'No funds to repatriate workers'

MATARAM: West Nusa Tenggara's provincial administration has no funds to repatriate 2,200 of its workers in Malaysia.

Abdul Kadir, secretary of the provincial administration, said some Rp 500 million (US$50,000) was required to cover the costs of bringing the workers home.

The 2,200 are part of 7,000 workers who have been arrested and accommodated at numerous detention camps for having entered the neighboring country illegally. The two countries have agreed to share the total costs involved for the workers' repatriation and the central government has offered to carry some of the costs incurred by the provinces where the workers come from.

"The provincial administration has encountered some confusion when seeking funds because it has never been allocated money to handle such a problem in its budget," Kadir said here on Saturday.

Sutanto, chief of the local manpower and transmigration ministry office, said the workers would be repatriated in the immediate future. --Antara