City plans ID sweep, but migrants not afraid

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.