851 migrants leave for their hometowns

The city administration has sent a total of 851 illegal migrants, many of them worked as prostitutes and squatters, to their hometowns in West, Central and East Java in the last two months.

Roekanda, the head of the City Social Affairs Office, said yesterday that most of the migrants were apprehended during the routine operations targeting prostitutes operating in the city's roadsides and sidewalks in June and July.

The city administration, Roekanda said, will continue the operation until the unauthorized red-light districts, such as those of Boker in East Jakarta and Pulo Bunder in North Jakarta, are cleared of prostitutes.

Roekanda said recently that Jakarta had shown an increase in the number of seasonal migrants from Java, especially the coastal areas in the north, during the current drought season.

Many of the migrants, apparently buoyed by optimism of finding of better life in the city, became beggars, squatters and prostitutes after facing difficulties in finding permanent jobs. (yns)