A/HRC/4/24/Add.3 page 4 I. INTRODUCTION 1. At the invitation of the Government of Indonesia, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants visited the country from 12 to 21 December 2006. The purpose of this visit was to establish an accurate and realistic assessment of the situation regarding Indonesian migrants living abroad. He was able to visit all the locations he hoped to visit and to meet with all relevant government authorities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Special Rapporteur was pleased to spend International Migrants Day (18 December) in Jakarta with a coalition of over 60 NGOs who had organized events at which he was able to meet with migrants themselves. 2. The mission focused on three main areas: the situation of female domestic workers leaving Indonesia, the responsibilities of Indonesia as a sending country, and the ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW) of 1990. 3. The Special Rapporteur recognizes that a large number of Indonesian migrants are at risk of abuse in other sectors such as construction and agriculture, as well as concerns facing migrants living in Indonesia. However, due to the multifaceted dimensions of the problem, the Special Rapporteur will not address these issues in the present report. II. BACKGROUND 4. Indonesia is one of the world’s major sources of unskilled international migrant labour, particularly in sectors such as construction, domestic work and agriculture. Its overseas labour contract programme was developed in the 1980s.1 The programme maintained a modest flow of migrating workers for many years (fewer than 100,000); these mostly consisted of domestic workers to the Middle East, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.2 The number of migrants and their destinations increased in the 1990s, surpassing some 500,000 workers in 2006. This movement of labourers, many migrating in response to the effects of the economic downturn after 1997, has become a significant migration pattern. Quantifying the scale of the movement, however, is made difficult by the limited information on movements to and from the country, and the fact that there are substantial undocumented flows in and out of Indonesia. 5. Since 1999, an average of 387,304 Indonesians per year have left the country in search of work abroad.3 This average does not include undocumented workers, and it is widely accepted that the actual number is much higher. The largest outflow is to Malaysia, where the Indonesian 1 See apmrn.anu.edu.au/publications/UNConvFinal. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.