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70,000 Indonesian workers in Malaysia to be deported, says daily

70,000 Indonesian workers in Malaysia to be deported, says daily

Malaysia is set to deport some 70,000 Indonesian illegal workers by year end, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Citing a source from the republic's Manpower and Transmigration ministry, the English daily said the number was more than the 50,000 announced earlier by an Indonesian diplomat.

On Sunday, Indonesia's deputy ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, had said that 50,000 workers who were currently in Malaysia without valid working permits would be sent back.

The deportation will be carried out in stages and is expected to end by December 31, Hermono had said.

However, the Globe reported that on Tuesday, "an unnamed official" had told the newspaper the initial figures provided were incorrect.

“We’re conducting a coordination meeting about it. Around 70,000 migrant workers will be deported.

“It was the Foreign Affairs Ministry who gave the (50,000) figure, not the Indonesian manpower attache for Malaysia. The data was not correct, " the newspaper quoted the unnamed official as saying.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), about 700,000 documented Indonesian workers leave home to work abroad, while the United Nations estimated that the number of undocumented migrants are two to four times higher.

Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are among the top two countries where Indonesian workers go.

Malaysia has grappled with the presence of illegal foreign workers for years and it is currently conducting an operation to deport undocumented workers in Cameron Highlands, a hill resort, following a November 5 mudslide there which claimed five lives, four of whom were foreign workers based at vegetable farms.

Land clearing for farms, some allegedly done by migrant workers, has been blamed as a cause of the mudslide.

Soldiers and police have been deployed in Cameron Highlands to stem the flow of illegal migrants as well as to put a stop to illegal land clearing in the area. – December 10, 2014.