Nervous wait continues for hundreds of migrants at KLIA2

Most of the throng of migrant workers desperate to leave Malaysia before the Return Recalibration Programme’s midnight deadline today have left, but nervous tensions build for those who remain.

Many stayed seated on the floor and airport chairs within a section cordoned off with orange tape at the CP4 level of the KLIA2 arrival area.

Despite being limited to the area, they were glad to be within its perimeters for the fate of those outside the orange tape was uncertain.

The migrants waited patiently for the counter distributing the queue numbers and the payment counters to reopen, four hours past noon.

“They left for lunch and have not returned,” said one migrant worker nervously.

Migrants waiting in groups were told by others who arrived before them that the aim was to get to the second queue as quickly as possible.

The first queue distributes a number for their turn to go to the counter where the RM500 fine payment was to be made.

“At the second queue, your number will be called, you make your RM500 payment and then you can go upstairs and check-in for your flight,” one Indian national explained to a group.

However, the pace of their progress was not up to them, as counters remained closed and workers outside the cordoned-off area wait by their luggage trollies.

Many had already missed their flight last night and this morning as they were unable to check-in for departure on time, owing to the large influx of people at the airport.

Most of the foreign workers were returning to Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka.

Queue tokens allegedly sold at RM300

By 5pm, migrants who were outside the tape started to approach immigration officers seeking some assurance that they could make their payments and still catch their flight tonight.

“The immigration officer said he didn’t think it was possible,” said one Malaysian who was sending her cousin home to Sri Lanka.

Asking not to be named, she said they would have to buy another ticket if he missed his flight.

The immigration officers kept a close eye on the cordoned-off area to ensure no one snuck in, while in the other queue, numbers were called at an approximate pace of 20 people an hour.

One man who left the first queue to make changes to his flight with the airline was not allowed to return to the line. He was sent to the back of the queue outside the cordoned area.

While the migrant workers waited to be given their numbers, one officer was observed seemingly punching out three numbers. He then walked away and handed them to a person waiting at the far end of the area, near the entrance of a Celcom telecommunication outlet.

Workers waiting outside the cordoned area who claimed to have watched this exchange alleged how some were offered the chance to skip the queue for numbered tokens with a payment of RM300 each.

Another Malaysian who had been waiting since morning with a friend returning to Hyderabad said there were no guidelines on display instructing them what to do.

“Everything was a guess,” she said, declining to be named.

A Sri Lankan hoping to catch his flight said he was returning because he could no longer afford the RM8,000 demanded by agents for visa renewals.

Another Indian national said he was fed up with exorbitant visa renewal demands and was paying more than he was earning.

“I just want to go home and sleep,” he said, also declining to be named.

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