One Belt One Road: Chinese workers’ miserable experience working in Indonesia, the bumpy road home under the new crown epidemic – BBC News 中文

Luo Xiangqian said that according to the contract, he could have earned a daily salary of 430 to 450 yuan, plus overtime. However, Luo soon found out that the foreman often set up names and deducted wages.

From April 30th to September 11th, he should be counted as working 119 days, but in the end, the company only counted him working 88 days. When the salary was paid, it was found that the salary he received was lower than the contract, and the actual income after calculation was for each working day. Only 51 yuan, far from the contract’s more than 400 yuan.

One day, he was injured by an accident on his foot. Not only did he receive no compensation for work-related injuries, but he was deducted from half a day’s salary.

“He is just that you do more things, and he also makes things difficult for you and deducts your work.”

One day in September, Luo Xiangqian decided to discuss the salary deduction with the foreman. As a result, three foreman of Anhui Foreign Cooperation Company dragged him into a room and beat him, “The three of them locked me in the place where they lived. Hit me in the head like a ball and knock me out.”

When he woke up, he went to the Delong project department to complain, and then contacted Pengde, and finally sent him to the hospital. The hospital radiology diagnosis certificate he provided to the BBC Chinese said “the skull is cracked”.

Two days after being hospitalized, Luo Xiangqian said that the foreman found someone to scare him with a knife and took him back to the construction site. After a few days, he hoped to return to the hospital for a follow-up consultation, but the construction site did not allow him to go out to see a doctor on the grounds that the new crown epidemic requires closed management, and even accused him of causing trouble.

According to China News Agency, Delong Park has implemented closed management and epidemic prevention measures since the beginning of March last year. The time he injured his head and was admitted to the hospital was an “exception”.

Since then, Luo Xiangqian has been suffering from headaches and can only rest in bed. He cannot go to work. The construction site will let him go to the canteen to pick up meals, but he has no income anymore. He also accuses the foreman who beat him that day and robbed him of what was left of him. 6 million rupiah (US$420; RMB 2,680), and was penniless.

Luo Xiangqian compared the current situation with the Japanese army’s invasion of China: “The Japanese will give us food when they catch us Chinese, and a military doctor will show you. If you are injured, he will give you treatment. He won’t even give you a cure…you can’t even pay for it yourself.”

He called the Chinese embassy for help, but there was no news. He asked the construction site to return to China early, but the other party claimed that he would have to stay for a year before returning to China, and he had to pay 60,000 yuan ($9,390), but he did not return to China. It was not stated what the money would be used for, nor was it a condition of the contract.

Another reason why he couldn’t leave easily was because his passport had already been withheld by the company, and he couldn’t tell whether he had a formal work visa or not. He only knew that the company needed to arrange for an immigration officer to renew the visa at the construction site every three months. Coupled with his distrust of Indonesian law enforcement, it is difficult for him to defend his rights locally.

Luo Xiangqian finally appealed to the relevant units in Huai’an City, Jiangsu Province through his domestic relatives, and arranged a flight ticket to return to China at the end of January 2022. The authorities also promised to oblige Ran Yue to settle the wages, but it is still unknown whether it can be fully realized.

BBC Chinese contacted the staff of the personnel department of Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry Co., Ltd. by phone. He said that he “was not obliged to answer” the relevant questions; BBC Chinese also tried to contact the person in charge of Jiangsu Ranyue Labor Service Company. The person who answered the phone initially stated that It is necessary to check with the legal person of the company whether he is aware of it, but when the reporter called several times the next day, the mobile phone number could not be connected.

When asked about workers’ rights and interests, Liu Li, manager of the personnel department of the contractor Anhui Pengde, said in a telephone interview with a BBC Chinese reporter: “We don’t have the situation you mentioned at the moment.”

But she conceded that it was impossible to determine whether the workers’ visas were work visas, but stressed that it was issued to the workers by the Indonesian embassy in China.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower stressed that its government has established policies for employers to report employment information, including contract duration, and employers are also responsible for returning migrant workers who have completed contracts to their countries of origin. Indonesia’s General Directorate of Immigration did not respond to written questions from the BBC’s Chinese-language reporter.

The Chinese embassy in Indonesia did not respond to the BBC’s Chinese enquiry email.

“China Labor Watch”, a non-governmental organization headquartered in New York, USA, said that since June 2020, it has contacted more than 100 Chinese migrant workers from Sulawesi, Indonesia for help. Due to issues such as work and no holidays, the exploitation of rights and interests is common to a certain extent.

Li Qiang, the founder and executive director of the organization, said in an interview with the BBC in Chinese: “Before the workers came, that is to say, when they were in China, they described the position very well, and then when the workers arrived in Indonesia, they found that the work situation was different from that. They are not the same… Then of course the worker cannot leave because his passport was taken away by the factory and the enterprise.”

“Its most important issue is the seizure of passports. That’s the core. There is deceit and coercion in the middle.”

Li Qiang continued, because many workers worked illegally in Indonesia first, and they did not necessarily sign valid contracts before going abroad. If they called the police in Indonesia to defend their rights, they would be arrested instead. Even if workers can return to China smoothly, it is difficult to defend their rights through litigation.

There are several industrial parks on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which are called “key projects” of the “Belt and Road” initiative by Chinese media, thus attracting many Chinese workers to work there.

Among them, the Sulawesi West Delong Industrial Park has been developed in three phases since 2015, which are located near the provincial capital Kendari and Morowali County, led by China’s Jiangsu Delong Nickel Company. Some local workers estimate that the industrial park involves about 20,000 Chinese workers and more than 40 outsourcing units.

In early October, five Chinese Henan workers who were working in the same area were intercepted in Malaysia trying to smuggle back home. By December, there were further reports of workers fleeing from the local area, and there were reports without independent verification that dozens of people had fled. These incidents have raised concerns but appear to have failed to change the situation for workers.

In addition to Delonghi, CLW’s case for help also includes another “Qingshan Industrial Park”, which is a nickel mining and mining complex in Sulawesi invested by Zhejiang Wenzhou Qingshan Holding Group and France’s Eramet Group. Stainless steel production project. Tsingshan Holdings did not respond to a message on the BBC’s Chinese-language page seeking comment.

Since these projects are all connected with the “Belt and Road”, Li Qiang worries that due to political sensitivity, local governments in China may choose to avoid protecting the rights and interests of overseas workers. In turn, it will affect the cost of Chinese companies’ labor outside the country and affect the construction progress.

He criticized the Indonesian authorities, the Chinese embassy, ​​and even some international human rights organizations in Indonesia for not doing anything about the labor situation in China.

Dr. Hu Yishan, chief consultant of the Malaysian Pacific Research Center, told the BBC Chinese reporter: “A plague like COVID-19 has shut down many countries, and has also led to shutdowns in many places. management conditions are even worse.”

He believes that in addition to considering improving labor conditions when Chinese enterprises going out due to the “Belt and Road” use Chinese workers, countries along the “Belt and Road” should also achieve policy interoperability and reduce the gray area in the use of foreign labor, thereby Alleviate the problem of exploitation.

These situations encountered by Chinese migrant workers in Indonesia are not unique. In October 2021, a court in Chenzhou, Hunan Province sentenced a case of illegally crossing the border. The case stated that the defendant contacted seven people through WeChat and went to Myanmar to work on the grounds of introducing high-paying jobs; in July 2021, the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan revealed that it received The local Chinese migrant workers asked for help, claiming that they were tricked by their employers into mining coal and gold mines in Jilin with verbal promises of high wages.

Some cases of fraudulent fraud are not uncommon. “China Youth Daily” reported on a local labor fraud case in Suzhou, Jiangsu in October 2020: “In recent years, especially this year, affected by the epidemic, workers are facing difficulties such as waiting for jobs, unemployment, and income reduction, and they urgently need to find jobs again. This gives some crooks an opportunity to take advantage of.”

But others blame the problem on the workers themselves. The popular video social platform Xiaohongshu has a topic on “Regular Labor Service Companies for Migrants to Work Abroad”. The introduction of one of the videos says: “Migrant workers are lured by high salaries before they choose to leave the country, but they never reflect on their ability to earn wages. Blind credulity often falls into A liar’s trap. You don’t have to leave the country for part-time work, and high salaries don’t come from strong winds.”

A human resources management company in Chongqing published an article on its website to promote “beware of the trap of going abroad for work”: “Friends who want to go abroad must first recognize their own conditions, determine their target country, and learn more about the country’s climate for the target country. Human relationships and visa methods must not be tempted by high salaries, such as customers who have no skills, no language, and no education, and who want to go abroad to earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a month, such people should wake up.”

Under the epidemic, it has also made it more difficult for many Chinese workers in Indonesia to return home. One of the reasons is that they need to take an antibody test before boarding the plane. Once the test is positive, they will be forced to stay there. But they tested positive for antibodies because they were vaccinated, not because they were diagnosed.

Sichuan worker Xiao Zhang (pseudonym) originally worked in Qingshan Industrial Park. He recently entrusted a company to purchase air tickets to return to China. However, because his blood test continued to be positive for new coronavirus antibodies, he was quarantined for three months and the living environment there was not good.

“I live in the dormitory in the isolation area of ​​the hospital in the park. When I was working, it was a six-person room. Now the isolated living environment is 20 isolation rooms converted from ten containers into a courtyard.”

His company was reluctant to return his passport, and asked him for 60,000 yuan, including air tickets, accommodation and isolation expenses, etc., which he thought was unreasonable: “This time, I didn’t make much money, but lost a lot of money. My wife and children have no income at home! It’s all up to me!”

“Several people here have disappeared recently. I don’t know if they escaped or died at work. So for the time being, ensuring my own personal safety is the number one priority!”

Another worker from Qingshan Industrial Park, Mr. Liang (pseudonym), also from Sichuan, was in a quarantine hotel near Jakarta International Airport. He originally returned to China at the end of August, but he also failed the test many times and was forced to quarantine until now.

He has no complaints against his company, and said that the company is trying to help him leave to no avail. He only hopes that the Chinese government will relax the requirements for serum antibody testing and allow him and other stranded workers to return to China as soon as possible.

At present, to travel to mainland China from all over the world, you must first obtain a “health code” from the local Chinese embassy or consulate. According to the policy revised by the Chinese embassy in Indonesia since September 1, the company’s personnel going to China must undergo closed-loop isolation 21 days in advance. Others should cooperate with the flying airline to conduct closed-loop isolation for the necessary days.

In addition, seven days before boarding and within the first 48 hours, you must go to a designated institution for “nucleic acid and serum IgM and IgG antibody tests”. If the nucleic acid test result is negative, but the serum antibody IgM and IgG tests are positive, you may be required to Self-isolation for more than 14 days can apply for a health code or the embassy will issue a “green code” according to individual circumstances.

The Indonesian New Crown Relief Team composed of local Chinese said on its WeChat public account that it has received hundreds of registrations from stranded Chinese, many of which are related to serum antibody values. The rescue team declined the BBC Chinese interview invitation.

The “Indonesia New Crown Rescue Team” pointed out in an open letter: “After many people have been vaccinated, this antibody must have increased, which is an important factor that makes many people ineligible to buy air tickets… What’s more troublesome is that the airlines themselves also There are requirements, which are higher than this green code, so some people still have no way to board the plane after taking the green code.”

A Mr. Xiao was quoted on the WeChat official account of the rescue group as saying: “I unconditionally cooperate with the national epidemic prevention policy, but are the standards and requirements for this serological test really reasonable and necessary? The antibodies that have been produced with great difficulty are almost impossible to obtain. Only let people go back. I hope this standard of serum testing can be handled reasonably.”

The rescue team said that they had received many requests for help who had fallen into a mental breakdown due to isolation. “The key is that many people have no income, are still sick or have serious illnesses in their family members in China, such as car accidents, cancer or other accidents that are on the verge of death, etc., etc., causing many people Live like a year, with a mental breakdown.”

Master Liang encountered a situation where the antibody remained high after being vaccinated. He told BBC Chinese that the vaccination procedure arranged by the labor service company before going abroad did not comply with the regulations, and two injections were administered at a time. As a result, he has to return to China now. The vaccination record is regarded as invalid, and he has to re-vaccinate in Indonesia. Workers are responsible.

From January 1, 2022, the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia will further revise the requirements for applying for a “green code”, which clarifies that the seven-day quarantine before the airline’s boarding can be counted as the 21-day quarantine required by the embassy, ​​and there is no previous infection history, and Those who have been vaccinated with inactivated new coronary pneumonia vaccines such as Sinopharm and Kexing for more than 14 days according to the procedures are no longer required to undergo IgM and IgG antibody testing.

It remains to be seen whether these measures can alleviate the detention of workers who are preparing to return to China due to “test reincarnation”.

The names of the interviewed workers are pseudonyms to ensure their safety.