Workers fail to cross border

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan: Four hundred and fifty people who were planning to enter Malaysia illegally were netted on Wednesday during a clean-up operation led by Pontianak mayor R.A. Siregar.

The job seekers, hoping to work in Malaysia's state of Sarawak, had been stranded in Pontianak for around two to three months, after a private-run manpower agency failed to dispatch them to their employers.

The agency, unable to provide them with passports, has accommodated them in the houses of local people and most of them have not been well fed.

Attractive wages have lured hundreds of thousands of Indonesians to work in Malaysia. Many routinely try the illegal way, defying Malaysian employment regulations.

The 450 stranded job seekers will be shipped back to their hometown, Semarang, the provincial capital of Central Java.

Siregar told Antara that the local authorities would soon take legal action against the manpower agency. (03)