Workers' deportation fails to dull the attraction of Malaysia
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)