KL to stop importing workers

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta fully respects Malaysia's decision to stop importing workers, including from Indonesia, and hopes that the ruling will only be temporary, Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief said over the weekend.

"Surely Malaysia made the decision based on its domestic conditions. We respect it," Latief said from Kuala Lumpur, where he joined some 13,000 Indonesian workers at a concert featuring Indonesian singers.

However, he said, "I believe the policy was not meant to be long-term. Maybe until December.

"I believe the policy will not harm Indonesia. It applies to all workers from exporting countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Besides, the ruling applies to new imports. The placement of workers who were recruited before July can proceed," he said.

The Malaysian government announced in July that it would stop importing workers long enough to give it time to deal with the problem of illegal workers, including those from Indonesia.

Latief called on Indonesia's illegal workers in Malaysia to abide by the rules and arrange the necessary documents. "The Indonesian embassy will help you," he said.

He also called on workers who are illiterate, ill or otherwise less than capable to go home. "Illiterate people find it difficult to work at home, much more so in Malaysia," he said.

Indonesia and Malaysia recently agreed to deport illegal workers from Indonesia to their hometowns, rather than to nearby Pekanbaru in the province of Riau. Most of the workers are from East Java and East Nusa Tenggara.

The Antara news agency reported that some 11,000 illegal Indonesian workers are currently sheltered at Malaysian immigration camps awaiting deportation.

Between January and April this year, Malaysia deported nearly 10,000 Indonesians to Dumai port in Riau. More than 300,000 Indonesians work, either legally or otherwise, in Malaysia's plantation and construction sectors.

The government expects at least 2.5 million Indonesians to be employed overseas by year 2000 in the hopes of generating US$12.5 billion in foreign exchange a year and reducing unemployment at home.

Currently, nearly 800,000 Indonesians, mostly unskilled, work legally overseas, mostly in Malaysia and Australia.

However, along with the increase in foreign investment here, the number of foreign workers employed in Indonesia has also been rising. More than 57,000 foreigners are currently working here, receiving a combined income total of US$24 billion a year.

The government will soon audit foreign professionals working here to establish the abilities and qualities that Indonesian workers need to compete with foreign workers, Latief recently said.

Following harsh criticism of the poor protection and abuse of Indonesian workers abroad, the government recently decided to phase out the sending of menial workers into informal sectors and increase the number of skilled people able to find work in better-paid, better-protected formal sectors. (swe)