Indonesian migrants face the traitors of the sea because of the Malaysian dream Labor Rights News

Medan, Indonesia – When Indonesian migrant worker Figo Paroji was working on a Malaysian construction site, the end of the year was always frightening.

“I would campaign every year. I wanted to raise awareness of illegal migrant workers from Indonesia and warn them not to cross in November or December, ”said Paroji, who worked for Al Jazeera from 2006 to 2019 in the western state of Selangor. “At the end of the year the waves were always big and it was very dangerous.”

Paroji has left Malaysia and is currently the coordinator of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union, but the waves of Indonesian workers who make the treacherous journey continue to come.

On December 15, a ship carrying about 50 migrant workers from Indonesia It overturned on the coast of Johor state in Malaysia with bad weather.

Fourteen people were found dead on Tanjung Balau beach, along with the wreckage of the ship, and 18 bodies were recovered, according to the Malaysian Maritime Agency. At least 20 people are still missing, presumed dead.

Paroji, who has been out of paperwork for 13 years in Malaysia for three years, said workers continue to risk their lives traveling to Indonesia in small, safe boats out of desperation.

“The main reason for people’s irresponsibility to travel is due to economic factors,” he said. “There are not as many job opportunities in Indonesian Malaysia.”

Indonesia’s unemployment rate stood at 6.49 percent in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Indonesia’s poverty rate was 10.4 percent in March 2021, up from 9.2 percent in September 2019, according to World Bank data.

There are an estimated 2.7 million Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia, although it is difficult to get firm figures, as only a third of the population is believed to be documented, according to Malaysian Ambassador Hermono Hermono, who has the same name as many in Indonesia. . Migrants range from domestic helpers to construction and planting workers.

“A lot of small businesses will take on anyone,” Paroji said. “They don’t have permission to hire foreign workers, but they don’t care as long as the labor is cheap.”

Reports of physical and psychological abuse are common, as migrant workers often lack access to labor unions or protection from legal and regulated employment.

In November 2020, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the Malaysian authorities to monitor employers and protect Indonesian migrant workers by torturing an Indonesian domestic worker, burning them with hot water and starving them to death.

The stories of such abuse resonate with Anita, a 42-year-old domestic helper who moved to Malaysia in 2018, after what she thought was good luck.

After struggling to find work in her native Sumatra province, Anita introduced a job agent through a mutual friend who had promised her a job as a domestic helper in Kuala Lumpur.

Once Anita arrived, her luck quickly turned into a nightmare.

“My employer immediately took my passport and my bank book,” Anita told Al Jazeera, asking her not to use her real name. “They told me that they were paying for maintenance and accommodation, that I would not need my money. I was told that my monthly salary would be transferred to my agent and that I would keep it until the end of my contract. ”

This was only the beginning of his troubles.

Anita said she was forced to work every day from 4am to 11pm and could barely feed her. Breakfast was dry bread without butter or jam, while lunch and dinner were usually made up of rice and chicken bones with little meat.

“They forced me to clean the house with bleach without giving me protective equipment like gloves,” he said, and the skin on his hands regularly peeled off, leaving him in agony.

After 11 months of abuse, Anita applied for permission to return home. Although his employer gave him up, he was given a home plane ticket and a monthly salary of only $ 237 (RM 1,000) in cash.

He did not reach an agreement with the employment agency that gave him the rest of the money he owed until he found a lawyer who agreed to replace his pro bono in North Sumatra.

No other choice

At the same time as Antia’s emergency, the death of Adelina Sau, a domestic worker in Nusa Tenggara province in eastern Indonesia, caused a stir when her employer beat and slept outside next to the family’s dogs.

Sau’s businessman was charged with murder but Penang was acquitted by the High Court, the judgment was later upheld by the appellate court. An appeal against this decision by the Attorney General is pending in the Federal Court of Malaysia.

Gabriel Goa, president of the Justice and Peace Legal Organization, told Al Jazeera that migrant rights activists have been campaigning for justice in recent weeks in front of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta.

“The trafficking of workers by sea from Indonesia to Malaysia continues without any firm action by the Malaysian or Indonesian governments,” Goa said, adding that he believed the authorities had closed their eyes, in part, to bribery by smuggling networks.

“Unfortunately, tragic events such as the sinking of the last ships that resulted in the deaths of traffic victims do not create any deterrence for traffickers.”

In addition to tougher penalties for traffickers, former migrant worker Paroji said she needs to better understand why workers put everything at risk to get to the Malaysian coast.

“In my experience, people continue to use these dangerous sea routes because there is no other option and they cannot legally enter Malaysia,” Paroji said. “Many of them are already blacklisted because they were illegally caught working in Malaysia in the past, so they are forced to use these types of back channels or use a tourist visa.”

“Why does it keep happening? Malaysia has job opportunities, ”he added. “Those who do the imagery know that what they are doing is wrong, but they feel that they lack other options.”