40,000 Indonesians on tourist visa to work in Malaysia

40,000 Indonesians on tourist visa to work in Malaysia

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris has expressed
concern over some 40,000 Indonesians using tourist visas to work
in Malaysia, saying they would become illegal immigrants when
their visas expired after three months.

He said the 40,000 workers were among the some 320,000 illegal
immigrants who either obtained amnesty from the Malaysian
government at the end of last year or were deported during a
recent Malaysian crackdown on illegal immigrants. He said they
facilitated their own return to the neighboring country because
the Malaysian government had been slow to approve the new
recruitment of foreign workers.

"The workers will become illegal when their tourist visas
expire after three months," he said after a hearing with an ad
hoc committee of the Regional Representatives Council here on
Monday.

He said he had lodged a request with the Malaysian authorities
to legalize the 40,000 workers once their visas expired, but had
yet to receive a response from Kuala Lumpur.

Many plantations and development projects in Malaysia have
been running short of workers since the government crackdown on
an estimated 1.2 million illegal foreign immigrants, mostly from
Indonesia.

Since the crackdown, the Malaysian Home Ministry has approved
requests for the recruitment of about 70,000 foreign immigrants,
and only about 30,000 Indonesian immigrants have gone through the
formal procedure for returning to Malaysia.

Fahmi said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Achmad Badawi had
pledged to open 150,000 new job opportunities for Indonesian
workers, but so far the Malaysian government has not acted on
this pledge.

Indonesia and Malaysia have established 11 locations in
Indonesia, near the border with Malaysia, where workers can
obtain all of the necessary documents for working in the
neighboring country. However, many immigrants do not want to use
the service because they say it is time-consuming and expensive.

To obtain necessary documents such as passports and work
visas, workers are required to have identity cards, fill in forms
from the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, wait
for job offers from employers in Malaysia and pay a Rp 1.2
million recruitment fee.

Association of Indonesian Labor Exporters chairman Yunus
Yamani expressed doubt about Malaysia's seriousness in employing
foreign immigrants with complete documents, saying Malaysian
employers wanted illegal immigrants from Indonesia to avoid
having to pay higher wages in accordance with Malaysian law.

"If the Malaysian government is consistent with its policy and
Malaysian employers are ready to recruit Indonesian workers in
accordance with formal procedures, they should express their
commitment by complying with their own laws in employing
Indonesian workers," he said.