“This is my first-time setting foot in Indonesia,” claimed Sarah (not her real name) with a confused, anxious face. Sarah, an Indonesian national, was born in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia, of Indonesian parents and had lived there all her life. However, in 2018, together with her two children, she was deported to Indonesia through Nunukan, North Kalimantan, to her “home” country, which did not recognize her as its citizen.

Sarah, de jure, is an Indonesian as a consequence of Indonesia holding to the jus sanguinis principle, or acquiring citizenship based on that of the parents. However, before the Indonesian consulate in Tawau assessed her upon a referral from the Malaysian Immigration Office, she had not been acknowledged either as a Malaysian or an Indonesian. She lived as a “stateless”, undocumented person. Thousands of people like Sarah live in Sabah, where inter-generational migrants from Indonesia settle down with improper (if any) documents. In the absence of figures for the actual number of Indonesia-origin migrants in Sabah, deportation records shed some light.

While last year alone, 1,132 people were deported from Sabah through Nunukan for illegal stay and overstay, the real number of undocumented Indonesian descendants, invisible under the radar, is much higher. Most of these migrants originate from South Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara.

For decades, Indonesians have unlawfully migrated to Malaysia, in search of the dream of better jobs. They travel through the land border in Kalimantan including Nunukan district.

Nunukan is the most popular transit area for the aspiring migrants as it is directly adjacent to Sabah and lacks cohesive immigration-policy implementation. Major pull factors attract outsiders across the Malaysian border, for instance there are palm-oil plantation companies that are looking for undocumented migrant workers to be employed.

Unfortunately, these companies only want to exploit their vulnerable immigration status. Workers are often paid below the minimum wage, and employers avoid the obligation to pay tax, permits and insurance. Some even threaten to report their workers to the Malaysian Police if they refuse to work.

While working, these undocumented migrants eventually build families. Legally, these Malaysian-born Indonesians are not “unlawful migrants” as their offspring did not opt to enter Malaysia through illegal means.

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