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.