The Phenomenon of Indonesian Migrant Workers: A New Face of Modern Slavery (An Overview of Social Fiqh)

The term is often connoted inaccurately, the TKI is often regarded as hard and uneducated laborers. Yet, in reality, there are many workers who work overseas as professional workers in all walks of life and professions, including those who work in house hold environment as professional domestic servants. Minor impression which emerged was mainly due to the number of cases of violence and injustice against Indonesian migrant workers (especially women) caused by weak recruitment system and brokering practices. Such system and practices have been presenting illegal Indonesian workers overseas as well as a problem of the absence of job agreements that can protect the interests of the migrant-workers concerned. In a plain overlook, many fact of problems suffered by these workers, more specifically the women migrant workers (or Tenaga Kerja Wanita, abbreviated as TKW, in Indonesian), are very easily presented, particularly those who work in the Middle Eastern countries. So in overview of sosial fiqih slavery has not ended yet, rather it only changes name to be TKI and ect. If traditional people still hold a language of honesty and naivety by saying that the reality of slavery is slavery, then the modern people in this millennium century is more able to resemble inhuman cruelty with a beautiful, smooth and friendly language. The essence of slavery is the deprivation of the rights of a person. If such action continues to occur, it means that slavery is still rampant even though it is protected under the umbrella slogan of freedom, egalitarianism and brotherhood.