Lates from Paricara

The Regency of Tulungagung is located about 154 kilometers the southern west of Surabaya, East Java. Geographically, it is situated in the coordinate 111?43’-112?07’longitute and 7?51’-8?18 latitude measured from 0? of Greenwich, England. It borders with some Districs as Distric Trenggalek in the West, Distric Blitar in the East, and Distric Kediri in the North. Administratively, distric Tulungagung is divided into 19 sub districts (counties), 257 villages, and 14 kelurahans. The width of Tulungagung is 1,131.67 km². The total number of Tulungagung population is 1,002,807 people (data of 2006). The composition of the productive age (20-59 years old) is 54% of the total. Distric Tulungagung is one of the biggest immigrant worker sending areas in East Java. In the perspective of most common people of Tulungagung, being immigrant workers is the most effective way to overcome the poverty and improve the economic capacity. Even, in some important immigrant worker sending areas such as Sub district Ngunut, Sub district Kalidawir, Sub district Ngantru, and Sub district Bandung, being immigrant workers is not only becoming the preferable job among the low educated and economic people, but also becoming the choice of highly educated and class people. The official report of The Bureau of Labor and Transmigration of Tulungagung describes that the number of immigrant workers is about 1,000 workers each year. Most of them are women. But, it is estimated that the real number is more than 1,000, considering that there are a lot of workers who work illegally. Further, the amount of money sent by the workers is about Rp. 300 billion each year. Anyway, there are still some problems arose as the following:

1.      Most of the immigrant workers still have insufficient knowledge of how to work overseas legally and safely.

2.      There hasn’t been significant regulation, especially at level of local government, to protect the workers.

3.      There is no specially allocated budget to protect and empower the candidate, the family of and the former immigrant workers.

4.      It still appears the crimes in which the victims are the immigrant workers such as deceit, torture, and abandonment because of the irresponsible suppliers.