Deported workers continue to suffer

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Around 1,200 Indonesian workers who have been languishing in Malaysian jails for up to seven months were left stranded in Belawan regency, North Sumatra, on Saturday after being deported from Malaysia for visa violations.

They were temporarily housed at Transito Dormitory in Belawan and demanded the local government send them home soon.

"It's our fate that after being jailed in another country, we are still abandoned in our own country. We hope the government will immediately send us home to meet our families," Supriyanto, 46, one of the workers, told The Jakarta Post.

The workers come from East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, East Java, Central Java, Sulawesi, Riau and North Sumatra.

They arrived at Belawan seaport on Friday night aboard passenger ferry KM Veruna Sakti from Klang Port, Malaysia.

The ship had had to wait for more than 10 hours in waters off Belawan as the local authorities banned it from docking in Belawan harbor, citing the absence of vehicles to take the workers to the North Sumatra capital of Medan.

The ferry was eventually allowed to dock at the port on Friday night, but the deported workers were left stranded at the harbor's terminal until Saturday morning.

No officials from the local social and manpower office were seen meeting the workers.

Hours later however, several trucks were sent by the Navy to transport the stranded workers to Transito Dormitory, where they were still languishing.

Supriyanto, a father of three children from East Java, said he and other workers wanted to return home immediately.

Iyon, an illegal worker from Riau province, said the workers were deported by the Malaysian government because they had no visas or other working permits. Others had visas that had since expired, he added.

Iyon, who worked for three months at a paper factory in Port Klang, said he had been jailed for seven months at Trenggano prison by Malaysian police before he was repatriated.

"There are still thousands of Indonesian workers jailed in Malaysia. Generally, we have been detained for between three and seven months."

He said the Malaysian authorities had prepared detention centers specifically to hold Indonesian workers there.

"These 1,200 deported workers had been detained by Malaysian police in several prisons including those in Kedah, Taipeng, Semeni and Trenggano."

North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin, who was in Belawan on Saturday to attend a Maritime Tourism ceremony, said his administration had no intention of leaving the workers stranded in the province.

He said his office did not welcome the workers because it was not aware they were arriving in Belawan.

However, the governor said he had set up a team, involving officials from the local social and manpower office, to deal with the problem so as to send them home.

"As usual, we will repatriate the workers to their respective regions."