TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Two migrant workers die in Malaysia
Two Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKIs) from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), have reportedly died at their workplace in Malaysia
Change Size
T
wo Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKIs) from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), have reportedly died at their workplace in Malaysia. Husband and wife Ramli, 34, and Sahrim, 36, are believed to have been victims of physical abuse.
Their remains arrived in Lombok through Lombok International Airport on Sunday.
Ramli's body has been taken to his home village in Praya, Central Lombok, for burial, while Sahnim's body has been taken to Masbagik, East Lombok.
Taufiqurrahman, chief of Kumbang village in Masbagik district, confirmed that the body of a person named Sahnim had returned from Malaysia.
'However, we don't know the cause of death due to the lack of documents,' said Taufiq.
Officials said that they had not received proper reports from the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia.
Head of NTB Manpower and Transmigration Office Mohammad Wildan said that his office had only learned about the migrant workers' deaths after their bodies arrived in Lombok.
He said he would contact the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia to ascertain the causes of the deaths of the two victims.
'There are indications of physical abuse, so we will request a thorough investigation,' he said.
Wildan said that it was unusual for the embassy not to be involved in the repatriation of a migrant worker's body. The Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection and Placement Agency (BP3TKI) also claimed that it had not yet received formal notification of the death, he said.
He added that the two victims were believed to be illegal migrant workers as they were not registered with BP3TKI. According to their families, they left for Malaysia in 2004.
Wildan said that his office understood that both victims were found dead with wounds on their heads at a dragonfruit farm in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, on Sept. 11.
The NTB Manpower and Transmigration Office has recorded at least 10 cases of migrant workers dying violent deaths in Malaysia.
Nationally, NTB sends the third-largest number of migrant workers overseas after East Java and West Java. This year, the province aims to send around 40,000 migrant workers overseas, an increase of some 30 percent.
