Denpasar administration expels Javanese migrants
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite a strong protest, authorities in Denpasar, Bali, expelled on Friday 77 migrants from East Java for not possessing local identity cards.
The illegal migrants who were netted in an operation launched by the Denpasar municipal administration over the last three days were transported in two buses to a social rehabilitation center in Jember, East Java, from where they would be sent to their home villages after a short education program.
Public order chief, I Nyoman Brandi, said in Denpasar that according to the population registration bylaw, all those who failed to produce a local identity card must be removed and taken to their villages of origin.
"In line with the regulation, the 77 migrants who failed to produce an identity card during the operation have to be expelled," Antara quoted Brandi as saying.
Hundreds of Javanese migrants who already have local identity cards staged a sit-in demonstration on Jl. Sutomo, one of crowded streets in the city to protest the netting of their Javanese colleagues. They called on the Denpasar City Council to lift the bylaw which they said was against the amended 1945 Constitution that guarantees people the freedom to move from one place to another in the country.
The situation in the city turned tense and almost violent when the demonstrators were blocked by the police from marching to city hall while hundreds of other Javanese migrants from city outskirts were blocked from entering the Jl. Sutomo area.
The demonstration, which caused a traffic jam for five hours, ended after Denpasar Police deployed a score of riot police to disperse demonstrators.
Spokesman for the Bali Provincial Police Sr. Comr. Pengasihan Gaut said the police had to drive the demonstrators back to their homes after they could not be persuaded to leave the area.
"The police had no alternative but to drive away the demonstrators after negotiation and persuasion failed," he said, stressing that there were no casualties in the incident.
Gaut declined to comment on the controversial bylaw, saying that the police had a mission to enforce the law to maintain security and order and the people should go to the City Council to seek a review.
Thousands of Javanese people have migrated to the tourist island to seek work. Most have employed themselves as street vendors and food stall owners in the informal sector.
Like Denpasar, almost all municipalities under the regional autonomy have launched operations to expel migrants, who are mostly self-employed in the informal sector in an apparent attempt to minimize the social burden of accommodating them.
Many regions have argued against illegal migration, saying besides taking job opportunities from locals, unemployed migrants have also contributed to an increase in crime.