JP/7/FAIZA

JP/7/FAIZA
Indonesian workers caught in debt bondage in Malaysia

Debt slaves plight ignored by Government

Faiza Mardzoeki
Coordinator, Organization and Education
Women's Solidarity (SP)
Jakarta

The planned deportation of more than 400,000 Indonesian
workers from Malaysia only reinforces their status as debt
slaves. Malaysia now has almost 2 million Indonesian guest
workers with legal status and another 500,000 without the proper
documents. Malaysia's new laws on foreign workers, and the
Indonesian government's pathetic acceptance of these laws almost
without any protest, buries most of the deported workers in even
greater debt, making them even more the slaves of Malaysian
plantation and construction companies and Indonesian labor
agencies.

The new Malaysian law has forced them to leave Malaysia. But
most of them want to return to Malaysia. There is still work
there, while there is no work in their home provinces in
Indonesia. As Malaysia's construction sector faced the threat of
coming to a halt, it, at least for now, has discontinued the
planned deportation.

More than 100,000 Indonesians working on the plantations and
construction sites in Sabah have recently passed through the tiny
island of Nunukan, in East Kalimantan. According to a
spokesperson from the Ministry of Labor, there are more than
50,000 deportees now in Nunukan, a district of only 30,000 local
inhabitants. Most of these workers originally come from provinces
like Flores and South Celebes, as well as from Java.

I visited Nunukan for a week in early August to gather data
for Solidaritas Perempuan (Women's Solidarity) and Solidaritas
Buruh Migran Indonesia (Solidarity for Indonesian Migrant
Workers). I spoke to many of these workers, many of them thin
from malnutrition and hard work. In every case, they told a story
of debt bondage. Working in Malaysian plantations without
documents, they were already subject to harassment and
exploitation by employers. Many are paid only between 6 to 8
Malaysian ringgit a day, when most surveys state that one needs
15 ringgit per day for a decent life.

Most of them quickly fall into debt to their employer, binding
them to conditions of long hours and low wages.

The new wave of forced deportations only deepens this
indebtedness. Almost all the workers I spoke to explained that
they had to borrow money, usually around 150 ringgit, from their
employers so that they could buy food and other basic needs on
their journey to Nunukan, and for their first few days on the
island. That money was to be paid back later through deductions
from the workers 6 ringgit per day.

But the deportation indebtedness goes deeper than that. To
have new documents issued and while they wait for that to happen,
the fate of the workers is surrendered to the various labor
agencies. They find "accommodation", if you can call it that, for
some of the workers.

More than 10,000 were crowded under the tarpaulin shelters
along the main road at Sungai Bolong provided by labor agency, PT
Kaltim. All the workers living under PT Kaltim's tarpaulin were
getting into deeper debt. They would be billed by the agency for
the "shelter" as well as the two miserable meals of salted fish
and scrawny vegetables.

Still, if they wanted to bathe in the temporary bathrooms at
the back of the nearby markets, they needed to pay Rp 2,000 per
person. To go to the toilet costs Rp 1,000.

On top of that, they would need to borrow more money for their
passports, for passport photographs and everything else required
by the bureaucratic process.

But all the effort still falls upon the workers themselves. I
stood outside the Nunukan Immigration Office and watched the
thousands of workers line up to see the Immigration officials.

The tiny office at Nunukan usually handles 800 applicants per
day. They had received not a single extra staff member from
Jakarta, but they managed to get through 1,300 people per day.
But still thousands milled around outside the office desperate
for their papers.

Most workers said that they ended up with debts of between
1,200 and 1,500 Malaysian ringgit to the agency on top of the 150
ringgit debt to their employer.

And then in 12 months time it was time to renew documents and
the whole indebtedness process started again.

The new Malaysian laws are not immigration laws but laws
entrenching debt slavery. The Indonesian government's
acquiescence in this policy is acquiescence in the debt bondage
of hundreds of thousands of Indonesian citizens.

In fact, there is obviously no need for these laws at all.
After all, most of the workers are going to return to Malaysia.
Why did they need to leave Malaysia in the first place? Their
documents could have been much more easily renewed in Malaysia
itself. In today's world, there are more and more people seeking
work outside their own countries, especially where their own
countries are mismanaged by their governments and exploited by
foreign interests.

That is why there are almost 2.5 million Indonesians working
in Malaysia. So the Indonesian and Malaysian government have a
responsibility to ensure that these workers are guaranteed their
rights and not turned into slaves.

The Indonesian government should demand the repeal of the new
laws in Malaysia. Indonesia should seek a new arrangement whereby
Indonesian workers in Malaysia can renew their documents without
leaving Malaysia. All Indonesian illegal workers in Malaysia
should be granted an amnesty now and helped to arrange for new
documents.

Meanwhile the 50,000 Indonesian workers in Nunukan need urgent
aid. The special health post set up to service the tens of
thousands of deported debt slaves has only two doctors. The local
health center, which has to service also the whole of Nunukan's
own inhabitants, has only seven doctors. Already at least 22
people have died, as confirmed by a physician of the Nunukan
health center and a volunteer of the Nusatenggara Community
Association. There were only 10 tents supplied by the government.
There is an emergency in Nunukan but there is no emergency
response. Shelter, more doctors and nurses, and proper food is
needed urgently.

In fact, a government that really cared about its citizens and
did not want them to become exported slave laborers would do even
more. It would provide free food for them while they renewed
their documents and it would waive all passport and other
bureaucratic fees. In that way, all these hard working
Indonesians would be able to return to Malaysia to work free of
the debt that is enslaving them.

At the moment, the Malaysian government collects a head tax on
every migrant worker. The agencies collect their fees from the
migrant workers. The Indonesian bureaucracy receives its fees and
tribute. The Indonesian workers seeking a livelihood overseas
find themselves as debt slaves.