Tanjungpinang immigration spokesman Surya Pranata said here on Wednesday that the 1,576 migrant workers were repatriated in stages from June 1 to 24 this year.
"Among the 1,132 male and 444 female workers were 7 infants," Surya Pranata said, adding that they were temporarily accommodate in Tanjungpinang before being sent to their respective home villages.
He said the problematic Indonesian migrant workers were repatriated because they did not have complete document to work in Malaysia.
According to Surya, the Indonesian problematic workers were serving a prison sentence in Malaysia before being repatriated to Indonesia.
He added that they were in poor condition because some of them arrived barefoot and some others had only the clothes on their body.
"All we have are taken away from us by Malaysian prison officers before we are repatriated," said Zainal, a worker who returned from Malaysia empty handed.
Zainal said that besides serving prison sentence, they were also caned.(*)
(O001/HAJM)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
