The Home Ministry has called on local governments to actively supervise migration from rural to urban areas and to improve their civil registration systems because of a possible spike of city populations, especially Jakarta's, following Idul Fitri.

The ministry said it wants a better population database that can be a good benchmark for local administrations for developing their regions and at the same time it wants to alleviate socio-economic problems like unemployment in big cities.

“When people are moving from one area to another, it is not only about their physical migration but also about their paperwork,” Zudan Arif Fakrulloh, the director general of the ministry’s population and civil registration division, said in a press release on Wednesday as quoted by tempo.co.

Having no proper resident registration could also hamper people from getting access to public services like the non-cash assistance programs of the Indonesia Health Card (KIS) and the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP), Zudan added.

Thousands of Muslims inhabiting major cities in the country traveled to their hometowns for Idul Fitri over the weekend. Their return to their urban domiciles this week may inspire others to migrate with them. (yon/ipa)