Unregistered migrants to be expelled from city<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Sardi, 38, has been selling fried cakes around the capital since
\nhe got married in 1983. He is still doing the same job to feed
\nhis wife and five children, who live far away in the Central Java
\nregency of Bumi Ayu.<\/p>\n
Sardi is one of over 100,000 urban poor living in the city who
\nhave no identity cards. These people could end up losing their
\nlivelihoods as Governor Sutiyoso is now trying to draft a bylaw
\naimed at kicking them out of the city.<\/p>\n
Having the population bill being drafted by the city
\nadministration passed is one of Sutiyoso's main policies to be
\nimplemented during the first year of his second-five-year term.<\/p>\n
Sardi, who looks older than he really is, said he still did
\nnot know what he would do if the City Council agreed with
\nSutiyoso and passed the bylaw, which will be used by the City
\nAdministration to expel people like Sardi from the city.<\/p>\n
Sutiyoso has tried to get rid of people working in the
\ninformal sector who have no identity cards by conducting raids
\nall over the city.<\/p>\n
The latest move has involved Sutiyoso asking other governors
\nto urge their citizens who live in Jakarta to return home if they
\ndo not have permanent jobs here. But he claimed all his efforts
\nso far had not been effective due to the lack of a firm legal
\nbasis.<\/p>\n
\"If we have the new bylaw, we'll have the legal basis ... (to
\nexpel them from Jakarta) ... Our target is that they should
\nreturn to their hometowns,\" Sutiyoso told the press on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Sardi could save some Rp 10,000 every day on average. But
\nworking as a cake vendor was not his job of choice. He said that
\nhe was bored with his job, especially as he had to live far away
\nfrom his family. But it was hard to find a job in his wife's
\nhometown.<\/p>\n
\"If I could get Rp 5,000 a day in Bumiayu, I would not come
\nhere. I would work as a farm laborer, but such work is not
\navailable everyday while my children need food everyday,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Sardi has been living in Jakarta since the 1970s after he
\ncompleted his elementary education in his hometown in Kuningan
\nregency, West Java.<\/p>\n
He now sells his food in the National Monument (Monas) park.
\nHe said that he was confused as the authorities had been warning
\nthat he would not be allowed to operate in the park after the
\nfencing project was completed.<\/p>\n
Before starting his business in Monas park, he moved around
\nfrom one construction site to another as construction workers
\nwere his main customers.<\/p>\n
The census held by the Jakarta Central Bureau of Statistics
\n(BPS) in 2000 showed that 32,983 poor families, or over 100,000
\npeople, did not have Jakarta ID cards.<\/p>\n
Asas Tigor Nainggolan of the Jakarta Residents' Forum (Fakta)
\nsaid that Sutiyoso's determination to pass the bylaw on
\npopulation confirmed that he was a \"human rights criminal\".<\/p>\n
He said that such a bylaw would not only be against human
\nrights, but also against the national constitution and
\ninternational conventions on the economic rights of citizens.<\/p>\n
\"Principally, the government cannot restrict the movement of
\nthe people. The state cannot prohibit people from seeking jobs
\nand the state should not expel people from the places where they
\nwork, even in the informal sector. Therefore, it is crazy if
\nSutiyoso wants the City Council to pass the bylaw,\" he added.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/unregistered-migrants-to-be-expelled-from-city-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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