City to check door-to-door for migrants
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.