Govt blamed for rife smuggling of workers to Malaysia

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Companies Supplying Indonesian Workers to Malaysia and Singapore (KINAS) has blamed poor coordination among government offices for the illegal entries of thousands of Indonesian job seekers into Malaysia.

Association chairman Anthon Sihombing told The Jakarta Post here on Saturday that government offices in Jakarta and the provinces, are beset by poor coordination and communication in their effort to stop Indonesian job seekers from illegally entering Malaysia.

"Almost every night hundreds of Indonesians leave the eastern shores of Sumatra for Malaysia illegally and undetected. Officials learn of this only when their boats capsize," he said.

Last year, the Bara Damai boat sank in rough seas, killing 47 people and leaving another 60 missing. Last month, a similar mishap occurred off Bagan Siapi-api, North Sumatra, in which five illegal job seekers drowned and 15 others went missing.

The central government has taken numerous measures to halt the smuggling of illegal immigrants overseas, but has not been supported by officials in the provinces and regencies, he said.

"The war against illegal immigrants should involve all related government agencies, including the navy, police, Ministry of Transportation and the immigration offices," he said.

Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to fight against the smuggling of illegal job seekers by providing them with legal documents so that they will not be exploited by brokers and employers.

The Malaysian government said recently that 50 percent of the estimated 400,000 Indonesian people working in Malaysia had entered illegally, but that most of them had been provided with legal documents.

The Malaysian government, which closed its borders to illegal immigrants two years ago, has repatriated around 5,000 illegal job seekers to Indonesia during the last five months.

The booming Malaysia with its per capita income of around US$2,900 is wooing job seekers from countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

30 tables

Anthon said that many Indonesian job seekers take risks and enter Malaysia illegally rather than bother with the notoriously complicated immigration procedures.

"Following the legal procedures, a job seeker must go through 30 tables in various government offices to get the necessary documents. If they choose the illegal way, he/she would have to pay a relatively small recruitment fee," he said.

He acknowledged that it was difficult to eradicate job-seeker smuggling, because it was well-organized, involving both Malaysian and local brokers.

"The smuggling can be stopped only if the government simplifies the existing procedures, launches information campaigns in rural areas where most of the job seekers come from and cracks down on organized syndicates smuggling the job seekers," he said.

He added that local and Malaysian brokers freely cruise around the rural areas undetected as they look for workers to be employed in Malaysia.

He said he supported the current government's move to tighten control over companies supplying Indonesian workers overseas because many small manpower supplier companies have illegally sent workers to achieve greater profits. (rms)