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.