Workers must leave Nunukan in 3 months

Workers must leave Nunukan in 3 months

The Jakarta Post, Nunukan/Jakarta

The government has set a three-month deadline for illegal
Indonesian workers to leave the East Kalimantan island of
Nunukan, where they have been staying over the past month.

Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah said on Thursday
the government would provide Rp 500,000 (US$564) for each worker
that failed to secure a job contract from Malaysia, to return
home.

"We (the government) will help them to return to their
hometown wherever that might be, should they fail to secure a job
contract within the coming three months," Bachtiar said during
his visit to Nunukan.

The number of workers stranded in the tiny island has risen to
21,310 people since Malaysia adopted a new immigration law on
Aug. 1, which forced illegal migrants to abandon the country to
evade caning, fines or imprisonment.

Kasmir Foret, chairman of the advocacy team for illegal
workers, told The Jakarta Post that currently he was helping
12,960 workers process their passports and expected to complete
it within one month.

On Thursday night, 76 more deported illegal workers arrived in
Nunukan and stayed at the new barracks built in Mambunut and
Sedadap districts on the island.

Meanwhile, a worker died due to a stomach disease on Thursday,
taking the death toll to 69 (not 70 as earlier reported).

In Jakarta, observers urged the government to provide
facilities and cut short the bureaucracy in a bid to prevent the
workers from using services offered by illegal brokers.

Laila Nagib of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said
many workers had been exploited by illegal brokers, who had taken
the advantage of their lack of knowledge on how to obtain a job
abroad.

She said the government's poor commitment to protection of
citizens working abroad had driven workers to illegal brokers,
regardless of the high risk.

"Unlike in the Philippines, Indonesia has yet to promote a
professional recruitment system covering the replacement of these
workers and to treat them as human beings," Laila told a seminar
on Thursday.

Present at the seminar were Ministry of Transmigration
director of placement of Indonesian migrant workers Besar
Setiyoko, director of citizen protection and legal advocacy at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sjahwwien Adenan and chairman of
the Association of Labor Export Companies (APJATI) Husein
A.Alaydrus.

Sharing Laila's view, Arifin, a representative of Indonesian
workers in Saudi Arabia who participated in the seminar, said
that thousands of Indonesian workers preferred illegal procedures
to get work overseas because they would not undergo a long and
exhausting bureaucratic procedure that was expensive too.

Citing an example, Arifin said an illegal worker could earn
1,000 to 1,200 real a month, compared with half that amount if he
or she followed proper procedures.

"Workers also have to pay fees for training prior to their
placement abroad, which amounts to Rp 5 million to Rp 6 million
(US$5,681)," he said.

Besar and Sjachwwan said Indonesian workers wishing to work
abroad had to fulfill certain minimum requirements, including
obtaining a job order and work visa, to protect them from abuse
by their employers.

Besar said the lack of a legal basis had exempted illegal
brokers from having stern measures being taken against them, at
the expense of migrant workers.