Indonesia is a major sending country of migrant workers to the Middle East and to neighbouring Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. In 2006, 680,000 Indonesian migrant workers - 80% (541,708) of them female - were deployed by the government; 502,432 migrants (73.9%) worked in the non formal sector including domestic work, and the rest in the formal sector. Government estimates of the total annual number of Indonesian migrants abroad was 1 million in 2007.

However, because migrants are often deployed overseas for more than one year with not all of them going through official channels, the number of Indonesian migrants overseas at any point in time is much larger than annual numbers. It is currently estimated that 3.5 million Indonesians work overseas. Undocumented migration remains an issue with an estimated annual 150,000-200,000 undocumented migrants working abroad. In 2006, remittances amounted to USD 4.4 billion.

Indonesia is a source, transit, and destination country for women, children, and men trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labour. In 2006, Indonesia and Malaysia signed an MOU ceding basic worker rights to employers; this may increase the incidence of exploitative forms of labour among migrant workers.

An estimated 150,000-250,000 people are displaced in Indonesia. In 2006, UNHCR reported 301 refugees and 265 asylum seekers in the country.

Limited information is available on HIV infection rates and risk behaviours among migrant and mobile populations from Indonesia.

No surveillance systems are in place to monitor and evaluate HIV infections among this vulnerable group.