Illegal workers enters Malaysia through Batam

Illegal workers enters Malaysia through Batam

By Ridwan M. Sijabat

BATAM, Riau (JP): Each week hundreds of Indonesian workers are
believed to be smuggled into Malaysia through this island, a mere
15 minute crossing by boat.

A Sekupang Port official, who requested anonymity, said
Batam's location made it an ideal jumping off place for workers
to enter Malaysia through Johor, the southern-most state of the
peninsula.

Other local sources, who also declined to be named, reported
that a powerful syndicate, run by an influential local
businessman of Bugis (a South Sulawesi ethnic community) origins,
is smuggling Indonesian workers across to Malaysia from Batam.

The workers are recruited from Java, Sumatra, West and East
Nusa Tenggara and smuggled into Malaysia, they said.

The port official said the issue of Indonesian job seekers
entering Malaysia had been discussed by local government agencies
several times but so far no action had been taken.

Head of the Batam manpower office A. Dupri Noor said he was
not aware of any syndicate operating out of Batam. He stressed
that even if there were one, it was not his responsibility, but
rather that of the security agencies and the immigration office.

"The manpower ministry, including its offices in Batam and
Pekanbaru, handle only legal job seekers," Dupri told The Jakarta
Post. "If there are job seekers going to Malaysia without
necessary documents, it is the problem of the security officers
and the immigration office to handle."

He said his office had never been assigned by the Ministry of
Manpower to handle the problem of illegal Indonesian job seekers
going to Malaysia. He added that the limited budget allocated by
the central government does not enable the office to deal with
such problems.

No data

"Of course, hundreds of job seekers go to Malaysia through
Batam, but it's not our task to check whether or not they have
the necessary documents such as visas, passports and working
permits," he said.

Sejahtera Sembiring Meliala, head of the office's manpower
placement section, said an average of 14 legal job seekers are
sent to Malaysia from the island monthly. He had no data on
manpower supplier companies in Batam.

Besides Batam, the coastal areas of Dumai, Selat Panjang and
Bengkalis in Riau province are also known to be widely used by
people from Java, Madura, East and West Nusa Tenggara and South
Sulawesi as transit points to Malaysia.

Many Indonesian job seekers are continuing to try to enter
Malaysia illegally, bypassing legal channels and appointed
agencies to avoid the red tape and hefty fees.

Most of them cross the Strait of Malacca from the shores of
Sumatra or enter Malaysia from one of the islands in the Riau
archipelago. Some never make it. As many as 1,500 people have
perished in the strait when their overload boats capsized in
troubled waters.

Indonesia signed an agreement with Malaysia last December to
better coordinate the effort to stop the flow of illegal
Indonesian immigrants to Malaysia.

In follow up to this, the Ministry of Manpower plans to launch
a major operation to crack down on illegal job seekers and the
syndicates behind them in Sumatra and Kalimantan beginning next
month.