City to check door-to-door for migrants

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration is launching a "population operation" in the capital's five municipalities to deter migrants, particularly unskilled ones, after the Idul Fitri holiday when many people enter the capital.

Administration officials will go from door to door, unlike in previous years when they checked migrants at entry points such as railway stations and bus terminals, in areas suspected to be enclaves of unskilled migrants.

"Each municipality has maps showing areas where unskilled migrants usually stay," said City Population Agency head Sylviana Murni. "We won't reveal the schedule of the operation to the public."

The operation will aim at migrants who do not possess Jakarta ID cards and, most importantly, who do not have jobs. Most unskilled workers end up working as housemaids, construction workers or scavengers. Others establish small businesses like food stalls or kiosks.

Sylviana said that during the operation, judges and lawyers would be involved for on-the-spot trials for migrants.

"The bylaw on population stipulates that those who have no adequate documents during their stay in Jakarta will be sent to jail for a maximum of three months or will be fined a maximum of Rp 5 million (US$588)," she said.

The agency recorded 204,830 migrants entering the capital this year. Some 2,816,384 people left the capital for the Idul Fitri exodus and 3,021,214 people entered Jakarta in the influx. The data were collected from railway stations, bus terminals, seaports and airports on people entering and leaving the city between Nov. 18 and Dec. 3.

Sylviana said the number of migrants this year was 12 percent fewer than last year when 231,528 migrants entered the capital. She indicated that the string of evictions conducted by the administration over the last four months could have been a deterrent to migrants.

Most migrants come from towns in West Java like Indramayu and Kuningan, as well as from Banten, East Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and West Sumatra provinces.

With an estimate of 70 percent of the country's money circulating in Jakarta only, unskilled migrants from outside Jakarta come to the capital to earn money due to the lack of employment in their hometowns.