Batam becomes transit point for illegal workers

BATAM, Riau (JP): Two motorboats carrying 70 people set off from a luxury house by a stream one recent, dark night. Their engines had been switched off and the boats were quietly paddled along the stream towards the sea.

Once they reached the open sea, the engines were turned on and from there, it was smooth sailing to the coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Powered by their 600 horsepower twin engines, the ride takes between 10 and 15 minutes.

This is how Indonesian jobseekers are smuggled into Malaysia almost every night.

There has been little serious attempt to stop the operation, at least not from this side of the border. The Malaysian authorities, on the other hand, are conducting patrols along its coasts to stop the flow of Pendatang Asing Tanpa Izin (Pati) or Mat Indon, the term they use to describe the illegal Indonesian workers, into their country.

Batam, which has been designated by the Indonesian government as an industrial zone, is attracting Indonesian workers from all corners of the archipelago. Apparently, not everyone comes here with the intention of working on the island. They have set their eyes on more rewarding goals, despite the risk to their own safety. They want to work in Malaysia.

Given its close proximity to Malaysia, Batam makes an ideal jumping-off point for Indonesian jobseekers to enter Malaysia, legally or otherwise. Many are also believed to have entered Malaysia through Batam as tourists.

Officials at the Sekupang seaport privately acknowledge that the authorities are fully aware of what is going on, but there is little that they can do to stop the outflow of Indonesian workers.

They said they cannot stop those who travel on tourist visas.

"How can we tell whether they're genuine tourists or not?" asked one official, adding that what these "tourists" do on the Malaysian side of the border, whether they look for jobs, is no longer their concern.

The port authorities could only detect those who were caught and deported by Malaysian immigration -- they returned with their heads shaven, they said.

The smuggling of workers by boat is also difficult to contain, partly because it is run by powerful syndicates, and partly because the authorities here are not properly equipped to deal with the issue, they said.

There is no way the 200-horsepower patrol boats used by the authorities can catch the twin engine 600-horsepower boats used by the syndicates, they pointed out.

"We launched several operations to crack down on the syndicates, but they always managed to escape because they have more sophisticated boats," one official said.

The sources said that coordination between government agencies is also lacking.

The Batam Manpower Office, for one, does not consider the outflow of Indonesian jobseekers to be a serious matter.

"We have never been assigned to handle illegal workers," Dupri A. Noor, head of the Batam Manpower Office, said. "It is the task of security officers." (rms)