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More undocumented Indonesian workers killed trying to reach Malaysia
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M
ore Indonesian undocumented workers have fallen victim to a lack of protection from unsafe channels and human trafficking as they risk their lives to get jobs in Malaysia.
Indonesia and Malaysia have been unable to conclude a five-year negotiation with a renewed agreement on Indonesian domestic workers. One of the contentious issues is Malaysia’s Maid Online direct hiring platform that allows migrant domestic workers to enter Malaysia without going through appropriate procedures.
At least two Indonesian workers are dead and 26 others missing after a wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the coast of Tanjung Api in Asahan, North Sumatra, over the weekend.
The fishing boat was carrying 89 onboard when it departed for neighboring Malaysia through an unguarded route when it was hit by a big wave on Saturday morning.
Search and rescue workers evacuated 19 women and 42 men from the boat to Panton Port in Asahan.
One of the survivors, Sarniwati, 50, lost her husband Basman in the accident; his body was among the two retrieved by search workers.
The couple were from South Sulawesi and were going without proper documents. “We were going to work in Malaysia,” Sarniwati said
Ady Pandawa, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency post in Tanjungbalai Asahan, said the other victim was 43-year-old Anastasyah Ponis from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
“We continue the search for the missing [passengers],” Ady said on Saturday afternoon, adding that police and military personnel were joining the effort.
According to Ady the boat was carrying undocumented workers from West Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi and NTT provinces. The largest group, made up of 22 workers, were from NTT.
Ady said the boat was carrying more people than its capacity. The police have arrested two of the boat crew for investigation.
It takes around three to four hours by boat to reach Malaysia from the coasts of North Sumatra.
Last month, the Indonesian Navy intercepted 34 undocumented workers trying to leave for Malaysia on a motorboat from Batu Bara regency also in North Sumatra.
In January, in a different part of the province, Labuhanbatu Police thwarted an attempt to transport 54 undocumented workers heading for Malaysia. The workers came from all over the archipelago and had paid smugglers between Rp 300,000 (US$20.92) and Rp 4.5 million to get them to Malaysia.
Late last year, two boats carrying undocumented workers sank in Malaysian waters. Both had departed from Batu Bara. In the first incident, 21 people died when the boat sank off the coast of Johor Baru on Dec. 15. In the second, 10 people died and 35 were saved off Sekinchan in Selangor on Christmas day, while the rest remain missing.
Indonesia and Malaysia previously had a bilateral agreement on the placement and protection of Indonesian domestic workers since 2006, which was renewed once in 2011 but expired in 2016.
Frequent cases of Indonesian workers being abused in Malaysia have resulted in diplomatic tensions and were one of the reasons why Indonesia passed the Migrant Worker Protection Law in 2017.
Since then, Indonesia has insisted that destination countries must have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the placement and protection of Indonesian workers with Indonesia based on the law, which placed more emphasis on ensuring the fulfillment of workers’ rights.
In late January, Malaysian Human Resources Minister M Saravanan and Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin met with Indonesian Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah in separate meetings to press on the deal as Malaysia faced a labor shortage made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Indonesian Foreign Ministry reported that there was still no agreement “due to some pending issues”.
The ministry said Indonesia was demanding that Malaysia call off its Maid Online system, which bypasses Indonesia’s 2017 migrant worker protection law.
The Indonesian government also asks that visa processing costs should not be borne by the prospective migrant workers, and Malaysia should not allow visa conversions — from a tourist visa to a work visa — because the process is prone to abuse, such as human trafficking and forced labor practices.
