REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Foreign workers in Indonesia constitute less than one percent of the country's total workforce. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) made the statement  at the opening of the 20th Indonesian Catholic Women Congress at the Kemayoran area of Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

"We have observed that the number of foreign workers is not more than one percent of the total workforce," the president remarked.

The head of state pointed out that the number of foreign workers in other countries was greater than that in Indonesia. He said that the number of foreign workers reached 80 percent in the United Arab Emirates, 33 percent in Saudi Arabia, 32 percent in Brunei, 24 percent in Singapore, five percent in Malaysia, and 0.03 percent in Indonesia.

"The number is less than one percent, but it is questioned and said to be in millions," Jokowi stated, adding that the public should be tendered a clarification on the issue of foreign workers.

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Jokowi highlighted the need to provide an explanation on such an issue or else it will be misconstrued to be the truth. He stated that the news of 10 million foreign workers from China will flood Indonesia was a hoax.

"Such an issue is widely believed, so if an explanation on it is not provided time and again, then people will think of it as the truth," the president reiterated.

In fact, the president stated that the number of foreign workers in Indonesia was only some 80 thousand.

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