Voice from the Village: The Success Story of DESBUMI in Jember, East Java

In April MAMPU and DFAT representatives met with the Head of Dempok Village in Jember, East Java who explained the difference Migrant Care’s DESBUMI initiative has made to the governments understanding and involvement in the placement and protection of migrant workers from Jember, a high migrant sending area in Indonesia.

“Before DESBUMI, the village government had difficulties protecting its citizens who went overseas to work as migrant workers because up till that point, the village government had only signed the documents without having complete information about the migration of its citizens. The irony of it was, any problem that happened while a citizen was abroad, the village government had to get involved in solving it.” explained Miftahul Munir.

“However, after DESBUMI, we have been able to sign the documents of citizens who intend to migrate only after we are sure that there are no problems with them” he continued.

“Not only that, but also the village government is now able to do more to empower ex-migrant workers once they have returned from the overseas because it can allocate the funds stipulated through the Village Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBDes) to undertake such empowerment programs,” explained Munir, who was invited to join the Indonesian delegation to attend the 27th session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families in Geneva, in Switzerland in September 2017.

DESBUMI is a village level initiative developed by Migrant Care with MAMPU support to increase the access of migrant workers to various services at the village level, ranging from guidance on migration options and migrant worker rights, to case handling and referral when difficulties arise abroad, and post-migration skills training.

MAMPU supports DESBUMI in 37 villages in 5 provinces, reaching more than 4,000 migrant women and their families.