Expelled workers vow to return to Malaysia

Jupriadi and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Makassar/Medan

Despite the threat of caning, fines and imprisonment, Aco, a 35- year old Indonesian worker fleeing Malaysia, still dreams of going back once the situation has returned to normal.

"I will go back to Malaysia sooner or later," Aco told The Jakarta Post on Thursday in Parepare, South Sulawesi.

Aco is just one of some 10,000 Indonesian workers from Parepare and surrounding regencies who fled Malaysia after the country put into effect an immigration law that seeks to punish foreign laborers working illegally in the country.

He, together with some 2,000 other workers, arrived in Parepare, about 170 kilometers north of the provincial capital, Makassar, on July 31.

"Even though the Malaysian authorities have already expelled me, I will go back," Ako said when asked about his plans for the future.

Aco said Sabah had become his second home, more than just a place to earn a living.

"I felt happy there. It is so difficult to forget Sabah. So despite difficulties, I will definitely go back to Malaysia," he stressed.

Aco worked on a plantation in Sabah, Malaysia for two years, earning RM 300 or Rp 850,000 per month, barely enough to support his wife and two children back home.

Aco said he and his friends were initially very reluctant to return to Indonesia, thinking that the immigration law was just a bluff.

"But later the plantation owner got so frightened because both Indonesian workers and plantation owners would be caned, fined and imprisoned. We all got so afraid that finally we decided to leave Malaysia," he said.

Malaysia, home to some 300,000 illegal Indonesian workers, put into effect on Thursday its new immigration law, which seeks to cane, fine, and imprison both foreigners working there without proper documentation and Malaysian employers who hire them.

Aco fled Sabah through Nunukan, East Kalimantan, from where he and some 2,000 fellow workers took a passenger ship to Parepare.

He is now living with members of his family in Parepare.

"I happen to have family members here. Before going home to Enrekang, I want to buy some goods as gifts for may family back home," Aco said.

Unlike Aco, Tahar, 32, a worker from Sinjai, said he would not return to Malaysia.

"I will not go back to Malaysia; I want stay in Sinjai and do some farming there," he said.

Tahar said he abandoned his workplace immediately after he learned that illegal workers would be caned.

"I got so frightened, and everybody was afraid. So, I decided to return to Indonesia," he said.

"We took all our belongings, including livestock, because we didn't know if we would ever return (to Malaysia)," he said.

Another worker, Setiadi, who arrived in Belawan, North Sumatra on Wednesday said that he did not have proper documentation.

"While I was in Malaysia, I had to change my workplace all the time," said Setiadi, who hails from Kali Angin, Sumenep, Madura, East Java.

Setiadi, who worked as a freelance furniture maker in East Java before going to Malaysia, said he decided to take the risk of entering and working illegally in Malaysia because he had been unemployed for so long.

"I was jobless for seven years. I could not stand seeing my wife working as the breadwinner," Setiadi, a father of three, told the Post in Medan on Thursday.

He said he was once arrested by Malaysian police because he did not have a work permit.

"We were wrong to work in a foreign country without proper documentation. The expulsion should be accepted with forbearance," he said.

Abdaluddin, 32, of Asahan, North Sumatra, said he had to pay Rp 1.5 million to the owner of the ship that took him illegally to Malaysia.

He said he entered Malaysia several times illegally, as ship owners often paid Rp 200,000 to Rp 1,000,000 to coastal security officers.

"To enter Malaysia, you have to pass nine security posts and must pay a bribe at each. Otherwise, you would be forced to return to Indonesia," Abdaluddin said.