Hundreds more on illegal migrant workers deported from Malaysia<\/p>\n
Fadli, Batam<\/p>\n
After being deported from Malaysia, some 630 Indonesian illegal
\nmigrants arrived on Saturday evening in Tanjung Uban port, North
\nBintan district, Riau Islands regency. They were deported by the
\nMalaysian government for various immigration violations.<\/p>\n
The latest deportation is one of the biggest in the recent
\npast that has come to the attention of the press, and follows a
\nseries of deportations two years ago that involved hundreds of
\nthousands of Indonesian migrant workers.<\/p>\n
Saturday's deportation began when the migrant workers, who
\nentered and worked in Malaysia without proper documents, embarked
\non board the Samudra Jaya, a commercial passenger ship, for the
\ntrip home at 2 p.m from Pasir Gudang in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
\nThey arrived three hours later at Tanjung Uban port in Riau
\nIslands regency.<\/p>\n
After their arrival, they were set to embark on further trips
\nto bring them back to their homes across the archipelago,
\nincluding Lombok island, Surabaya and Dumai.<\/p>\n
The Tanjung Uban harbormaster, Yusuf Sofyan, said that out of
\nthe 630 undocumented migrant workers, 450 of them had been
\ndetained in Semenyik prison in Malaysia, while 180 others had
\nbeen held in Pekan Nanas prison before they were deported. They
\nwere all arrested after the Malaysian authorities conducted raids
\non Malaysian employers and places of entertainment.<\/p>\n
Sri Wahyuni, one of the migrant worker, said that she had been
\ndetained by the Malaysian authorities while working in a pub in
\nKuala Lumpur last week as she had been unable to produce a work
\npermit. \"I was kept in Pekan Nanas prison for one week before I
\nwas deported,\" said Wahyuni.<\/p>\n
The Malaysian government has carried out mass deportations on
\na number of occasions over the past few years, with the largest
\nbeing two years ago when hundreds of thousands of Indonesian
\nmigrant workers were expelled from Malaysia. Tens of thousands of
\nthem were deported through Nunukan in Kalimantan, which later
\nbecame a center of abject misery.<\/p>\n
Nunukan became a focus of public concern in 2002 when the tiny
\nEast Kalimantan island was converted into a temporary transit
\npoint for deported migrant workers following the introduction of
\na new Immigration Act in Malaysia on July 31.<\/p>\n
The squalid camps on the island eventually became home to up
\nto 40,000 workers waiting to either return to Malaysia or to
\ntheir hometowns.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/hundreds-more-on-illegal-migrant-workers-deported-from-malaysia-1447893297",
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