportunities for corruption,” Irham said in Indonesian. He alleged that irresponsible individuals had instead used the platform “as a tool of extortion.”
Irham also called on Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry to suspend verifiers and system controllers suspected of involvement while the claims are examined. He asked the National Cyber and Crypto Agency to audit the digital infrastructure connected to SI Permit.
His comments were made on Aug. 27 and published by NU Online the following day. The report linked the confederation’s call to an Aug. 25 VOICE Indonesia editorial, which alleged that RM300 to RM500 had been collected for each of 66,049 domestic employment-contract registrations.
The Rp145 billion figure represents the upper end of the editorial’s calculation. Applying the alleged charges to every registration produces a range of RM19.81 million to RM33.02 million, or approximately Rp87.02 billion to Rp145.03 billion using the arithmetic midpoint of Bank Indonesia’s Aug. 31 buying and selling rates.
The reports cite no official finding confirming the amount. The editorial said it drew on a technical audit, public complaints and an information report, but did not publish those materials, specify the period covered by the registrations or show how many files were allegedly charged at each rate.
SI Permit’s terms of use describe the platform as a recruitment and placement service operated by Indonesian missions in Malaysia. Its domestic-contract guide says employment agreements submitted through the system are verified by an Indonesian mission before being transferred to Indonesia’s SISKOP2MI system and Malaysia’s visa-processing system.
An International Labour Organization summary says the 2022 Indonesia–Malaysia domestic-worker agreement assigns specified recruitment costs incurred in both countries to employers. These include document processing, work passes, insurance, medical examinations, agency fees, airfare and accommodation.
Neither the Foreign Ministry, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the Ministry of Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers nor the law-enforcement bodies named in K-Sarbumusi’s demand had publicly confirmed the allegations or announced an investigation as of noon Jakarta time on Sept. 1.
When the domestic-worker agreement was signed in April 2022, then-President Joko Widodo said its one-channel system would cover the placement, monitoring and return of Indonesian workers.
“I do not want this memorandum to remain only on paper,” he said in an official joint press statement.