July 24, 2025
JAKARTA – The Indonesian Consulate General in Johor Bahru, the capital of Malaysia’s Johor state, repatriated on Monday 232 previously detained migrant workers in coordination with the Malaysian Immigration Department.
The migrant workers were divided into two groups and transported by sea from Johor’s Pasir Gudang International Ferry Terminal to Batam Center Port in Batam, the Riau Islands.
The first group of 83 people, comprising 61 men, 16 women, four boys and two girls, departed on July 21 at 10 a.m. Malaysia Time (9 a.m. Western Indonesia Time/WIB), Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported.
The second group of 149 people, comprising 124 men, 21 women, three boys and one girl, followed at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. WIB).
A task force of officers from the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and the consulate general in Johor Bahru accompanied the migrant workers on their trip back to Indonesia.
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Upon their arrival in Batam, the task for handed over the repatriated workers to officials from the local Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Service Post (P4MI), who were joined by officials from the Batam Immigration Office and Batam Center Port’s Health Office.
The workers were then transported to the P4MI temporary shelter for further processing and data verification.
Leny Marliani, a foreign service officer at the Indonesian Consulate General in Johor Bahru, said the operations was conducted under Malaysia’s Program M, a two-year collaboration between the Malaysian Immigration Department and Indonesian diplomatic missions in Peninsular Malaysia to facilitate the repatriation of 7,200 Indonesian illegal migrant workers.
“So far, there have been 1,000 Indonesian migrant workers who were deported through Program M,” Leny added.
As of Monday, the consulate general in Johor Bahru has assisted in the repatriation of 3,456 migrant workers from the neighboring country.
Leny also reminded all Indonesian citizens in Malaysia, including migrant workers, to comply with all immigration regulations to avoid illegal alien status, as well as to maintain Indonesia’s reputation overseas.
Of the 232 repatriated workers, 83 had been detained at the Kemayan Immigration Detention Depot in Pahang, while the remaining 149 had been held at the Putrajaya Immigration Office, Bernama reported.
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In an earlier operation on June 26, the Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) said in a statement that it had received the crew of KM Tembisan Agensi from the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
The crew members of the motor vessel, identified as Ahmad, Haryanto and Muhammad Faizal, had been detained on May 26 for violating Malaysia’s maritime boundary and were handed over on June 5 to the Indonesian Consulate General in Johor Bahru, which then coordinated their repatriation with Bakamla.
Consular officer Leny handed over the three crew members to Cdre. Bambang Trijanto, who heads Bakamla’s Western Zone branch, aboard the patrol boat KN Tanjung Datu along the border between Indonesia and Malaysia. The handover was witnessed by the vessel’s skipper Col. Rudi Endratmoko as well as representatives from Bakamla, the MMEA and Buru district in Karimun regency, the Riau Islands.
The patrol boat then transported the crew into Indonesian waters, where they were transferred to over to the Buru district head to be returned to their families.