RI insists illegal workers are not criminals

RI insists illegal workers are not criminals

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has appealed to Malaysia not to crack down on
Indonesians working in the neighboring country illegally, and not
to treat them like criminals, otherwise, Indonesia will stop
supplying workers in the future.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said
that Indonesia hoped the shooting of an Indonesian illegal alien
in Selangor over the weekend was the last such incident.

"With no intention of interfering in Malaysia's internal
affairs, the Malaysian authorities should not use guns to crack
down on illegal workers, and should not treat them in such a
brutal way, because they are not criminals. They are actually in
Malaysia to work to earn money, or in other words, to help
develop Malaysia, and their presence has benefited not only the
country but also its employers," he said after the closing
ceremony of a national meeting of Indonesian industrial relations
mediators, here on Tuesday.

Unus Arte, a 30-year-old worker from Flores, East Nusa
Tenggara, suffered serious burns to his legs while attempting to
escape during a police raid on a plantation in Rawang district,
Selangor state. He remains in intensive care at a hospital in
Selangor.

The incident has sparked a series of protests and numerous
non-governmental organizations' condemnation of the Indonesian
and Malaysian authorities. Malaysia also came under fire when the
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch reported the abuse of foreign
migrants, including Indonesian workers. It claimed that the
workers were employed for more than ten hours a day, seven days a
week; that they were underpaid and that their monthly salaries
were often withheld.

The Malaysian government has enrolled the assistance of
250,000 volunteers to crack down on around 1.2 million illegal
workers -- mostly from Indonesia -- on plantations, and in
industrial zones and construction projects, under the belief that
their presence has contributed to increasing crime in that
country.

Nuwa Wea added that Indonesia, through the foreign ministry,
had officially protested the shooting incident: "Besides sending
a diplomatic note, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur has
been asked to help disseminate information on the planned
deportation of illegal aliens, by telling them not to attempt to
escape once the raid is launched," he said.

He said that Indonesia and Malaysia had agreed to deport the
illegal aliens in phases, to avoid human rights violations, such
as those that occurred in Nunukan in 2002.

"Indonesia will certainly suspend the labor supply, or stop it
permanently, if the Malaysian authorities conduct the raid in an
uncivilized manner. Indonesia has stopped supplying workers to
Taiwan until now, and it took similar action regarding Saudi
Arabia in the 1990s," he said, adding that the government had no
problem stopping the supply of workers if Malaysia did not
respect human rights.

Legislator of the Golkar Party Rekso Ageng called on the
government to temporarily suspend labor supply to Malaysia, in an
attempt to evaluate official procedure for labor export and to
prevent workers from entering Malaysia illegally.

"For the time being, we should suspend labor supply to
Malaysia. All workers sent to Malaysia should undergo special
training, to equip them with the required skills, and to entitle
them to a higher salary," he said, citing that Malaysia's
economic development had been heavily dependent on Indonesian
workers.