NTB 2ND LARGEST SOURCE OF INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS

Mataram, W Nusa Tenggara, Apr 2 (ANTARA) - West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) is now Indonesia's second largest province after East Java in sending migrant workers abroad, an official said.

"We send 35,000-40,000 migrant workers per annum. In 2010 we plan to increase the number to 50,000," acting head of the West Nusa Tenggara provincial manpower and transmigration office Sirojul Munir said here on Friday.

Most of the West Nusa Tenggara migrant workers were employed in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Brunei Darussalam, South Korea and Hong Kong under contracts of two to four years, he said.

In Malaysia, the West Nusa Tenggara migrant workers were mostly employed in oil palm plantations, he said.

"The West Nusa Tenggara migrant workers, most of them farmers, prefer to work as oil palm plantation workers and only a few of them are employed in other sectors such as construction and refinery industry," he said.

To date, 4,523 West Nusa Tenggara migrant workers were employed in Saudi Arabia and most of them worked as domestic helpers, he said.

Overall, the West Nusa Tenggara migrant workers employed abroad sent an average of Rp533.11 billion in remittance to their home towns every year, he said.