New deal sought with Malaysia on migrant workers overseas

New deal sought with Malaysia on migrant workers overseas

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government will propose to the Malaysian government a new
memorandum of understanding (MOU) allowing Indonesians deported
for working illegally in Malaysia, to reenter that country and
work legally after being trained in Indonesia.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said here on Wednesday that
the MOU would be raised during bilateral talks between President
Megawati Soekarnoputri with her Malaysian counterpart Mahathir
Mohamad in Bali on Aug. 7 and Aug. 8.

"All deportees will be trained in certain skills before they
are sent to that country," the minister said after meeting with
the president at the Presidential Palace.

"The idea, we consider, should be set in a new framework of
the memorandum of understanding."

He said the new MOU was being drafted by the Ministry of
Manpower and Transmigration and was expected to be finalized for
Mahathir's arrival.

Mahathir is scheduled to arrive in Bali on Aug. 7, to discuss
several issues, including Indonesian workers.

Indonesia and Malaysia have been trapped in the illegal
workers issue after dozens of illegal workers from Indonesia
rioted in two separate incidents in Malaysia.

The latest riot happened on Jan. 7, this year in the city of
Seremban. Dozens of Indonesians were arrested.

Malaysia has since decided to halve its number of migrant and
informal workers and is set to impose harsher punishments on
illegal workers, including beating them with a cane and imposing
jail terms, on Aug. 1.

Currently, there are around 500,000 illegal Indonesian workers
in Malaysia. About 25,000 have been deported or have returned
home during the three-month amnesty period.

Hassan said that the government has called on Indonesian
workers still working illegally in Malaysia to return home to
prepare their immigration and identity documents to work in that
country.

"We have been informed about the new act and we have been
deporting the workers, it is too bad if the workers do not want
to use the amnesty period to come home."

He said the government would do nothing to interfere in
Malaysia's internal affairs.

The workers, mostly from North Sumatra, Java, Nusa Tenggara
were deported to the Indonesian seaports in North Sumatra, Java,
Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi.

Syahrir Tadjudin, chairman of the local manpower office in
Makassar, South Sulawesi, said that Malaysia had deported more
than 24,000 illegal immigrants through Nunukan in East Kalimantan
since Feb., 2002.

He said more illegal workers were expected to return home in
the next seven days before the Malaysian immigration law came
into effect.

The number of Indonesians living in Malaysia has reached more
than one million and almost 50 percent of them were estimated to
be without the valid documents to stay and work in the
neighboring country.