Aid pours in but workers still suffer

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Relief worth billions of rupiah continues to pour in for some 18,000 returning workers in overcrowded camps in Nunukan, East Kalimantan, but their condition is rapidly deteriorating mainly due to a severe lack of nutritious food and clean sanitation facilities.

A number of camps are still crammed with hundreds, or even thousands, of fatigued workers, while the construction of new barracks has brought only little relief to their suffering.

"It is not true that we are eating three times a day. You can see for yourself what we are eating," Selle, 45, told Antara in despair on Sunday.

Selle, hailing from Sidrap, South Sulawesi, said he had been staying at the Pasar Ikan barracks for more than a month.

Social affairs minister Bachtiar Chamsjah said during a visit by Vice President Hamzah Haz to Nunukan last week that the workers were eating nutritious food three times a day.

Most workers in refugee camps such as Porsas, Pasar Ikan, PT Inhutani Sawmil and others camps, however, said that they ate only twice a day -- at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. -- with a regular menu of rice and small dried fish known as dilis.

In the meantime, financial assistance from various groups has reached over Rp 8 billion since Hamzah's visit, but the funds have barely alleviated the workers' suffering.

A lot of funds are channeled through various volunteer groups, including those spontaneously set up by local people, making it difficult for the government to control.

The workers' ordeal is further exacerbated by a critical shortage of clean water.

"We have to buy water for bathing and other needs, and every time we go to the toilet we have to pay Rp 1,000. Nothing is free here," said another worker called Melle.

Mrs. Nina, who has been in a Nunukan camp for almost one month, spoke of a similar experience.

Antara reported on Sunday that only refugee camps in Mambunuit village, South Nunukan, which were built after Hamzah's visit last week, have clean water and serve nutritious food. Unfortunately, however, only around 200 workers out of the originally planned 1,200 enjoy the facility.

The workers are also complaining about difficulties encountered in acquiring passports.

"We have come to learn that it is extremely difficult to acquire a passport. Almost one and a half months have passed and I still don't have one," said Nasir, a worker from Bantaeng regency, South Sulawesi.

Tens of thousands of Indonesians fled to Nunukan in August after Malaysia imposed a new immigration law that introduced caning, a fine and imprisonment for foreigners working illegally there.