TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri said that around 1,400 Indonesian migrant workers are being detained in Malaysia over immigration issues.

Minister Hanif, who met some of those migrant workers being detained, said that many of those migrant workers had been in detainment for several months.

"Some of them admitted that they had been detained for two months. Some even said that they had been detained for six months,” Hanif told journalists after a visit to a Malaysian detainment center.

Apart from visiting those workers, Hanif also had a talk with Malaysian Home Affairs Minister and Malaysian Workforce Minister to discuss measures to expedite repatriating those workers. He also said that he was formulating a policy to repatriate the workers.

“The government through the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, is preparing the mechanism (to repatriate those workers) and we are also coordinating with the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry,” Hanif said.

In addition, Hanif said that the government would tighten up border points in the country in a bud to significantly reduce the number of illegal Indonesian migrant workers abroad.

"I explained (to them) that none of those Indonesian workers went to Malaysia by swimming. They went to Malaysia by airplanes, ships or inland through the regions directly bordering with Malaysia,” he said.

MASRUR (KUALA LUMPUR)