Far From Home: Through choppy seas and porous land borders, migrant workers risk it all to enter Malaysia. Why?

BATAM/KUALA LUMPUR: It was the height of the rainy season in 2021 when Mr Nurdan found himself carrying an unconscious stranger on his shoulder as he made his way across muddy grounds to a densely vegetated forest somewhere in the eastern coast of Johor. 
The wooden barge that the Indonesian and some 60 others of his countrymen had used to enter Malaysia illegally had been battered by the angry seas that evening.
To make matters worse, one of its engines had stalled before the vessel crashed into some jagged rocks about 50m from the shoreline, forcing them to swim to safety. 
Mr Nurdan recalled that he was still in shock from the accident and exhausted from swimming for his life. He did not know where he was and where to go.
“But all I could think about was: ‘Don’t get caught’,” the 37-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told CNA.
He had best get out of the beach and look for a place to hide, Mr Nurdan thought. Authorities, he predicted, would soon discover the marooned barge and swarm the beach looking for survivors to round up.
If caught, undocumented migrants like Mr Nurdan can face a penalty of up to five years in prison and six strokes of the cane.
Which is why Mr Nurdan was petrified when several cars drove up to the beach a few hours into his hiding, thinking that they were Malaysian authorities.
But they turned out to be the undocumented migrants’ Malaysian contacts, ready to transport them to a safe house in the city of Johor Bahru.
Mr Nurdan and the recently revived stranger he had rescued emerged from their hiding as did dozens of others who were on the same boat. But not everyone was there by the time the contacts arrived, Mr Nurdan recounted.
“One of my friends was not there and so was the woman who gave me a cup of coffee before we set sail,” he said. Mr Nurdan would not hear from either of them since.
Over the years, hundreds have lost their lives making the perilous sea journeys from Indonesia’s Riau and Riau Islands provinces to the southern Malaysian states of Johor and Melaka.
Many more were intercepted by Indonesian and Malaysian authorities patrolling the vast waters surrounding the two countries and charged with immigration offences.
But the risk of drowning and arrests have failed to dissuade thousands of these migrants from looking to land a job illegally in Malaysia every year. 
During a trip to Batam in August, CNA tried to recreate what these journeys were like and sailed on a similar wooden boat as far as possible without leaving Indonesian waters.
The wind was blowing hard that day and the sea was already choppy by the time our boat set sail from a fishing port in the southeastern side of Batam. 
Along the way, the skipper, Mr Bidin pointed to tiny unmanned islets where migrant worker boats were launched and landed. 
“A few months ago, I spotted eight migrant workers there, hiding in the bushes and behind the trees,” Mr Bidin told CNA, pointing to a deserted island about a five minute boat ride away from the fishing port.  
Minutes later, the skipper directed our attention to another islet. “The Navy once intercepted a migrant worker boat around that island a few years ago,” he said.
It took the boat around 40 minutes to reach the Singapore Strait, by that time the current had become stronger and the waves bigger from the steady stream of giant container ships sailing by.   
From there, Johor’s industrious Pengerang municipality, with its rows of flame towers from the oil refineries and petrochemical plants in the area, were in clear view and was just a 45 minute boat ride away.   
Aside from the sea route, these undocumented migrants have also entered the Southeast Asian country by land, taking advantage of Peninsular Malaysia’s porous border with Thailand and Eastern Malaysia’s border with Indonesia’s West and North Kalimantan provinces on Borneo island.
The World Bank estimates that there were 1.2 to 3.5 million undocumented migrants in Malaysia between 2018 and 2020, mainly those who hail from Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Meanwhile, the number of documented migrants during the same period were around 1.4 to 2 million.
Most migrant workers in Malaysia work in labour-intensive sectors such as construction, agriculture and manufacturing as well as occupations considered to be dirty, dangerous or demeaning, better known as 3D jobs.
But living as an undocumented migrant worker comes with a hefty price to pay.
They live in constant fear that one day Malaysian authorities would raid their lodgings or workplaces, arrest them for immigration offences and deport them back to their respective countries.
Some of the undocumented migrant workers have also said that they were prone to abuses, unfair treatment as well as unpaid wages from their employers who can easily call in the police on them if they dare to speak up in protest.
And yet thousands would rather risk their lives and freedom for a chance to make three to five times the pay they receive back home even after they are caught and deported multiple times.
“Many have been deported back (to Indonesia) only to reenter (Malaysia) illegally. Once in Malaysia, they get arrested again and deported again,” Mr Imam Riyadi of the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency (BP2MI) – a government agency tasked with overseeing the deployment and protection of the country’s migrant workers – told CNA. 
“It is like an endless cycle.”
Mr Imam of BP2MI said there are a plethora of reasons as to why someone from Indonesia would want to become an undocumented worker in neighbouring Malaysia beyond their similar culture and languages. 
“Some people just don’t want to go through the proper channel (to legally work in Malaysia) because they think the process is too long or because they are not qualified,” the chief of the agency’s Riau Islands office said.
According to its website, applicants need to carry at least 11 different documents if they wish to become a migrant worker, including a statement from the local police saying that they have never been under investigation or convicted of any crime.
Aside from these documents, hopefuls also need to undergo medical and psychological evaluations as well as participate in professional and language training courses related to their line of work and destination country.
Indonesian migrant workers and rights groups interviewed by CNA said the whole process can take between two and four months.
“Going through proper government channels and training centres, meeting all the requirements to obtain these documents, according to (some workers) takes a long time,” Mr Irwan Setiawan, the co-founder of Batam-based anti-trafficking group Embun Pelangi, told CNA.
“The government needs to simplify the process to stop people from embarking on these perilous journeys and becoming prey to people smuggling syndicates.”
Then there are those like Mr Nurdan who went to Malaysia when the country closed its borders to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, there are others who originally went to work in Malaysia legally but had since been barred from reentering the country after being deported due to offences.
Mr Syamsul Hadi, 28, said he first came to Malaysia in 2013 to work as a labourer at an oil palm plantation in Malaysia’s Selangor state. “It was backbreaking work and the pay was not worth it,” he told CNA.
Four months before his two-year contract ended, Mr Syamsul left the company in secret and found work at an illegal gambling den in Kuala Lumpur.
By law, a foreign worker is not allowed to switch employers during the duration of their stay permit and can be blacklisted by the country’s immigration department for absconding. 
And so when the gambling den was raided in 2016, Mr Syamsul was deported to Indonesia and barred from setting foot in Malaysia ever again.
Mr Syamsul said he tried to find work in his hometown in Lombok. “But the pay was nothing compared to Malaysia,” he said. Mr Syamsul reentered Malaysia in 2017, this time illegally by sea in a journey that he said took him around two hours. 
Like Mr Syamsul, Mr Jaspal (not his real name) was blacklisted from Malaysia under similar circumstances: Absconding from his first employer whom he claims did not pay him his wages.
For four years, the 32-year-old – who hails from Punjab in northern India – was working without proper documentation, doing various informal jobs for an employer who was in the agricultural business in the town of Rawang, Selangor.
While the minimum pay in Malaysia is fixed at RM1,500 (US$342) per month, Mr Jaspal said that in some good months he can earn up to RM2,500 monthly, depending on commissions.
In 2022, he took advantage of an immigration department’s repatriation programme that allowed undocumented migrants in the country to leave for a fine of RM500 as he missed home.
Mr Jaspal told CNA that he tried to find work in India but the pay was a mere pittance for someone who does not have any educational qualifications. It was a far cry compared to his days in Malaysia where he could earn five times as much doing the same job.
“I felt I had no choice but to come back. It really wasn’t an easy decision to come here again,” he said, adding that he had secured a job with his previous employer prior to his return.
As he was blacklisted from entering the country, Mr Jaspal took another route to enter Malaysia in 2023. This time, he booked a flight to Bangkok, Thailand before entering Malaysia illegally by land via a bus. 
He paid about RM4,000 to an agent.
While Mr Jaspal admitted that he does not know the route in which the bus had taken him, he managed to enter Malaysia without getting his passport stamped, adding that he was on the bus the whole time and did not get out to pass through any immigration land crossings.
The journey to the border with some migrants from India as well as those from other countries took about 20 hours altogether. 
He has heard of some other migrants who have had to cross rivers to get into Malaysia. 
On Nov 5, the Kelantan state government announced that it would propose the construction of a 100km wall along the Malaysia-Thailand border to the federal government.
About a week later, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution said the wall was still at the proposal stage. But it has since been reported that Thailand has agreed to the plan to build the security and flood wall along the Golok River that lies on the border of the two countries. 
Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain was reported as saying by Bernama that a wall would help the authorities curb cross-border criminal activities. 
Meanwhile, it is not known if the people smuggling Mr Jaspal into Malaysia had bribed Thai and Malaysian officials for a safe passage across the border.
But a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime earlier in March on migrant smuggling in Southeast Asia said such corrupt practices are common in the region as in other places around the world.
Now a lorry driver in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Jaspal said many of his friends have been detained at various depots run by the immigration department and has heard of the harrowing accounts of the conditions of abuse at these facilities.   
Every morning before venturing out for work, Mr Jaspal said he offers a silent plea to God: That he evades the authorities.
He claims that he has offered bribes during the times he has been stopped by enforcement officers, so as to not get locked up. 
These days, Mr Jaspal added that his drives are restricted to locations nearby because of the recent intense raids against undocumented migrants by the immigration department.
“I have learned to become more careful and alert of my surroundings. If I have a choice, I would still like to go home and be with my family, but it just isn’t possible at the moment. I can only take it one day at a time,” said Mr Jaspal, who wants to get married and settle down back home one day.
Meanwhile, those who enter Malaysia by sea also have to pay the so-called “beach money” on top of their boat ride.
People interviewed by CNA said they saw cash changing hands from the people smuggling syndicate organising the trip to land owners or residents in Indonesia where their boats were launched and in Malaysia where they landed.
Based on media reports on where these boats were intercepted and raided, these migrant workers would set sail from empty beaches in Batam’s Nongsa area or the many unmanned islets dotting the waters between Batam and Bintan. 
Meanwhile in Malaysia, migrant boats are frequently intercepted off the coast of Johor’s Pontian in the West, Teluk Ramunia in the South and Tanjung Balau in the East.   
These locals are paid to keep their mouth shut and inform the smugglers of any police or coast guard presence.
“Sometimes these residents would extort money from the workers as well. They’ll frisk your pocket and go through your stuff in search of cash. If we resist, they threaten to call the cops on us,” Mr Syamsul said, adding that he paid these Indonesian and Malaysian locals a total of RM300 on top of the 7 million rupiah (US$443) he spent for the boat ride.
But no amount of money can guarantee a safe passage at sea.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 4,000 fatalities have been recorded annually on migratory routes worldwide, around 60 per cent of which was caused by drowning.
The number of deaths recorded, however, is the tip of the iceberg because the majority of migrant deaths around the world go unrecorded.
Accidents involving overloaded boats carrying migrant workers are rampant along the waterways between Indonesia and Malaysia, particularly since people smugglers like to operate at night.
Although it helps to avoid detection, sailing in the dark makes it hard for skippers and their crew to spot incoming waves, shallow reefs and jagged rocks.
In December 2021, one of these boats capsized off the coast of Tanjung Balau amid stormy weather, leading to at least 19 Indonesian migrants killed.
CNA spoke to an official from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Home Affairs who does navy patrols across the country.
The official, who is part of the agency’s Tanjung Sedili division which patrols waters along the coast of southeast Johor, including off Tanjung Balau, told CNA that these migrants typically travel not only during late night or during the wee hours of the morning, but also amid stormy weather when there is “perceived less” chance of being intercepted by patrol boats.
“Because they travel when the waves are choppy, like during the year-end monsoon season, they are at risk of these accidents and many have lost their lives,” said the official who declined to be named.
He added that the incident in 2021 was the worst he has seen in the last decade.
Even if they made it to Malaysian soil, these undocumented migrants have to constantly look over their shoulders.
They are more prone to abuse, harsh working conditions and unfair treatment compared to those with permission to work legally in the country.
“Illegal workers are helpless,” said Mr Ari Yulianto, a 40-year-old Indonesian who worked odd jobs in Malaysia from 2002 to 2020 before taking advantage of a Malaysian repatriation programme during the COVID-19 pandemic to return home.
“For example, if we were promised a pay of RM100 ringgit (a day) and they only gave us 15-25 ringgit, there was nothing we could do. We wouldn’t dare protest. They might call the police and we are done for.”
When this happens, the only way out is to look for another job, Mr Ari told CNA.
Which is why during his 18 years in Malaysia the Indonesian man switched employers seven times and had a wide variety of jobs from construction worker to plantation labourer and even as a hotel cleaner.
Employers, meanwhile, can face lengthy jail sentences and lofty fines if they are caught hiring undocumented workers. Which is why many workplace injuries went unreported.
Mr Kiman, a 52-year-old Indonesian who also goes by one name, said he had to suffer in silence after his right foot was crushed by a wheelbarrow filled with oil palm fruits in 2016.
Because Mr Kiman was an undocumented worker who came to Malaysia illegally in 2002, his company in Sabah refused to take him to the hospital.
“The doctors at the plantation clinic simply dressed the wound and gave me some paracetamol,” he told CNA. 
Over time the wound had become infected and Mr Kiman was feverish. “I even found some maggots eating away my flesh.”
After about a week since the accident, the company decided to give Mr Kiman some money and drove him to the Indonesian border so the man could seek proper help at an Indonesian hospital. 
By that time, the wound had become so bad, doctors in Indonesia had to amputate three of his toes.
Despite these conditions, millions continue to work in Malaysia illegally. Part of the reason is because some Malaysian employers actually prefer to hire undocumented workers due to a variety of factors.
According to the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), some business owners take the risks of employing undocumented workers out of desperation.
MEF’s president, Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman, told CNA that when guidelines and regulations on employment of foreign workers change frequently, employers do not find these changes easy to comply with.
At the same time, they urgently need workers to run their businesses.
“When hiring foreign workers takes a very long time before the worker arrives in Malaysia from the source countries, it is impossible to wait. And even when there was a regularisation program to streamline the documentation of undocumented workers, the processes and procedures were too tedious,” said Dr Syed.
He added that it takes months to apply and obtain approval for the workers, with the turnaround time sometimes being even more than 18 months.
“The quota system in the allocation of foreign workers is not reflective of the needs of employers,” said Dr Syed, adding that among the sectors that face shortage of workers include manufacturing, construction, agriculture, plantation, and services.
Waste disposal business owner Raghav (not his real name) said that not many locals are interested in his line of work where weekends are almost non-existent. 
“Most locals who try this work cannot seem to last for more than a week,” he told CNA.
Without a proper office, Mr Raghav said he finds it tough to meet the requirements to employ foreign workers legally.
Which is why he claims that he has no choice but to employ undocumented foreign workers or foreign workers who have legal papers but were not authorised to work with him.
“It is a risk but one that I have to take,” said Mr Raghav, who declined to give his real name for fear of repercussions from the authorities. 
Meanwhile, a provider of security guards to various places in Petaling Jaya, Selangor who wanted to be known only as Imran told CNA that it is hard to get locals and workers with permits to fill in empty positions.
“I am willing to pay them RM2,000 per month but local workers come and go,” he said.
Mr Imran admitted to previously hiring undocumented migrants but stopped after some of his friends were caught by the police. 
“I think it’s not worth the hassle,” he said, adding that he himself has to step in to work at times because of the staff shortage.
By law, Malaysian employers can face up to 12 months in prison and a fine of between RM10,000 to 50,000 for each undocumented worker they employ.
In August, the immigration department’s director-general Ruslin Jusoh told a press conference that 900 employers had been detained so far this year for employing undocumented workers.
After three years of living in Malaysia as an undocumented worker, the law finally caught up with Mr Nurdan.
The plantation he was working at in Selangor was raided by immigration officials earlier this year and Mr Nurdan was taken to an immigration detention facility where he spent four months in custody.
Months before, Mr Syamsul was also arrested by Malaysian authorities in a separate raid in Melaka. Because he has been deported once before, Mr Syamsul was given a harsher sentence of nine months in prison.
The two were deported to Batam in August and were immediately taken to a BP2MI shelter.
Both Mr Nurdan and Mr Syamsul had their passports and Indonesian identity cards confiscated by agency officials.
“We sent their passports and identity cards to the address listed in their documents,” BP2MI Riau Islands chief Mr Imam said.
He admitted that sending documents to deportees’ respective villages is not a foolproof way to prevent these workers from making the perilous journey again. 
“At least this way, they have no choice but to go back home first. Otherwise, they would just stay in Batam and look for their way in (to Malaysia) again,” he said.
Mr Imam said with every year his shelter welcomes around a thousand deportees – some like Mr Syamsul were repeat offenders. “We had one woman who went in and out of Malaysia illegally six times,” he said.
The agency also works together with the local police force to launch an investigation against people smugglers aiding these undocumented workers.
“Their testimonies have been very useful in bringing down these traffickers,” Riau Islands Provincial Police spokesman Zahwani Pandra Arsyad told CNA.
Over the years, these testimonies had led to the raid of several houses in Batam which were frequently used by people smuggling rings to shelter would-be undocumented workers and the arrest of dozens of suspected traffickers.
Malaysia’s Home Ministry did not respond to CNA’s request for comments but media reports suggest that the country is also stepping up its raids on undocumented workers.
In the first week of January alone, some 200 immigration raids were carried out in the capital Kuala Lumpur. Hundreds, including their employers, were detained.
More recently, hundreds of officers from various Malaysian agencies conducted a two-hour raid in Selangor targeting shop houses and businesses, New Straits Times reported last month.
Some 602 people were detained on suspicion of violating various immigration offences.
Mr Irwan of anti-trafficking group Embun Pelangi said these raids do not address the root causes of the problem: Complicated red tapes to become legal migrant workers as well as employers’ difficulty to hire them.
“Some people become undocumented workers because the process to become legal migrant workers is too complicated and lengthy,” he said.
“(Hiring undocumented workers) is also easier for employers. (Undocumented workers) can just come and immediately start working in their plantations without needing to pay government fees. They just need to pay the smugglers.”
Mr Syamsul said having been convicted twice with immigration offences has made him reluctant about going back to Malaysia.
“If I go and get arrested again, surely my sentence would be much harsher,” he said. “For now, I just want to find work here in Indonesia.”
Mr Nurdan said it was his ordeal at sea instead of his time at the Malaysian detention centre that made him think twice about entering Malaysia illegally again.
“I know it is a long shot since I am now blacklisted, but if there is a way for me to come to Malaysia legally, I would,” he said, adding that for now, he will go back to his village and tend the family’s farmland.
“I will not take the sea route again. It’s too risky.”
Additional reporting by Rashvinjeet S Bedi in Kuala Lumpur and Amir Yusof in Johor