"We managed to foil an attempt to smuggle out 13 illegal Indonesian migrant workers to Malaysia by a tekong (illegal agent) named Dulmat alias Dul, 54, in Tanjung Berakit,"
Chief of Bintan police Adjunct Senior Commissioner YS Widodo said by phone Sunday.
The 13 illegal migrant workers and the suspect, Dulmat, were detained in a shelter in Berakit Village at 10.00 PM local time on Saturday (Jan 15).
"They were about to leave for Malaysia on Saturday night," Widodo said.
Ten illegal migrant workers were from Kendari, South Sulawesi, one from Lombok, West Nusa Tengara, one from Jambi, the rest was from Malang, East Java.
They were picked up by the suspect from a state-owned passenger vessel harboring in Kijang, Bintan, on Thursday and were placed in Tanjung Berakit before being smuggled to Malaysia, Widodo said.
According to Widodo, each illegal migrant worker had to pay 1.2 million rupiah to Dulmat for transporting them to Malaysia by a speedboat.
"We impounded five passports, money in a value of 722,000 rupiah and 505 Malaysian ringgit, and a cellphone from the suspect," Widodo said.
The suspect violated the 2004 Regulation Number 39 Article 102 about overseas migrant worker placement and protection. He was threatened with a sentence of ten years in jail, he said.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
