Over 1,000 illegal workers enter KL daily

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.