Illegal workers in Malaysia

Security officers in the Riau province town of Dumai have again aborted an attempt to smuggle hundreds of illegal workers to Malaysia.

News of this kind has appeared regularly in newspapers, often with shocking accounts of workers drowning at sea when the crowded boats they were using to cross the Malacca Straits sank.

A combination of poverty and unemployment forces people to take the risk of working illegally overseas. Their courage is an act of honor as much as it is of desperation. However, we do have a law stipulating that all everyone must possess travel documents to go abroad. And the workers are obviously violating this law.

The officers who intercepted the workers in Riau were acting on the grounds of this law. By so doing the officers saved them from an uncertain fate on foreign soil.

The government must impress upon the public that the law has been set in place for the good of all. The determination of the unemployed to get a job as soon as possible is understandable, but they should not resort to violating the law, putting their lives at risk by doing so.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta