Nunukan says it's ready for influx

Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Tawao

Nunukan regental government is ready to receive the influx of tens of thousands of illegal Indonesian migrant workers to be deported from Malaysia in the next few months.

Deputy Regent of Nunukan, Kasmir Foret, said on Saturday that the Nunukan government is building large barracks to accommodate the migrant workers.

The government has also has set aside a fund for travel expenses for poor migrant workers who wish to return to their homes after they are deported from Malaysia, he said.

"The government will pay for the travel expenses for workers who don't have sufficient money," said Kasmir.

The Malaysian government will deport the majority of illegal Indonesian migrant workers by January next year. The entry point will be Tunon Taka seaport in Nunukan.

"We were just informed by our consulate general in Kinabalu, Malaysia, that the illegal migrant workers will be deported by January next year at the latest," said Kasmir, quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

Kasmir also said that Nunukan government had alerted some 30 Indonesian migrant worker recruit agencies to assist the deported migrant workers with immigration procedures and working permits for those wishing to return to Malaysia.

Kasmir estimated that some 700 legal Indonesian migrant workers will travel to Nunukan by January next year, either to arrange immigration documents or to journey to their hometown.

"The illegal migrant workers wishing to return to Malaysia following deportation, should contact their migrant worker recruit agencies to arrange working permits and immigration documents. But, if they choose to return to their homes, then we will pay the travel expenses for those who don't have the money," said Kasmir.

Meanwhile, chief of Nunukan social office Asmah Gani said that from January to September this year, the office had financed travel expenses for 252 poor migrant workers from Java island, Sulawesi island and East Nusa Tenggara province.

According to data at Nunukan Immigration Office, 18,888 passports for male migrant workers and 7,422 female migrant workers were issued, from January to August this year.

Separately, many Indonesian migrant workers had their share of bad luck while they lived in Malaysia. Among them were nine Indonesian migrant workers from Banten province who escaped from a plantation where they had previously worked and were sheltered by the Indonesian consulate in Tawao, Malaysia.

One of the migrant workers, Hasriawinata, 47, explained that he went to Malaysia in May this year as a legal migrant worker with a working permit and proper immigration documents. He was promised a job at a plantation in Borneo Samudera area, but instead, he got a job at a plantation in Boustat, Sabah.

He said that he was treated unfair there. He worked 24 days a month and he was promised 12 ringgit (US$3.15) per day or 288 ringgit per month.

But, his employer only gave him 204 ringgit per month. The company said that it had to deduct 84 ringgit to pay administrative costs to the migrant worker recruit agency in Indonesia and taxes.

Feeling cheated, Hasriawinata fled the plantation along with eight other Indonesians and stayed at the Indonesian consulate in Tawao before returning to their hometowns.