Malaysia told to punish employers that hire illegals

Malaysia told to punish employers that hire illegals

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea called on the
Malaysian government to take strict action against employers who
hired illegal workers and to tightly supervise its border areas
in a bid to stop the illegal inflow of Indonesian migrants.

For Indonesia's part, President Megawati Soekarnoputri has
instructed relevant authorities, including regional
administrations, to take necessary measures to prevent
Indonesians from attempting to enter Malaysia illegally.

"Our government's efforts to campaign for legal overseas
employment will be useless unless Malaysia takes necessary
actions on its part to tighten supervision along the border areas
and punishes Malaysian employers that hire illegal workers," Nuwa
Wea said here on Wednesday.

The minister said, however, Indonesia could not place all of
the blame on Malaysia, since besides its failure to take
preventive measures, it has insufficient job opportunities to
offer to the workers.

Thousands of Indonesians have been seeking jobs in Malaysia
also because of the higher salaries offered in the neighboriong
countryr. The number of fully jobless in Indonesia has reached
9.6 million, while the underemployment figure has reached 42
million.

Nuwa Wea pointed out that the number of illegal Indonesian
workers in Malaysia would continue increasing unless stern
actions were taken against Malaysian companies that continue to
employ illegal migrants -- mostly Indonesians. Illegal workers
are regularly caned or given jail sentences before their
deportation, but thus far no Malaysian employers have been
punished," he said, while explaining that Malaysian law calls for
caning and/or 3,500 Malaysian Ringgit (around US$920) in
punishment for any of its citizens found guilty of employing
illegal migrants.

He also revealed that the inflow of illegal Indonesians to the
neighboring country had reached between 3,000 and 4,000 per
month, but only a few hundred of them can be deported under the
bilateral agreement between the two countries inked three years
ago.

"These groups of illegal migrants that the Malaysian
immigration office has been deporting almost everyday over the
last three years is different from the planned operation to
deport around 800,000 other illegal migrants en masse," he
explained.

According to the agreement, Malaysia is responsible for
transporting the illegal workers to the ports in either Belawan,
North Sumatra, Tanjung Priok in Jakarta or Tanjung Perak in East
Java, while the Indonesian authorities are supposed to arrange
for their trips to their home villages after that.

Malaysia has recruited around 250,000 volunteers to crack down
on plantations, contruction projects and private homes and
offices employing illegal workers in its attempt to deport around
1.2 million illegal migrants due to the increasing number of
crimes in that country.

Indonesia has officially asked Kuala Lumpur to suspend the
mass deportation until after the Sept. 20 presidential vote to
avert any disturbances to the political situation at home. The
government has also been working hard to deter another Nunukan
tragedy. More than 70 Indonesians died and hundreds of others
were hospitalized in Nunukan, East Kalimantan, mostly due to
hunger and other ailments after Malaysia deported around 400,000
illegal migrants in 2002.

Nuwa Wea said after a limited Cabinet meeting on Monday that
the President had given an instruction to security authorities to
crack down on the trafficking of women and children through the
country's ports and to regional heads to educate people on the
legitimate and legal procedures required to work abroad. He also
said that stern actions against middlemen involved in human
trafficking would be considered.

The Indonesian Labor Exporters Association (Apjati) explained
that both the Malaysian government and employers had their own
interests when it came to illegal migrants.

"The presence of illegal Indonesian migrants is not a new
issue in Malaysia because in the past, the illegal migrants were
misused by the Malaysian government to support a certain
political party while Malaysian employers have profited from
their employment," Apjati Deputy Chairman Idris Laena said when
asked to comment on the issue.

Idris Laena said labor exporters were not shocked over
Malaysia's plan to launch the Nyah (deportation) Operation.

"The Malaysian government plans to deport the illegal migrants
following the recent general election that gave a majority
victory to Prime Minister Achmad Badawi and the because the palm
oil harvest season in that country is over for this year," he
said.