Expulsion of workers from KL studied<\/p>\n
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A coalition of non-governmental organizations are now conducting
\nan investigation into the "real" reasons for Malaysia's decision
\nto deport hundreds of thousands of Indonesian male migrant
\nworkers.<\/p>\n
The members of the Consortium for Indonesian Migrant Workers
\nAdvocacy (Kopbumi) have been deployed to seaports in Belawan in
\nNorth Sumatra, Lumajang and Lamongan in East Java, Parepare in
\nSouth Sulawesi and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara to collect
\naccounts from migrant workers on what had happened before their
\ndeportation.<\/p>\n
Kopbumi executive secretary Wahyu Susilo revealed on Thursday
\nthat from their latest visit to Sabah state in Malaysia last
\nOctober, there were several raids on migrant workers and
\nimmigrants from the Middle East and African countries under an
\noperation code named Gagak Hitam (Black Crow).<\/p>\n
"Extortion which also involved the police was rampant there,"
\nWahyu told a media conference held at the Indonesian Legal Aid
\nInstitute Foundation (YLBHI)'s office here.<\/p>\n
Malaysia exercised the tough measure following a number of
\nriots and other suspected crimes involving Indonesian workers
\nlast month.<\/p>\n
Another Kopbumi activist, Edi Purwanto, said the arguments
\nused to justify the deportation of Indonesian workers were
\nunacceptable because Malaysia is actually in need of a huge
\nnumber of workers to run its industries and plantations.<\/p>\n
"Unregistered Indonesian workers, whose number has reached 1.5
\nmillion, are the lowest-paid workers they can employ," he said,
\nadding that there are around 2 million Indonesian workers in
\nMalaysia, with only 500,000 registered.<\/p>\n
Wahyu explained that the unregistered workers were mostly
\nBugis and Madura people, who went to live with relatives who had
\nbeen their for generations, those who were deceived by
\nunscrupulous agents and those who did not have permanent jobs.<\/p>\n
"In several cases, the illegal workers were invited by the
\ncompanies in Malaysia themselves. It was clearly shown by the
\nhigh influx of the unregistered workers around harvest time or
\naround the period of construction of big projects such as Sepang
\nRace Circuit and airport and the Petronas Twin Towers," he said.<\/p>\n
Kopbumi called on the government to take efforts to establish
\na bilateral agreement to protect the migrant workers during the
\nupcoming meeting of the Joint Committee for Indonesia-Malaysia
\nslated to take place on Feb. 18 in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
"We also call on the Malaysian government to revoke its
\ndiscriminative policy against the Indonesian migrant workers,"
\nWahyu said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/expulsion-of-workers-from-kl-studied-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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