JAKARTA - Indonesia’s Ministry for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers said it had imposed temporary sanctions on four migrant worker placement agencies after they were found to have violated placement rules for migrant workers.
The case was disclosed by Guritno Wibowo, Director of Supervision, Prevention and Enforcement at KP2MI, in a ministry statement published on April 24. Guritno was also pictured sealing part of the business activities of PT Timur Jaya Lestari in Cibubur, East Jakarta, on Friday, April 24.
The four sanctioned companies were PT Timur Jaya Lestari, PT Bina Mandiri Mulia Jaya, PT Agafia Adda Mandiri, and PT Sultan Monarki Nusantara. KP2MI said the companies violated Ministerial Regulation P2MI No. 4 of 2025, Article 9 paragraph 1, including points on recruitment permits, selection procedures, pre-departure orientation and placement obligations.
The ministry said the violations included recruiting or placing prospective Indonesian migrant workers, migrant merchant ship crew candidates and migrant fishing vessel crew candidates without SIP2MI, or Indonesian Migrant Worker Recruitment Permits.
The companies were also found not to have processed selection through local manpower offices or one-stop migrant worker service centers, and not to have enrolled workers in Pre-Departure Orientation, known as OPP.
KP2MI said the violations went beyond permit issues. The agencies were found to have sent workers to countries closed for placement, placed them in jobs that did not match their contracts, left problems faced by workers overseas unresolved, and charged workers fees that should have been paid by prospective employers or employers.
“The imposition of these sanctions is part of strict supervision efforts to ensure that all migrant worker placement companies comply with applicable provisions and do not harm Indonesian migrant workers,” Guritno said.
Guritno said that the sanctions are temporary, and that companies could resume operation if they complete the required documents under KP2MI rules. During the sanction period, the companies are barred from selection processes and placement-document handling for prospective migrant workers, including workers on leave who have not yet signed placement agreements.
Based on active SIP2MI data as of December 1 last year, overseas labour demand through the Private-to-Private, or P-to-P, scheme reached 351,743 workers, but only 19.46% of those vacancies had been applied for, according to BP3MI Kalimantan Barat placement team head Rizal Saragih in a KP2MI statement on December 17.
