City plans ID sweep, but migrants not afraid

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Housemaid Narti and construction worker Widodo, who arrived at Jakarta's Senen railway station last Saturday, were not aware, or were perhaps even afraid, of a possible Identity Cards (KTP) check by the city administration.

They are not alone. About 250,000 newcomers comprised mostly of unskilled laborers are predicted to enter the city this year, especially after the Idul Fitri celebrations, and they all face the same situation.

Most of these migrants only think about working in the city and no longer depending on their parents and relatives in their hometowns for their livelihood.

Narti, 21, was accompanied by her cousin Asih, while Widodo came with two friends, arriving at Senen station in Central Jakarta via economy-class trains from Yogyakarta and Surabaya, respectively.

Asih, who has been working here as a housemaid at a small shop in West Jakarta, asked Narti to come and work since her employer Surianto badly needed them to take care of his shop.

The women claimed that they were not really concerned about the city administration's plan to conduct sweeps against newcomers to check for KTPs, since their employer would take care the matter.

"I don't know about the raid, and all our documents would be taken care of by Pak Surianto," Asih, 23, told The Jakarta Post at a waiting room in the station.

Asih telephoned her employer to tell him that she and Narti had arrived and asked him to pick them up at the station.

Surianto had accompanied Asih to Senen station to see her off on her visit to her hometown two days before Idul Fitri, and came in his van to pick up the two women at the same station last Saturday.

Separately, Widodo and his friends also claimed that they were not afraid of the possible KTP raids, which are often called "Operation KTP" by the administration.

"I've never been caught, although I have been working here for almost three years. I still have a Surabaya identity card," one of Widodo's friends, Hari, told The Post at the station.

Hari, who worked along with friends in Tebet in South Jakarta, said that he would probably buy an Jakarta identity card if the need arose.

People can buy an ID card for Rp 50,000 (US$5.50) to Rp 150,000 here although, according to official procedures, an ID card was free of charge if the applicant submitted complete documents.

In recent years, Operation KTP has been conducted at railway stations and bus terminals after the Idul Fitri celebrations, aiming to net those newcomers without specific destinations or jobs. The raids have also been conducted in slum areas.

In the past, dozens of newcomers have been caught and sent back to their hometowns.

This year, however, the city administration has canceled the identity card operations at railway stations and bus terminals, since a population regulation allows newcomers to process ID cards within 14 days after their arrival.

"We will conduct operations in slum areas and rented houses 14 days from now," City Population Agency head Silviana Murni said.

Silviana rejected the notion that her agency would violate human rights in conducting the raids.

"It would violate human rights if we let them (migrants) stay along riverbanks, which endangers their lives and the lives of other people," she said last Friday.

Critics deplored the city administration for violating the people's right to seek proper jobs and to travel through the country.

Governor Sutiyoso has frequently urged people not to enter the city if they don't have jobs, permanent houses or enough money for their own accommodation.

He has plans to close Jakarta to migrants and in order to realize this, the governor is drafting a new migration bylaw that will ban all new migrants to the city who do not have a guaranteed job, a place to reside and enough funds to live on for several months.