An Indonesian labour organisation said at least 50,000 migrant workers have re-entered Malaysia to seek jobs without proper work permits because of ignorance over legal conditions for employment.

According to the Consortium for Indonesian Migrant Workers' Defence (Kopbumi), these workers are mainly those entering Sabah with social visit passes using new passports they obtained from Indonesian authorities.

"We estimated that 3,000 persons were returning everyday to Malaysia but only about 500 of them have proper job orders," said legal aid advisor to Kopbumi,Eddy Purwanto when contacted yesterday.

He said the social visit passes allowed Indonesian nationals to stay in Malaysia for up to a month but not to seek employment.

Poor coordination

According to a Sept 1 report in the Jakarta Post , several employment agents in Nunukan, an Indonesian island across the border from Sandakan, were charging workers RM600 for travel documents and RM300 for travel expenses back to Sabah.

However, the report said most workers were not aware that they had simply been issued with one-month social visit passes instead of the required employment permits.

Purwanto said that these transactions were stopped after Indonesia's Manpower and Transmigration Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea reprimanded Nunukan authorities for allowing people to re-enter Malaysia in this manner.

"The minister said that it was due to poor coordination by local authorities and if left unchecked, the problems in Nunukan (photo) will not be resolved," added Purwanto.

He said large numbers of migrant workers had already re-entered Malaysia without proper passes, these person are expected to encounter problems with Malaysian authorities again when their social visit passes expire.

Last Monday, Jacob was reported by Indonesia's Tempo news agency to have ordered for 21 illegal employment agencies to be dissolved so as to stem continuous illegal worker flow into Sabah.

Nunukan had been the main destination for migrant workers leaving en masse from Sabah over the last two months to avoid being arrested under strict new immigration laws.

At least 30 persons were said to have died last month due to unhygienic conditions in the temporary immigrant camps set up in Nunukan. To date, 20,000 workers are estimated to be still waiting on the island to secure travel and work documents in order to return to jobs across the border.

More aid needed

Questioned about the present situation in Nunukan, Purwanto said conditions on the island had improved with no more reports of deaths among immigrants in the last three days.

"The Indonesian government gave assistance in terms of food and shelter, logistics, medicines, health facilities and medical services," he said.

However, Purwanto said much more could still be done by the Indonesian government whose contributions were said to be lower than the total aid provided by non-government agencies.

Aid from Jakarta had increased recently after the visit of several high profile politicians to Nunukan to view the situation which was reported by the Indonesian press to have approached crisis proportions.

The Jakarta delegation was led by Vice-President Hamzah Haz who was accompanied by the minister of home affairs, the minister of social affairs and the minister of health.

Yesterday, Indonesia Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, Laksamana Sukardi, was reported by Kompas Cyber Media to have announced plans to develop oil palm estates near the Sabah-Kalimantan border as a long term solution to unemployment problems in the area.

The minister said that this plan is based on interviews with returning migrant workers who have pointed out that some 90 percent of oil palm workers in Sabah were Indonesians.