Malaysia to deport some 4,000 RI jobseekers

Malaysia to deport some 4,000 RI jobseekers

JAKARTA (JP): Malaysia will begin deporting some 4,000
Indonesian jobseekers who have entered the country illegally, a
senior Malaysian official said.

However, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Dato Megat Junid
stressed that the move would spare these workers from the
likelihood being exploited and subjected to various abuse because
of their illegal status in Malaysia.

"It's better for them to be deported than being raped,
deceived, mistreated, or drowned in the sea," Megat told
reporters after a meeting with Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief
to discuss the fate of Indonesian workers in Malaysia.

The 4,000 illegal jobseekers, who arrived in the past two
years, did not qualify for a general amnesty granted by the
Malaysian government to some 200,000 Indonesians who work in the
country.

The 4,000 are already in police custody and will be deported
to Indonesia in the next three months at the expense of the
Malaysian government, Megat said. "I hope the Indonesian
immigration office is ready to receive them," he added.

He said Malaysia would be willing to accept them back if they
came with the proper documents. "A foreigner must have an
identity card, a passport, visa and a working permit to be able
to work in Malaysia," he said.

Hundreds of Indonesians have been killed in sea accidents in
the recent years when they tried to enter Malaysia illegally. The
last accident involved the Bara Damai ship that killed 47 people
and left approximately 60 others missing on Malaysian waters last
July.

Megat said Malaysia has a strong preference to recruit
Indonesian workers because the two countries share the same
language, religion and culture.

Some 90 percent of the 430,000 foreigners working in Malaysia
come from Indonesia, he recalled.

Skilled

He said the booming Malaysian economy, in which per capita
income has reached almost $3,000 per year, still needs hundreds
of thousands of foreigners to work in the industrial,
agriculture, tourism and construction sectors.

"In the next three years, we will spend around US$13 billion
on construction... Therefore, we need workers skilled in this
sector as well as those skilled in electronics, medicine, the
service industry and factory operation," he said

Indonesia and Malaysia recently signed an agreement that
ensured legal protection for Indonesian workers working in
Malaysia, but these only cover Indonesians who work legally.

In the past, many illegal workers in Malaysia fell into the
hands of unscrupulous brokers and their legal situation allowed
them to be viciously exploited by employers.

Latief said the Indonesian government will tighten the flow of
Indonesian workers to the neighboring country and become more
selective. He said that this was because, formerly, many of the
illegal jobseekers were either illiterate, old, or unhealthy.

The government's measures include the provision of training
for would-be workers, tightened patrols along the border, and a
crack-down on unscrupulous brokers. The government will also
simplify the procedures necessary for people to work overseas.

Megat said Malaysia will set up a special agency, scheduled to
open as of Aug. 1, to coordinate local worker recruitment
companies.

"The government will give working permits only for workers
recruited by authorized companies or agencies," he said, adding
that this system would stop illegal brokerage in that country.
(rms)