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.