21 illegal workers arrive home

21 illegal workers arrive home

BELAWAN, North Sumatra: Another 21 workers deported by the Malaysian government for entering the country illegally arrived home on Tuesday.

Muriaandi, the check unit chief at the Belawan immigration office, said they were repatriated because they did not have the passports and working visas required to enter Malaysia.

"The deportation has nothing to do with the recent riot by Indonesian workers in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia," he said here on Tuesday.

Some of the workers came from Java and West Nusa Tenggara.

So far, the Malaysian authorities have deported a total of 2,696 illegal workers through the Belawan seaport.

Eddy Sofyan, spokesman for the North Sumatra administration, said the provincial administration had not been informed of the deportations, meaning it could do nothing to help transport them to their home villages in Sumatra, Java and West Nusa Tenggara.

He said the administration had spent Rp 600 million to help the central government bring illegal workers home last year but only Rp 200 million had been repaid by the central government. --JP