Over 1,000 illegal workers enter KL daily

Apriadi Gunawan and Fadli, Medan/Batam

A researcher at North Sumatra University (USU) revealed on Friday that at least 1,050 Indonesian migrant workers -- 35 percent were women -- illegally entered the neighboring country of Malaysia daily.

The migrant workers, who entered Malaysia via North Sumatra and Riau ports, came from various areas of Indonesia, including East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, East Java, Madura Island, West Java and Lampung province.

Researcher M. Arif Nasution said, in 70.3 percent of cases the workers were assisted by a tekong, the captain of a boat who would transport them to Malaysia.

Migrant workers who were helped by their friends comprised 11 percent of the total figure, by their relatives, 8.3 percent, and by their immediate family, 2.7 percent.

The remaining 7.7 percent of migrant workers entered Malaysia legally, according to the research, including with the help of potential employers.

Arif said, migrant workers could enter Malaysia directly or indirectly. Directly, migrant workers departed from North Sumatra or Riau ports to arrive in Malaysia. Indirectly, they would stop at several islands off Malaysia before entering Malaysia, or they would make a stopover at Singapore first.

Arif, who has been studying Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia since 1998, said labor recruitment agencies had an important role to play in the fate of the workers.

"They are deployed via Indonesian or Malaysian agents. The agents demand Rp 3 million to 4 million from each worker," said Arif, the youngest professor of the School of Political and Social Sciences at USU.

Ida, 46, a resident of Asahan regency, North Sumatra, shared her experience of entering Malaysia illegally.

She said, before she departed to Malaysia via Tanjung Balai Port, North Sumatra, in 2002, she was asked to pay Rp 3.5 million by an illegal labor-recruitment agency as a "transportation and security fee".

She said she was overworked and treated badly by her employer in Malaysia, who paid her Rp 800,000 per month. A few months later, she decided to go home to Asahan.

"I had to wash three cars a day and take care of four children. I had to wash clothes and clean the house as well. It was just too much for me," said Ida, who is now a housemaid in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.

Recently, the tragic abuse of Nirmala Bonat, an Indonesian domestic helper in Malaysia, was brought to the public's attention.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri ordered on Friday the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration to be firm in monitoring labor-recruitment agencies, otherwise, she said, labor abuse would continue unabated.

"Nirmala's case was our fault. There are procedures for sending migrant workers abroad that were violated, including the fact that Nirmala was underage. Why was an underage girl sent to Malaysia as a maid? All labor-recruitment agencies that violate procedures must be disbanded," she said, in Batam.