Minister visits Malaysia to increase protection of Indonesian citizens

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi has departed to visit two areas of Malaysia that inhabited by significant number of Indonesian citizens.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Arrmanatha Nasir said the visit for March 15-17, 2017. "Mrs. Minister visited to Penang and Johor Bahru," Arrmanatha said at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, Wednesday (March 15). The visit aimed to boost cooperation in the areas of service and protection for Indonesian citizens in Malaysia.

According to him, this was important because the number of Indonesian citizens in Malaysia reached 1.4 million people. About 80 thousand of them were in Penang and 347 thousand were in Johor Baru.

Most citizens in Penang worked in the fields of palm oil and manufacturing industries. The rest were students and citizens that married to local residents. While Johor Baru was unique because each year the Embassy of Republic Indonesia facilitated 7,000 Indonesian citizens returned to Indonesia from there.

Arrmanatha said a number of cases related to the Indonesia citizens in Malaysia, such as cases of abuse, unpaid wages, immigration violations, drugs, murder, also the human trafficking. "One of the unique things of this visit was, it first visit since last
30 years," Arrmanatha said.

The visit also showed the government's focus on the protection of Indonesian citizens abroad, especially in Malaysia. Arrmanatha explained Retno will meet with some local leaders to ensure the security of the Indonesian citizens there. Arrmanatha said the foreign minister would only to discuss issue on the agenda.