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.