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.