KL Detains over 4,000 Illegal Workers in First Month of Crackdown: Report

Associated Press
Thursday, March 31, 2005

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (AP): Malaysia has detained more than 4,000 illegal migrants, mostly Indonesians, over the past month in a nationwide crackdown that strained ties between the two nations, a report said on Wednesday.

Deputy Home Minister Tan Chai Ho said the crackdown launched on March 1 will continue indefinitely and there will be no more amnesty for the illegal migrants, the national news agency Bernama reported.

Many of the more than 4,000 workers arrested were fined, jailed and in a few cases whipped with a rattan cane before being deported, Bernama said.

Indonesian officials and rights groups have described the whipping as inhumane but the Malaysian government says it will not interfere with punishments meted out by the courts.

A four-month amnesty which ended in February forced about 450,000 illegal migrants to leave Malaysia but an estimated 400,000 remained to face a massive crackdown.

The amnesty and the crackdown have created an acute shortfall of cheap labor in critical industries, including plantations and recruitment of 100,000 workers from Pakistan.

Tan said the Pakistani workers would start arriving in mid-April and would be allowed to work in all sectors, including restaurants and deep-sea fishing.

According to officials, Indonesians made up 90 percent of the labor force in the construction industry and between 50 percent and 60 percent on plantations.

The crackdown has strained ties between Malaysia andIndonesia, which accuses the Malaysian government of being lax against local employers who hire illegal workers but do not pay their wages.

Malaysia says it is ready to accept Indonesian workers if they come in with valid papers but says Jakarta is charging excessive fees for the workers to return here.