Malaysia Raids Unlicensed Workers

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The sending of non-procedural Indonesian migrant workers is still massive. In the country of destination, they become targets of raids and arrest because of the lack proper documentation.

In Malaysia, for example, raids on unlicensed foreign workers started on July 1, 2017. This measure was a follow up to the implementation of the Foreign Workers Temporary E-Card Program from Feb. 15 through June 30, 2017. The program was aimed at providing an opportunity for undocumented migrant workers to obtain legal documents.

The Malaysian government considers the Foreign Workers Temporary E-Card Program to have been a failure given the fact that the number of foreign workers who registered for the program was only 155,680. Migrant Care executive director Wahyu Susilo said in Jakarta on Sunday (3/7) that 51 unlicensed foreign workers had been detained by Malaysian law enforcers as of Saturday. Four of the foreign workers are Indonesian citizens.