Compassion vs complacency

For the fourth time in recent months, Malaysia has extended, now for an indefinite period, the deadline for migrant workers to register legally with authorities, or else face severe punishment and deportation. The deadline for this phase of amnesty or deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal workers was first delayed pending the country's first direct presidential election in September, then again for the Idul Fitri holiday, then again following the tsunami of Dec. 26. A written request from President Susilo Yudhoyono contributed to the last Cabinet decision to delay the latest deadline of Jan. 31, Malaysia's Home Minister Azmi Khalid said, according to reports on Thursday. He personally had to appeal to Malaysians to understand Indonesia's condition in the aftermath of the tsunami.

For its part, Indonesia's manpower ministry is doing all it can, or so they claim, to bring home some 400,000 illegals among an estimated 800,000 foreign illegal workers in Malaysia, apart from simplifying documentation procedures. The President is flying next week to the neighboring country to meet Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and discuss several issues, including the deportation of the illegals.

We are thankful for Malaysia's willingness, once again, to extend that deadline though as Minister Khalid said, it would appear to Malaysians that its government has "backtracked" from its firm position. While it is in both countries' interest to have so many people earning a living in Malaysia and helping boost its productivity in various sectors, it is a burden, especially on Malaysia, when scores of them are illegal.

We have earlier questioned the flaws in Malaysia's and Indonesia's policies on these migrant workers, which has been a thorny issue for years. Even now some of the illegal workers are reportedly preparing to go back almost immediately after having gone through the immigration office -- or appeared to do. "I'm ashamed," one worker was quoted as saying, adding that he had no land to work on and no job to go home to in his village here. He could not have returned earlier even if he wanted to, he told the Kompas daily, as his wages were withheld by his employer. After crossing the border and spending a lot of money on dubious "fees" to labor brokers, he said, he was heading right back, in spite of the threat of caning, jail and expensive fines for violating Malaysia's immigration laws.

It is not clear how many workers have had their wages and documents held up by employers, which has resulted in them missing out on Malaysia's grace period to go home unpunished without documents.

But after the latest amnesty extension, the question must be directed to the Indonesian government on its efforts so far in reducing illegal migrant workers. Even without the tsunami, would we really have seen adequate preparations -- or again the usual rushed, last minute fire drills?

Fahmi Idris, the Minister of Manpower and Transmigration, said if current efforts like dissemination of information and simplified procedures did not work, then the Indonesian government "is out of ideas on how to prevent the Malaysian authorities from enforcing their harsh immigration laws."

Policies on migrants were not drawn up yesterday; Malaysia has long been one of the favored destinations for Indonesians seeking a better life. The two countries now have a Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed last year, as part of efforts to improve coordination and regulation of migrant labor. The MoU will likely be amended to better accommodate the problem of the bulk of workers in the "informal sector" and to avoid another "Nunukan incident" -- a horrendous scene of tens of thousands of stranded workers in squalid camps on the Malaysian-Indonesian border, which the Indonesian government, under then president Megawati Soekarnoputri, was ill-prepared for to say the least.

We know exactly where the bulk of the problem is -- it is within Indonesia itself. It has long been reported that many slick agencies or brokers, working with experienced parties in both countries, continue to be able to operate illegally, recruiting and enticing relatively oblivious workers from rural villages by promising them an easy and hassle-free way to escape poverty. Malaysia indeed needs to track down its unscrupulous parties working with Indonesians. But the dismal record of Indonesia's law enforcement institutions, which is not likely to change despite pledges by the new president, remains the root of many evils. And results in the unnecessary suffering of millions of Indonesians who just want an opportunity to provide for their impoverished families.