Fadli, Batam – A wheelchair was the closest companion that Dian Elfina's brought back home from Malaysia.

The 25-year-old sustained a broken pelvis and leg after she jumped from a first-floor window to escape from a manpower office in which she was temporarily residing.

The native of Banjarnegara, Central Java, was one of 12 Indonesian migrant workers sent home by the Indonesian consulate in Johor, Malaysia, through Batam, Riau Islands province.

Dian said she had left for Malaysia in early July with a friend. She was sent there by a Central Java-based manpower company, PT Sentosa Karya Aditama. "I left from Central Java with a friend on a plane. We paid back the airfares by accepting cuts to our salaries for five months," said the elementary-school graduate.

After working for only two weeks, she got sick and could not work, prompting her employer to send her back to the manpower firm's offices in Malaysia.

"Upon arrival at the manpower agent, I was beaten and locked up. They did not want to hear that I was sick. So, I decided to jump from the first floor at night. I was lucky someone helped me and took me to hospital," she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Runs of bad luck were also suffered by 18-year-old Sunarti from Blitar, East Java, and Heri Dwi Astuti, a 49-year-old native of East Java.

After working for six months, Sunarti claimed her employer had never paid her her RM400 monthly salary, making her run away to the Indonesian consulate in Johor. Heri claimed she was beaten up by her employer and the manpower agent.

"The manpower agents (in Malaysia) are Indonesians too, but they're meaner than the Malaysians. I couldn't stand being beaten up so I ran away. I don't want to go back to Malaysia. I'd rather suffer here," Heri said.

Along with the migrant workers was a two-month-old baby boy, Agus. The son of 30-year-old Imas, a native of the West Java town of Cihampelas, was allegedly born out of wedlock after his mother's employer raped here. However, neither the employers nor Imas were willing to be interviewed.

Now, the migrant workers are living in shelters run by the Batam city social affairs agency, waiting to be sent back to their hometowns or for their relatives to come to fetch them. "I'd be ashamed if I were to be sent right back to my village. I'd rather be picked up by a relative in Batam," one of them said.

The agency's head, Anwar Ujang, said temporary shelter had been provided to 250 Indonesian migrant workers after they were sent back from Malaysia between January and the start of this month.

In order to provide assistance to the workers, the agency has had to spend money set aside in its annual budget for displaced people. He said none of the migrant workers were from the Riau Islands. Most of them came from Java and had little knowledge about Malaysia.

"They're tempted by the success stories of people who have worked in Malaysia. In reality, however, the risks are very high. As you can see, Riau Islands people, who live close to Malaysia, rarely want to work there," Anwar said.