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s many as 89 Chinese workers employed at a 400-megawatt steam power plant (PLTU) construction site in Pangkalan Susu district in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, are facing deportation due to their lacking work permits.

Head of the enforcement and immigration information system at the North Sumatra Law and Human Rights Ministry, Sabarita Ginting, said the 89 workers had no permits to work in Indonesia, adding that they had entered the country on business visas.

They would be deported to their home country, she continued, if they were found to have violated the Immigration Law.

Sabarita said the workers had been taken to the Medan Immigration Office for questioning on Tuesday. The alleged illegal workers were netted during a raid conducted by the Langkat Manpower Agency on the construction site of the PLTU.

Langkat Manpower Agency head Saipul Abdi said on Tuesday that the raid was based on reports from residents, who claimed that there were undocumented immigrants working at the PLTU.

Saipul said the 89 Chinese workers had started work at the PLTU in April, adding that the Chinese company that hired the workers had not reported the total number of its employees working at the PLTU in the last three months.

'€œThe company only reported that there were 1,000 local workers and 126 foreigners [the number did not include the 89 Chinese workers],'€ Saipul said, adding that the 126 foreigners had obtained legal working permits in Indonesia.

The local workers, Saipul went on, received a monthly salary of Rp 1.46 million (US$148.9), while the foreign workers earned Rp 3 million per month.

The project, which is worth Rp 4 trillion, is a joint venture between state-owned electricity company PT PLN and a Chinese investor. The construction is being carried out by the Guangdong Power Engineering Corp. (GPEC) and operations are expected to begin by December this year.

Separately, through translator Tenar Salim, GPEC project assistant manager Zhang Zheng Yi said his company employed the additional 89 Chinese workers to meet the power plant'€™s operational target.

He said the construction was hampered when another Chinese company, PT Nincek, which is part of the consortium, was declared bankrupt in 2010. Apart from this case, Zheng Yi expressed his optimism that the project would be
finished on time.