A group of illegal Indonesian migrant workers were preparing to leave for Malaysia, but their journey was halted when law enforcers detained them at the Tunon Taka Port in North Kalimantan, Indonesia, in an operation on May 5.
Despite the arrest, the illegal migrant workers are determined to return to Malaysia, one way or another.
The group insisted that they were never forced to do jobs that they were not happy with, and their decision to depart to Malaysia was made willingly. One of the migrants also revealed that they pay certain people to get them into Malaysia.
“Even if we are sent back to our villages, we will still return to Malaysia.”
“We ourselves wanted to go back to Malaysia. We paid some people to send us across, and we were never forced to do unwanted jobs.”
Another migrant added that back in his village, there was nothing he could do, but things are not the same in Malaysia. According to him, the group can work hard in Malaysia – a luxury that they don’t have back home.
They are currently placed at the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Centre (BP2MI), and many of them revealed another reason they insisted on going back to Malaysia.
They have families and assets in Malaysia, prompting them to leave their homeland
Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Coordinator at BP2MI Nunukan, Asriansyah, added that many illegal migrants escaped during the raid and managed to enter Malaysia via illegal routes.
The coordinator also said that in 2023, they ran out of funds to assist in repatriating the illegal migrants to their villages. They were sent back using the Pelni ship to Balikpapan for transit to Pare-Pare.
Tunon Taka Port in North Kalimantan
None of them made it to Pare-Pare; they fled to Balikpapan and returned to Malaysia.
Asriansyah also highlighted the story of an illegal female migrant worker named LN. The woman was specially sent home by the Consulate of the Republic of Indonesia in Tawau, but did not give up and continued to try to return to Malaysia, reported an Indonesian media, Kompas.
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