Fake passports for RI workers

PEKANBARU, Riau: Thousands of Indonesians are working in Malaysia with fake passports and documents, Antara reported on Saturday.

Hamsuk Wijaya of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur said that police and immigration officials of both Indonesia and Malaysia had found fake passports during a recent worker registration drive.

"We found 100 fake passports, but we suspect that the real number could be in the thousands," he said, adding that such rampant document frauds could be the result of syndicates of counterfeiters.

"Those passports were not only made by Indonesians, but also Malaysian nationals," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians are currently working in booming Malaysia, hoping to make a better life. A great number of them work in plantations, construction projects and electronic factories. (swe)