Thousands of RI Workers in the Netherlands Face Deportation
Wednesday, 04 April, 2012 | 13:55 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Thousands of Indonesian workers in the Netherlands are facing deportation due to incomplete documents. They are now waiting for the Dutch government to ratify the immigration law.

The secretary-general of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union in the Netherlands, Yasmine Soraya, said they would be fined a total 3,800 euros with four months imprisonment and be sent home.

Yasmine said the penalty was recommended by the Dutch Immigration Ministry led by Gerd Leers. Minister Leers is intensifying campaigns to deport workers without proper documentation.

If the law is ratified, Leers is ready to raid immigrant workers without documents. There are around 6,000 Indonesian workers who do not have proper documents in the Netherlands. “Such treatment causes mental pressure for these workers,” said Yasmine yesterday.

The Foreign Ministry’s data showed that in 2011 there were 15,577 Indonesians living in the Netherlands.

The number has increased significantly since 2008, when there were only 14,771 people. As many as 56 percent of them are students, 17 percent are professional workers, 23 percent are tourists while 14 percent are permanent residents. However, the Foreign Ministry does not have definite numbers.

The Foreign Ministry has promised to study the issue with immigrant workers. “We will revisit the problem and send the discussion results to the Indonesian Embassy at the Hague,” said the Foreign Ministry’s Indonesian citizen protection director, Tatang Budie Utama Razak. Tatang said it was the Dutch government’s authority to grant the permits. “We can’t intervene in a country’s policies,” he said.

FEBRIANA FIRDAUS | ISTMAN MP | SUNUDYANTORO