TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Malaysian government repatriated 2,500 undocumented Indonesian migrant workers as part of the enforcement of its movement control order (MCO) to slacken the transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic in the neighboring country.

As many as 4,200 other undocumented migrant workers would soon be repatriated, Malaysian Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob stated at a press conference in Putrajaya on Friday.

Yaakob noted that 672 undocumented migrant workers from Indonesia were sent home from Sabah in Malaysia that shares its border area with Indonesia's North Kalimantan Province, while 5,280 illegal workers from the Philippines will be repatriated on June 30.

"All these repatriated workers had tested negative for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) before being sent to their countries of origin,” he stated.

The Malaysian government has earlier hinted at the release of 4,800 undocumented Indonesian migrant workers from the country's immigration detention houses to then be repatriated to Indonesia since June 6.

According to ANTARA, officials of the Malaysian Immigration and Foreign Ministry had held discussions on this repatriation-related plan with their counterparts from the Indonesian Embassy on May 28.

A total of 2,189 undocumented Indonesian migrant workers staying at several immigration detention centers in the Malaysian Peninsula and Sarawak as well as 672 others in Sabah were repatriated under the first phase on June 6.

The first batch of 450 undocumented migrant workers was flown back to Indonesia through Jakarta, Medan, and Surabaya on June 6, while 445 others returned through those three Indonesian cities on June 10.

The repatriation of 1,294 undocumented migrant workers to Medan was conducted by sea on June 22.

On May 29, the Malaysian government had centered attention on the agreement of the governments of Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal to its proposal to repatriate their illegal migrant workers and undocumented citizens that had tested negative for COVID-19.

Akin to several other nations across the world, Malaysia to have been endeavoring to flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases and to tackle the socio-economic impacts of the virus that firstly struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.

The Malaysian government has enforced an MCO to stem the transmission of this COVID-19 pandemic.

Read also: 181 Indonesian Migrant Workers from Malaysia Return to Semarang

ANTARA