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)