Robert Go, Jakarta – Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Illegal migrant workers recently kicked out of Malaysia now have to deal with thugs who target and squeeze hefty fees from them as they try to make their way home.
Sources at a number of ports of entry into Indonesia said that middlemen, known locally as calos, employ a variety of schemes to extract cash from travellers who simply want to get home. The more desperate the returnees seem, the calos charge higher fees.
At Batam's Sekupang Port, thugs force the returning workers to pay up to 50,000 rupiah to secure tickets for ships to mainland Sumatra or other parts of Indonesia.
Ferry workers also allegedly take part in the action by giving priority to those who have paid extra money, on top of the cost of the tickets, for placement on departing boats.
In Nunukan, East Kalimantan province, money changers offer their services to ringgit-bearing but rupiah-poor workers, but use highly unfavourable exchange rates.
Calos working the area also take payments from workers getting on ships or those continuing their journeys by bus or other land transports.
Many returning migrants, fearing caning and stiff jail sentences, have already spent relatively large sums of money paying Malaysian agents to find them passage back to Indonesia in time to beat the amnesty deadline.
Indonesian officials have said that the government has done all it can to help migrants by providing transit areas and spending resources towards getting them home.
Mr Hariawan Saleh, a director-general at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, said that Jakarta would spend eight billion rupiah on this emergency.
Manpower Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea also said that the Indonesian Navy would make several of its ships available to help ferry passengers to their home regions.
But critics and activists who deal with returning migrants charged that the government has been caught unprepared by this crisis and is responding inadequately.
Ms Salma Safitri of the Jakarta-based non-government organisation Women's Solidarity for Human Rights said that the government should have anticipated the flood of returning workers.
Activists argued that the government itself is responsible for creating the situation where returnees become vulnerable to predatory calos seeking to exploit the crisis.
"NGOs have set up information posts in some ports of entry to assist migrants and provide information on how to get home safely and economically," Ms Salma said.
"This is the government's job, really. But the ministries have failed to come up with a systematic programme to help." Ms Carla Natan of the Centre for Indonesian Migrant Workers pointed out that families with young children are among those currently in trouble.
"Many of the returning migrants have young children who may be in more need of assistance than adults. We are also hearing reports that some kids are being separated because of the chaotic situation in many transit camps," she said.
"Calos target them more, knowing that they are most vulnerable. And the government once again shows it cannot protect its own people."