RI workers in Malaysia not abused: Activists

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights activists, just returning from Malaysia, have refuted reports that 6,000 Indonesian workers are locked up and being abused in the neighboring country's detention centers.

Baharuddin Lopa, secretary-general of the National Committee on Human Rights, said on Saturday several committee members had gone to eight centers and could not substantiate the reports or find evidence that illegal Indonesian workers there had been abused.

"It is not true that Indonesian workers are kept in detention centers. They are being accommodated in decent camps pending their deportation," he told reporters.

According to Lopa, the Malaysian government's treatment of the workers in no way violates their basic rights as reported in local newspapers.

However, he acknowledged that many of the workers were dissatisfied with the drinking water and toilets, the supply of which they said was inadequate.

Members of the commission visited Malaysia last week following local press and labor activists' reports that several thousand Indonesian workers entering Malaysia illegally have been detained and treated badly.

Several hundred thousand Indonesians work, many illegally, on plantations and construction projects in the prospering country.

Although the two neighbors have agreed to ease immigration procedures, many Indonesian job seekers opt to go illegally under the arrangements of labor brokers.

Tenaganita, a Malaysian NGO, earlier sent a report to the Indonesian embassy based on a survey of the condition of 340 detainees in Semenyih, Juru, Kelantan, Johor and Malaka detention centers.

Tenaganita stated that many Indonesian workers have been treated badly, and that some of the detainees have been raped and tortured.

Lopa said that the workers should be grateful for what the Malaysian government has provided them.

"They eat properly every day, three meals without having to spend even one rupiah," he said.

He said the number of workers accommodated in the camps changes every day.

"We noted on April 10 that there were 7,658 Indonesian workers kept in eight camps throughout Malaysia," he said.

He said that the team has visited the eight camps, in which illegal Indonesian workers are kept before being deported back to Indonesia.

Lopa proposed that the Indonesian government ease immigration procedures further to encourage local workers to go legally.

"We were told that the complicated immigration procedures are the main reason why so many people have entered Malaysia illegally," he said. (imn)