Malaysia, RI profit from Indonesian illegal workers

Malaysia, RI profit from Indonesian illegal workers

Eddy Purwanto, Consortium for the Defense of Indonesian Migrant
Workers, Jakarta;
Yos Soetiyoso, Institute for the Study and Development
of Community Self-Support, Yogyakarta

Problems related to Indonesian migrant workers continue to
arise. It all started with our first five-year development plan
when there was an oil boom at home. Many did not get a share of
the development cake and had to try their luck abroad.
Neighboring Malaysia has become one of the main destinations of
these migrant workers. Most went abroad without proper papers.

Recently, Mahathir Mohammad expressed his anger toward these
migrant workers, particularly the illegal workers -- the
pendatang haram -- following their clashes with Malaysian police.
The planned measures to reduce Indonesian workers in Malaysia
have raised an uproar here, but Malaysia points at the frequent
misbehavior of Indonesian workers.

Despite earlier efforts, Indonesians willing to work
Malaysia's plantations and construction sites continue to pour in
illegally without much difficulty.

Take the case of Hosnan, 36, who comes from Bantur, Malang,
East Java. He was lured by a broker who told him that he could
help him earn millions of rupiah a month in Malaysia. He paid the
broker Rp 5,200,000 for a passport and a visitor's visa. He then
left for Malaysia through Belawan port in North Sumatra. In
Malaysia he worked as a bricklayer earning 40 Malaysian ringgit
(RM) a day, the equivalent of about Rp 104,000 compared to about
Rp 20,000 a day in Jakarta for the same work.

For three decades now the same pattern has applied for workers
wishing to enter East Malaysia, particularly through the towns of
Tawao in Sabah and Kuching in Sarawak. One can get into Tawao
through Nunukan and into Kuching through Entikong. A researcher
from the Consortium for the Defense of Indonesian Migrant Workers
(KOPBUMI) was told by an Indonesian passenger in a boat between
Tarakan and Nunukan in October last year, that immigrants from
his home province Flores were attracted by stories of relatives
working in Malaysia.

People from Flores and Sulawesi have long stayed in Nunukan,
working as brokers for aspiring migrants. They offer
accommodation services and help process documents such as
resident identity cards for Nunukan, passports and cross-border
passes. They will also find you jobs in Tawao. So aspiring
migrants need only tell them whether they want to work with or
without proper documents.

The most popular method is to use a cross-border pass. Anyone
with a Nunukan resident identity card is entitled to this pass.
The pass enables one to stay in Tawao for one month. Immigrants
with this pass will be taken to Tawao and then handed over to a
"foreman" to be employed at an oil palm or cocoa estate or at a
plywood mill, earning between RM 8 ringgit (about Rp 20,800 or
US$2) to RM 12 ringgit a day. The US$2 daily wage amounts to the
globally recognized income of a person living under the poverty
line, a marked contrast with what the workers were promised.

Another way is to include the name of immigrants in the pass
owned by the people fetching them. They will be taken to the
local immigration office to have their photographs taken. Then
these photographs will be affixed to the pass belonging to those
fetching them.

Obtaining the necessary documents does not always mean
spending a lot of money or going through red tape. In every
public service there is always a way to grease the wheels. One of
the documents commonly used by illegal workers is the certificate
of good conduct issued by the police in Indonesia.

When one is found in a police raid using the necessary
certificate of good conduct to apply for a job, one only has to
pay a fine of Rp 10,000 to Rp 25,000 at the office of the
Kinabalu-based Indonesian Consulate.

A survey by another center working with migrants, the Malang-
based Foundation for Rural Development (YPP) in 1998 found that
the illegal method of seeking work in Malaysia was preferred
because hardly any documents like diplomas were needed, and
because costs were lower.

In Tawao and Sebatik, registered workers must pay a guarantee
fee worth RM 100 to RM 500, depending on their job. Then they
will have to pay a levy of between RM 200 and RM 550 and a
monthly residence contribution fee of RM 100. Those who are
unregistered only need to pay the residence contribution fee of
RM 100 a month.

Malaysian workers generally avoid menial and dirty jobs. When
Malaysia built various kinds of public works and a number of
public facilities, the country received much help from migrant
workers -- including illegal ones.

Illegal workers benefit employers given their vulnerability.
Often Indonesian migrant workers do not receive their pay for
three to six months under the pretext that this is intentionally
arranged to ensure that they will not spend all their money while
in Malaysia.

While still waiting for their pay, they are often raided,
arrested and detained. Then the foreman or the employer will come
to free them and tell them that all their money was spent to bail
them out. "You have no more money left. If you want money, you
must work again," they would be told. Things would go on like
this until these migrant workers are deported, penniless and left
virtually with only the shirt on their back.

Thanks to these migrant workers, Indonesia could see its
earlier unemployment rate of 50 million people reduced without
having to open up more job opportunities. Besides, the foreign
exchange earnings from migrant workers in Malaysia in 2001 alone,
for example, was some RM 2.5 million. This simple illustration
shows that the two countries benefit from the presence of
Indonesian migrant workers.

However, the labor policies of the two countries always find
fault with these migrant workers, particularly those labeled as
illegal immigrants.

In terms of rupiah, the earnings of Indonesian migrant workers
are in the millions. However, the standard of living in Malaysia
is also high. This means that they live just above the water
while at the same time they are overshadowed by the presence of
the Malaysian police, who prey upon legal and illegal migrants if
they are found without their passports.

This extortion of money is conducted in many ways: through
door-to-door visits by the police, in raids at the workplace and
in street raids. During police "visits", Indonesian migrant
workers must prepare bribes of between RM 50 and RM 100 per head.
Every month two visits are expected.

Any worker caught in a raid loses all the money he is
carrying. Anyone caught in the workplace with no money on him
will have his fine paid by the foreman, who will later deduct the
amount from his salary.

Any worker nabbed in a street raid with no money will be
allowed by the police to borrow money from friends. Those who
fail to come up with the money land in an immigration camp. The
Malaysian police seem to be nurturing this source of side income.

Indonesian government data shows that about 36,000 Indonesian
migrant workers are being held in Malaysian immigration camps and
that they have been mistreated by the Malaysian police. Those
kept in these camps are often whipped with rattan canes or
pummeled with fists.

The riot, or more accurately, the protest, involving
Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia broke out after 16 of
their colleagues were arrested for alleged drug use. The
solidarity protest to free these detainees led to clashes with
the Malaysian police.

It is not yet clear how the migrant workers obtained drugs.
Anyone with extra money would likely use it to bribe police for
their release. Malaysia also exercises very tight control over
drugs and capital punishment awaits anybody found using or
trafficking drugs.

Therefore it appears questionable that the workers, who came
to Malaysia to seek work, were indeed using or trafficking drugs
which could mean risking losing their jobs and even their lives.
Such allegations, if untrue, might have indeed led to their
aggression.

In addition the accumulation of problems may have added to
their pent-up anger and disillusionment.

Wisdom is hence needed in settling this problem on both the
Indonesian and Malaysian side. Instead, Mahathir became furious
and the response from Indonesia was confusing -- while many, also
on Indonesia's side, blamed the Indonesian workers.

Despite demands to do so it does not seem that the Indonesian
government is ready to take diplomatic measures at the level of
head of state. Meanwhile, thousands of Indonesians are crying out
for assistance. They have nurtured high hopes of seeking a better
life for themselves and their families, but instead have been
subject to insult, condemnation and torture.

For the sake of the nation and for the sake of humanity, it is
time that a firm stance should be shown and diplomatic measures
taken. In their rallies the workers were seen unfurling the red-
and-white flag, a sign that they are Indonesians who now urgently
need, and are entitled to, protection at least from their own
country, if not from their host country.