Nunukan says it's ready for influx
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.