Deported RI workers left stranded

Deported RI workers left stranded

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

At least 176 Indonesian workers have been stranded in North
Sumatra and are waiting to be returned to their homes throughout
the archipelago after being deported from Malaysia, security
officers said Saturday.

The workers, including 72 women, were left abandoned by their
brokers in the town of Panyabungan in Mandailing Natal regency
after they arrived at Belawan Port in the provincial capital of
Medan on Thursday.

Police and military removed them on Saturday from several
places where they had been sheltering in Mandailing Natal.

The deported workers are now sheltering at the Mandailing
Natal Police station before they are returned to their hometowns
in Madura and Surabaya in East Java; Lombok in West Nusa
Tenggara; West Kalimantan; Batam, Dumai and Pekanbaru in Riau.

Panyabungan military chief Capt. Yamin Sohar said the
deportees were moved after two of them reported their problems to
his office.

He said his personnel and police had managed to arrest several
brokers suspected of transporting them to Mandailing Natal from
Belawan Port.

The illegal workers told investigators that the brokers had
promised to take them from Mandailing Natal to Dumai aboard a bus
before sending them home, Yamin said.

However, the suspects left the workers stranded in
Panyabungan, he added.

Mandailing Natal Police deputy chief Adj. Comr. A.M. Kamal
vowed to try to find the main suspects behind the case.

"This act cannot be justified because it makes people suffer,"
he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia is watching all entry points fearing that
many illegal migrants would attempt to return to Malaysia after
leaving for Idul Fitri celebrations, AFP reported Saturday.

Marine police would ensure that foreign workers without proper
permits who left the country would not be able to reenter, Aseh
Che Mat, the Home Ministry's secretary-general, was quoted as
saying.

To date, a total of 1,200 illegal immigrants have been caned
by Malaysian authorities under tough immigration laws introduced
on Aug. 1 last year.

More than 300,000 mainly Indonesian illegal immigrants left
Malaysia last year under a four-month amnesty.