A day of waiting at Cengkareng Terminal III

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Hundreds of families made up of babies, children, teenagers, and adults, including pregnant women and the elderly, sat on the ground. Several young mothers were breastfeeding their babies while others tried to calm their crying children. Some older mothers clad in sarongs and bras were seen busily fanning their perspiring bodies. A few elderly men were sleeping soundly amid the chaos while others repeatedly wiped sweat from their bodies.

Welcome to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's Terminal III, which is dedicated to processing Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKI).

Thousands of people who came to collect family members, relatives or friends returning from overseas work assignments had to sit on the open ground while braving the heat - or the rain. Many of them had come from as far as West Java, Central Java and Lampung.

Those who came early were lucky to get a shady spot under a tree or under one of the verandas fronting the six large warehouse-like buildings located at the terminal.

Upon their arrival, they had to report to the terminal security officers and then waited for hours until the officers called their names and allowed them to enter building A, where the arriving workers were to be picked up.

Terminal III is not only notorious for the rampant extortion practiced on returning migrants, it is also far from comfortable.

"The airport's management seems to have lost its humanitarian sense because they have the gall to let us wait in the heat on open ground like this. I have been waiting here since 6 a.m.," Ujang Dayat, 37, a resident of Cimanuk village, Cihalang district of Tasikmalaya, West Java, told The Jakarta Post.

Ujang was picking up his wife Siti Rohkmah Arwiyah, 30, who had spent three years in Saudi Arabia.

Another man, Dasna, from Indramayu, West Java, came to pick up his nephew, Icha, who was arriving from Malaysia.

"This is my second visit to this airport. During my first visit, things were not like this. We were allowed to wait in the airport lobby," said 66-year old Dasna.

Terminal III was opened in September 1999.

Suryono, chief of PT Angkasa Pura, which manages the airport's daily operations, could not be reached for an interview.