More RI migrant workers arrive home
More RI migrant workers arrive home
The Jakarta Post, Samarinda/Batam/Pekanbaru
A trickle of Indonesian migrant workers made their way home from
Malaysia as an amnesty program for illegal workers entered its
second day on Saturday.
The number of migrant workers returning to Indonesia was far
below what the Malaysian government was expecting, prompting it
to issue a fresh warning that the amnesty program was not a
gimmick and that Kuala Lumpur would launch a major crackdown on
illegal workers after the program ended on Nov. 14.
Most of the migrant workers returned to Indonesia by ferry,
many getting off at ports near the Malaysian border. However,
some ferries returned workers to ports as far away as Tanjung
Priok in Jakarta.
Other ports welcoming migrant workers on Saturday were Belawan
in Medan and Dumai in Riau province. Overall, some 2,000 migrant
workers arrived at various ports on Saturday, about the same
number of workers who returned to Indonesia a day earlier.
The Malaysian government stated that a total of 2,217 illegal
Indonesian workers left Malaysia on Friday, the first day of the
amnesty program.
That figure is far less than expected by the Malaysian
government, which estimated that some 20,000 illegal workers,
mostly from Indonesia, would return home each day during the
amnesty program.
This lukewarm response to the program has infuriated one
Malaysian official.
"Maybe many of them fear that the program is just a gimmick to
arrest them. But I assure them it is not. If they do not make use
of this opportunity, a nationwide crackdown will start in
January," said Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid, as quoted by
AP.
Workers arrested in such a crackdown would face jail, fines or
caning before being deported.
A similar amnesty program offered two years ago by the
Malaysian government met with a much different response. Some
70,000 migrant workers registered with the Indonesian Embassy in
Kuala Lumpur on the first day of the program two years ago,
compared to 6,000 workers this year.
Free ferry tickets provided by the Malaysian government two
years ago undoubtedly had something to do with the response of
the migrant workers. This year, workers must pay their own travel
expenses.
Despite the poor response to the amnesty program thus far,
Indonesian officials expect more migrant workers to leave
Malaysia in the coming days. Kurniawan Roebadi, a senior official
at the Indonesian Embassy, said more workers were expected to
leave the country over the next few days after they received
their salaries ahead of Idul Fitri on Nov. 14.
Kashmir Foret, the deputy regent of Nunukan regency in East
Kalimantan, said the local administration was discussing how to
handle the flow of migrant worker expected in the next few days.
One of the main points of discussion is how to provide more
temporary shelters for the workers, said Kashmir.
During a Cabinet meeting on Saturday, President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono instructed ministers to establish a national command
post where the repatriation of the migrant workers could be
monitored around the clock.