A/HRC/4/24/Add.3 page 15 VI. CONCLUSIONS 57. The Special Rapporteur conveys his gratitude to the Government of Indonesia for the invitation extended to him to visit the country. The Special Rapporteur would also like to express his appreciation for the cooperative and constructive dialogue he was able to have with the legislative, executive and judicial authorities and other State organs. 58. The Special Rapporteur would also like to praise the dynamism and work of civil society in advocating, promoting and protecting the rights of migrants. 59. During his visit to Indonesia, the Special Rapporteur collected information on the condition of Indonesian workers living abroad as well as on the role of recruitment companies and their impact on the enjoyment and exercise of the human rights of migrant workers. 60. As a general principle, the Special Rapporteur wishes to stress the primary responsibility of the Government of Indonesia for ensuring that private recruitment companies with legal personality in Indonesia are adequately monitored. The Special Rapporteur received information from various sources indicating that migrant workers recruited by private companies in Indonesia to work abroad often have inadequate or misleading information about their work arrangements, must pay excessive recruitment fees, and may suffer threats or abuse from agents. These problems also put them at extra risk when facing abuses during employment abroad, such as poor working conditions, excessive working hours, partial or non-payment of salaries, ill-treatment and isolation, and neglect of basic needs. 61. The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the failure of State bodies to act, especially the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, since this is a widely known and growing phenomenon. The Ministry should (a) improve the regulation of labour recruitment practices, including greater transparency and caps on recruitment fees; (b) create mechanisms to ensure that contracts signed in Indonesia will be respected abroad; and (c) inspect recruitment agencies and training centres to monitor human rights abuses. It should also impose substantial penalties on companies that fail to respect the rights of the employees they recruit. 62. The Special Rapporteur has observed that insufficient national legislation, as well as inadequate regulation and control of private recruiting companies permit these profit-seeking companies to act without consideration of the rights of migrants. The absence of robust measures to control private companies and the recruitment process has enabled a wide range of recruitment-related abuses. 63. Although the Special Rapporteur is aware that the Indonesian authorities have taken steps to enact national legislation aimed at protecting the rights of migrant workers and has also made efforts to engage in bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries, he remains concerned that this legislation is not fully implemented and that the bilateral agreement falls short of international human rights and labour standards. The Special Rapporteur notes that negotiation of the MOU between Indonesia and Malaysia has been a closed process, with no opportunity for civil society groups, or international organizations with expertise on labour migration, to comment on the draft.