Jakarta warned against rejecting new migrants

Jakarta warned against rejecting new migrants

JAKARTA (JP): A labor activist and a human rights campaigner
warned the Jakarta authorities yesterday against closing the
doors of the capital to fresh migrants, calling such a policy
ineffective and a human rights violation.

Bomer Pasaribu, the chairman of the Federation of All
Indonesian Workers Union, predicted increased migration to
Jakarta this year as people sought to escape from rural poverty
to try their luck here.

Bomer, who also heads the Center for Labor and Development
Studies, said that it was almost impossible for Jakarta to
prevent rural people from coming in.

"They are coming to Jakarta because their stomachs force them
to," he told The Jakarta Post.

Asmara Nababan, a member of the National Commission on Human
Rights, described the policy of restricting people's search for a
better life as a violation of human rights.

The Jakarta administration has deployed officials at bus and
railway stations to round up people suspected of being vagrants
and jobless as they disembark from buses or trains along with
city residents who returned to their hometowns to celebrate Idul
Fitri.

The administration has predicted that 300,000 fresh migrants,
mostly unskilled laborers, will be joining the returnees this
week.

While stopping short of declaring Jakarta a closed city, the
authorities are weary that these fresh migrants will add to the
city's unemployment and homelessness problems.

The officials will check people's ID cards; those without a
place to stay and a job will be sent home. Their return journeys
will be paid for by the Jakarta Social Welfare Agency.

Bomer and Asmara warned of social and political upheavals if
the Jakarta administration used coercive measures against fresh
rural migrants.

While they accepted there was no short-cut solution to the
Jakarta's problems, the two men advocated greater public
investment in the regions, which would create jobs and therefore
take the pressure off Jakarta.

Nababan, also the executive secretary of the International NGO
Forum on Indonesian Development, said the government should
accelerate rural development to reduce the huge economic
disparity between the capital and the provinces. (09)