JAKARTA, April 22 — The Indonesian police foiled an attempt to traffic 24 migrant workers to neighbouring Malaysia in the western province of North Sumatra, said the provincial police.
North Sumatra police spokesman Hadi Wahyudi told the press today that the 24 migrant workers were intercepted by the police marine unit in the waters of Labu Beach in the Deli Serdang regency on Saturday (April 20).
Workers from provinces like East Nusa Tenggara, Bengkulu, and Aceh were allegedly planning to depart for Malaysia without proper documentation.
Officers also arrested five crew of the boat, an agent and a trip coordinator, and the officers will cooperate with the country’s Agency for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers to investigate the case.
Malaysia is one of the foreign countries that employ a large number of Indonesian migrant workers, and unrecorded illegal entry of Indonesian workers into the Southeast Asian country is frequently reported.
— Bernama
