E. Timor to deport jobless migrants

E. Timor to deport jobless migrants

DILI, East Timor (JP): The territory, which has been rocked twice by ethnic violence over the past couple of months, will draw up a regulation aimed at reducing the number of migrants from other provinces.

Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares told a press conference here last week that the legislation was expected to be passed "in the near future."

The regulation will, among others things, authorize the local government to expel jobless people who are originally from other provinces, according to Abilio.

"Expulsion of unemployed migrants is expected to reduce the number of people from other provinces in a bid to ease tension resulting from social envy", he said.

The governor announced the plan a week after an incident in which a migrant from South Sulawesi stabbed to death a local youth over a minor feud. The migrant also died in hospital of his wounds a few days later.

The stabbing sparked rioting on new year's eve in Baucau, 180 kilometers east of here, in which dozens of shops were burned down and several people were injured.

East Timor, which was integrated into Indonesia in 1976, is lacking in natural and human resources. Unemployment has been a prominent issue, with hundreds of local educated people entering the job market each year.

According to Abilio, about 25,000 people enter the territory every year, to seek employment or start a business.

"In the future, the province will have to expel jobless migrants", Abilio said, in response to journalists' questions about the provincial government's strategy for solving the growing problem of unemployment.

Meanwhile, East Timor Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, on his return from a visit to Baucau, said on Saturday that he had been deeply saddened by the bloody incident.

He said it was difficult to obtain reliable information about it. The Baucau regent had told him that two persons had died and five had been injured, he said.(yac/pan)