Amy Chew – Indonesian students on the country's eastern island of Sulawesi have kept up their protests against mainland Chinese workers, demonstrating late into Tuesday night against what they see as jobs being stolen from locals.
"We reject them because it was not done through the RPTKA [Foreign Workers Utilisation Plan] which is verified by the Manpower Ministry," said Sulkarnain, the head of the Kendari branch of the Islamic Students Association, which organised the protests. "Therefore, we deem these foreign workers to be illegal."
Sulkarnain, who goes by one name, added that the protesters wanted the government to stop the arrivals of Chinese workers, and for those already in Sulawesi to be deported.
About 100 students protested outside the airport at Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi province, and stopped cars leaving the area to look for Chinese workers.
Sulkarnain said more than 120 Chinese workers had arrived on Tuesday night, and were escorted from the airport by "fully armed" police and military personnel.
He said the protesters had no intention of harming the workers, but just wanted them to leave the country. "We will be planning more demonstrations next week," he added.
The workers were hired by Chinese-backed mining company PT Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (VDNI) and PT Obsidian Stainless Steel (OSS) to install 33 pieces of smelter equipment belonging to PT OSS.
The Jakarta Post quoted the companies as saying they needed to bring in the Chinese workers due to a lack of capable local staff, and that once the equipment was ready the company would hire 3,000 local employees.
The foreign workers were expected to be in Indonesia for six months and would return to their home country once the installation has been completed, they said.
VDNI external affairs manager Indrayanto, who goes by one name, was quoted as saying that if the 500 foreign workers from China were denied entry, about 3,000 local jobs would be at risk.
On Wednesday, he said the demonstrations disturbed public order and impacted on the company.
"Up until today, around 300 Chinese workers have arrived," Indrayanto said, adding that they were being processed according to World Health Organisation protocols.
"All the foreign workers who came here are skilled workers [who] are contract staff to fix smelter equipment that uses technology from China."
Freelance journalist Zainal Ishak, who has been covering the protests – which started in March – for the past few months, said he expected the demonstrations to continue but on a smaller scale compared with their peak at the end of June when larger crowds showed up.
"The public is inclined to support the students. The main factor is the worry over the spread of Covid-19, and, equally important, fairness in [finding] jobs for the local community," he said, adding that the student protesters were not against foreign investments or foreign workers.
Zainal said VDNI and OSS had held meetings with local community leaders, including Southeast Sulawesi governor Ali Mazi, amid the protests.
Ali on June 16 gave permission for the Chinese workers to be employed on nickel smelter projects in the province, according to Kompas TV, after blocking their entry in April after protests.
The governor reportedly said he had given them approval after receiving orders from Jakarta, and that all foreign workers would be subject to health checks and quarantine before being able to work on the project sites.
Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, who lectures at University Islam Indonesia, said it was difficult to precisely measure the sentiment towards Chinese workers, but there appeared to be growing resentment "on the ground and on social media".
"People are asking how could the government allow the Chinese workers while many locals have been laid off," he said, adding that Jakarta had been "not at all" sensitive in handling the issue.
"In fact, they are trying to justify this by saying we need Chinese workers and Chinese investments. And they are saying this in a very [blunt] manner."
Muhammad said the government needed to be more careful in its communication and the timing of allowing the workers to enter the country, "so people won't misunderstand, get hurt and thus increase" anti-Chinese sentiment.
Security analysts have in recent weeks warned that the return of Chinese workers to Indonesia could provoke terrorist attacks because of growing resentment of foreigners amid the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as Beijing's reported treatment of Uygur Muslims.
Jihadist groups have issued "massive" calls for attacks, according to a former senior figure in al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian network, who said migrant Chinese workers and ethnic Chinese Indonesians could be targeted.
As of May, there were 98,900 foreigners working in Indonesia, representing less than 0.1 per cent of the total workforce of 124 million, according to government figures. The largest group of workers – at 35,781 people – was from China, while Japan and South Korea took up the second and third positions with 12,823 and 9,097 workers respectively.
China is the second-largest foreign direct investor in Indonesia, with Chinese companies investing US$4.7 billion in the country last year.