TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Malaysian government pledges to curb down the flow of illegal foreign workers, enacting tougher law enforcement including jailing corrupt officials and employment agencies through the Law on Illegal Immigrants.
Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians working illegally in Malaysia is at risk of being arrested and deported. As of today, an estimated three million Indonesians are working at the neighbor state.
Indonesian Deputy Ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, said Jakarta welcomes Malaysia's new law. However, he hopes the Malaysian government will apply the laws against employers, saying that illegal workers exist because there are employers willing to hire them.
"We hope that [the Malaysian government] will not only sanction the illegal workers, but also their employers, as stipulated in the law," Hermono told Tempo yesterday.
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA | NATALIA SANTI | DWI A
