KL deports 1,600 Indonesian workers<\/p>\n
Reuters, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Malaysia has deported more than 1,600 Indonesian illegal
\nimmigrants after a blaze at their detention camp earlier this
\nweek left them without quarters, an immigration official said on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
Detainees at the Pekan Nenas camp in the southern Peninsula
\nMalaysian state of Johor rioted and burnt down some of their
\naccommodation blocks on Tuesday before police fired tear gas to
\nquash the uprising.<\/p>\n
A Johor Immigration Department official told Reuters 1,618
\nIndonesian men had been deported by ship on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He said the remaining 679 male inmates, whom one newspaper
\nreported as being due for deportation on Thursday, were sent to
\nother camps in neighboring states to be sent home in due course.<\/p>\n
\"Except for a block housing 240 women detainees, the camp has
\nbeen cleared out,\" the official said. \"It will be closed down
\neventually.\"<\/p>\n
The 679 comprise mainly nationals of Bangladesh, India,
\nMyanmar, Pakistan, Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal.<\/p>\n
In East Malaysian Sabah, police deported more than 500
\nFilipinos on Thursday, taking them by road from the state capital
\nKota Kinabalu to Sandakan and on by ferry to Zamboanga city on
\nthe southern Philippines island of Mindanao.<\/p>\n
Assistant Police Commissioner Sidin Karim told reporters the
\ndeportees were in addition to 566 sent home last week.<\/p>\n
Malaysia carried out its largest ever deportation of illegal
\nimmigrants last month, sending back around 2,500 Indonesian
\nworkers on two Indonesian naval ships under armed escort.<\/p>\n
Another Indonesian naval ship will arrive this weekend to
\ncollect a further 1,700 Indonesians in another deportation
\nexercise planned before Tuesday's rioting.<\/p>\n
The New Straits Times said some Indonesian detainees had
\nrioted on Tuesday because they were not included in the plans for
\na weekend deportation.<\/p>\n
Many had wanted to go home for the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking
\nthe end of the current Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan. It said
\nonly 545 of the Indonesians at the camp were picked by Indonesian
\ngovernment officials to be sent home this weekend.<\/p>\n
Illegal immigration is a big problem for this southeast Asian
\nnation, which has a population of 23 million and is a favored
\ndestination for workers from its more populous, poorer
\nneighbors.<\/p>\n
The country is home to more than a million foreign workers,
\nmost of them from Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar
\nand the Philippines.<\/p>\n
The government said it would begin deporting about 300,000
\noverseas workers from last month to cut down on foreign labor in
\ncertain industries and free up jobs for locals affected by the
\neconomic slowdown.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/kl-deports-1600-indonesian-workers-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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