REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BATAM -- The Social Affairs Ministry has repatriated eight illegal Indonesian migrant workers from Malaysia on Wednesday (July 2) after they spent a night at the Temporary Social Evacuation House in Batam.

"We have sent them back to their home town on Wednesday using MV Kelud of PT Pelni from Batam to Jakarta," Assistant for Migrant Workers of the Social Affairs Ministry Febriana noted here on Thursday.

The ministry has sent home at least six adult women, a two-month-old male infant, and a two-year-old boy.

"Both the children are descendants of the two workers who were repatriated. These children are the result of an unofficial marriage in Malaysia," she pointed out.

Febriana added that the ministry will register the migrant workers upon their arrival in Jakarta before they return via road to their home towns in East Nusa Tenggara, West Java, Banten, and Lampung.

"All migrant workers will be returned to their home towns using the government's budget. The migrant workers were not asked to bear the costs by the officers," Febriana stated, adding that all of the workers were repatriated as they failed to present valid immigration documents.

The Malaysian authorities have deported eight migrant workers on Tuesday (July 1) as they did not have the requisite documents that allowed them to work legally in the country.

The officers in Indonesia brought the migrant workers to the Temporary Social Evacuation House in Batam for registration and also for conducting a health check.

Chairman of Commission IV in Batam Regional House of Representatives Riki Syolihin requested the government to tighten the monitoring efforts for illegal migrant workers to foreign countries.

"The most important thing is to monitor the migrant workers who want to work abroad. There will be no repetition of similar cases if the migrant workers travelling overseas are well monitored," Syolihin remarked.

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