Illegal workers in Malaysia

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