Workers' deportation fails to dull the attraction of Malaysia

The Indonesian Navy ship KRI Tanjung Oisina repatriated 1,725 illegal workers and their children on May 5 from Johor, Malaysia. The operation was part of a mass deportation supported by the Indonesian government and aimed at reducing the number of illegal workers in Malaysia, estimated to be 200,000 of the one million Indonesian workers there. The Jakarta Post photographer IGN Oka Budhi Yogaswara, who joined the operation, compiled the following report and pictures.

ABOARD TANJUNG OISINA (JP): They had worked as housemaids, construction workers and plantation laborers. Many had tried to look for better work but failed to tell authorities when they found new employment. They ended up in camps for illegal workers who could not produce the appropriate documents and, eventually, from among the thousands of detainees, some were sent home.

The 1,580 men, 136 women and nine infants who departed on May 5 were from the detention camps of Pekan Nanas in Johor, Lenggeng in Seremban, Juru in Penang, Langkap in Perak and Machap Umbo in Malacca.

At the docks in Pasir Gudang, Johor, some of the group were decked out in fine clothes while others wore torn, filthy garments. Some were too smelly to even get near. They told of good treatment at the camps.

But, once on board and away from the rather tense atmosphere at the docks, their tales completely changed with various versions of violence and sexual abuse. They were too afraid to file reports as some fellow detainees had died from the beatings.

Faces reflected relief and many pledged they would never go back. But others said they would try anything to get another job in Malaysia, where pay for manual labor was much higher than in Indonesia.

"Malaysians do not want to do crude work," one of them said.

Despite the risks, they said they would still ignore procedures and use brokers as the legal means were "too complicated and lengthy".

Tanjung Oisina left Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta on May 1. After arriving in Johor on May 5, it only took a couple of hours for the workers to board and be check before the ship departed for Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, where about 1,108 men and women disembarked on May 10. The ship docked at Lembar Port in Lombok two days later to drop off 617 passengers and arrived in Jakarta on May 17.

Eight hundred and fifty-nine workers were from East Java, 599 from East Nusa Tenggara and the remainder were from other areas in Java, West Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Jakarta.

The captain and chief of the 60-strong joint task force in charge of the operation was Commander Suryono. The team comprised members of the marines, Military Sea Traffic Authority, Navy Frogmen, immigration and Ministry of Manpower officials, and other government and military elements. (oby)