Deportees offered resettlement schemes
Deportees offered resettlement schemes
Ridwan Max Sijabat and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is offering a resettlement program for illegal
migrant workers who are not eligible for employment in Malaysia.
Director General of Demographic Mobility at the Manpower and
Transmigration Ministry Dyah Paramawatiningsih said here on
Monday her office would open special counters in 12 seaports to
register illegal migrants who wish to join the resettlement
program.
"The offer is intended for those who are unlikely to go back
to Malaysia due to age, competence or administrative reasons,"
she told a press conference after a meeting with officials from
other related ministries.
The resettlement program is seen as an alternative solution
for the government which has been seeking to helping an estimated
800,000 illegal workers set to leave Malaysia in the next three
months.
Some 300,000 of the 800,000 illegal workers are expected to
accept the amnesty Malaysian authorities have offered until Nov.
14 in connection with the Idul Fitri celebration.
Djoko Sidik Pramono, the director general for empowerment of
human resources in resettlement areas at the Manpower and
Transmigration Ministry, said the government was ready to accept
the migrant workers at nine palm oil plantations in Sumatra and
Kalimantan that could absorb around 22,500 families.
"Those who do not have the chance to return to Malaysia and
who do not have land in their home villages will be encouraged to
join the resettlement program," he said.
Djoko estimated the resettlement program would cost a total of
Rp 1.6 trillion to construct housing and prepare arable land for
palm oil estates for 22,500 families.
The housing construction will require Rp 775 billion, which
would be allocated from the ministry's 2005 and 2006 budgets
while the oil palm estates will be prepared in cooperation with
private investors and state-owned banks, Djoko said.
Thousands of migrant workers deported from Malaysia over the
last two years have been resettled in the small-holder palm oil
plantations in Natuna, Riau; Sanggau, West Kalimantan, and
Nunukan, East Kalimantan.
Dyah said each counter at seaports would be served by around
50 officials.
The seaports where the workers are heading for include Belawan
in North Sumatra, Dumai and Kijang in Riau, Tanjung Priok in
Jakarta, Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, Nunukan in East Kalimantan
and Makassar in South Sulawesi.
Besides offering the resettlement program and job
opportunities at state-owned companies, the government will help
the workers obtain necessary documents and provide job training
for migrant workers who wish to retry their luck in Malaysia.
Dyah conceded the government would be unable to create
lucrative job opportunities for the workers.
Open unemployment in the country has reached an alarming level
at 10 million.
A labor expert, however, saw the plan as unfeasible, due to
the absence of clear criteria for those who could join the
program.
"What is the criteria? If the government cannot absorb all the
migrant workers, it will only create envy among the workers,"
Wahyu Susilo of Migrant Care said.
He said resettlement used to involve the use of force.
Wahyu suggested that the government work on the documents of
the workers.
"Give them all the necessary documents and let them return to
Malaysia, where there is a big demand for Indonesian workers," he
said.