430 workers complain of exploitation

430 workers complain of exploitation

Apriadi Gunawan and Jacob Herin, Jakarta Post, Medan/Maumere

More than 430 workers from East Java occupied the North Sumatra
legislature building out of fear of being traded like slaves in
neighboring country Malaysia, demanding the government send them
back home as soon as possible.

They were part of more than 900 workers deported through
Belawan port for entering Malaysia illegally on Friday.

Immediately after their arrival at the port, the workers
occupied the legislature building, instead of following their
colleagues to proceed to a pooling mess at Amplas, near the city.

"We shall continue to occupy the building until the governor
and the legislature leadership give us an assurance that we will
be sent back directly to East Java and not the pooling mess where
we might be traded again to local brokers to be sent back to
Malaysia via illegal channels," Irpansyah, coordinator of the
sit-in told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The workers, mostly young women, said they were still
traumatized after being traded to a labor syndicate to be
employed as illegal workers in Malaysia after they had been
accommodated in the pooling mess two months to six months ago.
Some of the workers were forced to pay Rp 2 million (US$210) in
cash to stay at the pooling mess prior to being handed over to
the syndicate and other brokers.

"So far, many fellow workers of mine from Lamongan are still
employed with pay in Malaysia after being deported through
Belawan, and many women were brought to Riau to be employed as
prostitutes," said Irpansyah.

Rosliana, 30, from Surabaya, said she had illegally entered
Malaysia three times with the help of a local broker who promised
her higher wages on a plantation in Malaysia. "I will no longer
go to Malaysia because of the bad experience and will seek work
in my home town in East Java," she said.

Agus, 25, another worker, appealed to the provincial
administration to help finance their return home because most of
the workers had run out of money for a bus or ship ticket to
Surabaya.

"We shall remain here until the governor gives us a guarantee
that we'll be sent home safely," he said.

Governor T. Rizal Nurdin said the workers would be sent back
following coordination with the local social affairs office.

He questioned the workers' deportation through Belawan because
they were all from East Java. He said the workers should have
been deported directly to Surabaya because, according to a recent
agreement between Indonesia and Malaysia, deportation was made
directly to the deported workers' home provinces.

In Sikka and East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, a number of
workers who had just come back from East Malaysia voiced
complaints about rampant extortion by local public transport
operators, due to the absence of sea transportation to the two
regencies from Kalimantan.

Andreas Holi Keraf, 53, said he and many other workers had
been forced to pay Rp 150,000, instead of the usual Rp 1,000, for
a one-kilometer trip from Sadang Bui port to the West Terminal in
Sikka recently.

"A Damai Indah passenger bus charged us Rp 500,000 each for a
150-kilometer trip from Sikka to Larantuka in East Flores," said
another worker, Sesilia Peni Kewuan, 30.

She said the fare from Sikka to Larantuka was normally Rp
10,000.