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.