KL extends amnesty for RI illegals

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Malaysia has extended again the amnesty period for hundreds of thousands of Indonesian migrants working illegally in the country after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tidal waves that hammered northern Sumatra and killed tens of thousands of people from Malaysia to Kenya.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris told The Jakarta Post here on Wednesday that Kuala Lumpur had decided to extend the amnesty period until the end of January.

"The decision was made following talks by telephone with Secretary General of the Malaysian Home Ministry Datuk Aseh this morning," he said after a limited Cabinet meeting led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the latter's office.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak said imminent mass deportations would worsen the humanitarian crisis in countries devastated by tidal waves.

"After receiving a request from Indonesia, in view of the tsunami and earthquake disaster in Sumatra, and the fact that the situation there is under a lot of pressure, the Malaysian government has decided to extend the amnesty period for illegal workers to leave the country.

"This is because we want to show we sympathize with the situation faced by the Indonesian government and people. It is one way to lighten their burden," he said as quoted by AFP.

Indonesians make up the bulk of more than a million illegal workers in Malaysia, many of them from Aceh province which bore the brunt of Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis, but Najib said the amnesty extension would apply to all illegal immigrants.

The Malaysian government had earlier extended the amnesty period until Dec. 31 to give more time for illegals to return home and to apply necessary documents to work in the neighbor country. It previously gave an amnesty period from Oct. 14 until Nov. 29 to go back to Indonesia to celebrate the idul Fitri holiday. But so far, less than 100,000 illegal workers returned, while the remaining 500,000 have been ignoring the amnesty offer.

Spokesman for the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry Hotma Panjaitan said that the government appreciated Kuala Lumpur's initiative of offering the deportation suspension out of sympathy for Indonesia and other affected countries.

"In the next few months, the government will be focusing on the national disaster -- in which the death toll is predicted to far exceed 40,000 in Aceh and North Sumatra -- as well as the rehabilitation of all affected areas," he said, while adding that Indonesia did not want the deportation to become another major problem for the government.

Rights groups had urged the Malaysian government to scrap the planned crackdown on those who have not taken advantage of the amnesty.

"Deporting migrants to unstable, disaster-stricken areas would contribute to the humanitarian crisis," Elizabeth Wong, secretary general for the National Human Rights Group said in a statement Monday.