Illegal workers returning from Malaysia treated like refugees here

Illegal workers returning from Malaysia treated like refugees here

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Illegal Indonesian workers returning from Malaysia and stranded in border areas like Nunukan in East Kalimantan will be treated like refugees and receive 400 grams of rice and Rp 1,500 (16.6 U.S. cents) allowance per person from the government daily, a high-ranking official said.

The directorate general for social assistance at the Ministry of Social Affairs Sumarjati Arjoso said on Friday that such treatment would last for one month and did not apply to workers who took direct journeys to their home villages.

"We (central government) will try to do our best to serve workers returning from Malaysia who can't afford to go back home," she told The Jakarta Post after a coordination meeting with officials from other related institutions including the Navy and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

For most people here, however, the Rp 1,500 allowance is only enough to buy one-half liter of bottled mineral water.

Such treatment may further draw criticism as the government was previously deemed to have made sluggish efforts in its handling of the problem of the 480,000 illegal Indonesian.

The government has reportedly encouraged the illegal workers to return home at their own expense.

Some of the illegal workers in West Malaysia are able to finance their trips, but many in East Malaysia apparently cannot.

The government has been criticized for not being concerned for their welfare, despite their illegal status, as most of them are among the overseas workers who annually contribute about $500 million per year to the country's economy by sending money back home to family members.

To this point, some 250,000 illegal workers have returned to Indonesia, according to Hary Heriawan Saleh, a senior official at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

However, over 100,000 workers returning from Kuching, Kinabalu and Tawao in East Malaysia are still stranded in Nunukan.

While they are in transit at the border areas, Sumarjati said the stranded workers would also be given free medicine and medical checkups.

"The government will also prepare some tents for the workers if necessary, but so far local people have allowed them to stay at their houses," she said.

The official said there were also more than six vessels -- including four from the Navy and the other two from the government -- to transport the illegal workers but the ships were only able to carry some 2,000 to return to their home provinces per trip.

"We'll take care of the workers until they get to their own province. Then, the provincial officials will take over the responsibility to handle them," she said.

After their arrival in their home villages, the ministry of manpower and transmigration will start re-training the workers to upgrade their skills so that, if they want to work in Malaysia legally, they have a better chance, she said.

However, it is still unclear as to what programs the government will provide to improve the workers' qualifications.

In addition to receiving poor treatment at home, Indonesian workers who are still in Malaysia have reportedly been arrested by Malaysian Police.

In some areas, local Malaysian police started implementing the Immigration Act on Thursday, which threatens illegal workers with serious punishment.

But the arrests should not have occurred, as the Malaysian government made an 11th hour decision to delay the repatriation of the illegal immigrants for one month at the request of the Indonesian government.

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayuda called on the Malaysian immigration office on Friday not to arrest the Indonesian workers who were slow to comply.

"We ask the Malaysian immigration office not to impose legal measures against those waiting to go home as we have issued necessary documents for them," Hassan said.

The minister further said that the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia had issued 300,000 free documents for the illegal workers to go home.

He claimed that the government had increased the frequency of vessels to take the workers out of the neighboring country.

These workers are registered to go home, but we still have transportation problems, so we expect the Malaysian authorities to be a little bit more lenient, Hassan said.

"We also ask the Malaysian government to give privileges for those who would like to return to Malaysia, if their employers requested as much," the minister remarked.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is scheduled to meet with President Megawati Soekarnoputri in Jakarta later this month to discuss, among other items, the illegal Indonesian workers.