Indonesia reaches deal on migrants with Malaysia

Indonesia said Sunday it had yet to decide whether to lift the ban on sending migrant workers to Malaysia although Kuala Lumpur had agreed to Jakarta's request of allowing migrants to hold their own passports.

Teguh Wardoyo, Foreign Ministry's director for migrant protection and legal aid, said on Sunday although both countries had reached a deal on the passport issue, one of the main reasons behind the ban, they would still have to coordinate with related institutions at home about other issues. The deal was reached last week in a joint working group in Kuala Lumpur.

“We are still awaiting the government's (decision) about lifting the moratorium,” said Teguh. “There has yet to be any decision about lifting the moratorium so far.”

The ban was issued on June 26 after a series of migrant abuse cases in Malaysia.

Indonesia had requested Malaysia to allow migrants to keep their own passports in a move aimed at enabling migrants to file complaints in cases of mistreatment from their employers. Migrants passports have been normally kept by their employers to allow the Malaysian government better immigration control.