Faisal Basri Unloads The Modes Of Chinese Migrant Workers Entering Indonesia: From Aircraft Charters, Transits, To Tourist Visas

Faisal Basri (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Senior economist Faisal Basri revealed that the influx of foreign workers (TKA) in Indonesia, especially those from China, could not be separated from the tactics they used to arrive in the country.

According to him, many of the foreign workers entered Indonesia using a visit visa. This makes the immigration authorities record them as tourists and not as workers.

"Most of them use a visit visa," he said when he was a resource person on the Youtube channel Refly Harun as quoted on Wednesday, July 28.

Due to this condition, Faisal suspects that the number of foreign workers entering Indonesia is far greater than that recorded by the government.

"This gives freedom to thousands of Chinese workers every month (to enter), thousands," he stressed.

Faisal added, usually these foreign workers come to Indonesia to work on a number of national projects. One of the most prominent is working in the Morowali Industrial Estate, Central Sulawesi. He also admitted that he had succeeded in dismantling the mode of arrival of these foreign workers so that they could escape public scrutiny.

"Their method is to enter through Sam Ratulangi Airport (Manado, North Sulawesi) by charter flight. From here they go to Morowali by Wings Air. That's (that comes in) thousands every month. If the (reported) 100 or 200 (TKA) are caught by the media, but the media also cannot catch (report) all those who enter here," he said.

In his notes, many of these foreign workers entered Indonesia because they were part of a national strategic program, namely nickel processing for electric car battery products.

But in reality, Faisal said that the presence of foreign workers was mostly aimed at processing certain mining materials into metal goods which were then exported to their own country (China).

“They can enter (say) in the name of a national strategic project to make batteries (electric cars), even though so far no one has made batteries in Morowali. Now, what they are doing is processing nickel, most of which is further exported to China," he explained.

"They can buy nickel ore (in Indonesia) at a price of a quarter or a third of the international price, so they come here in droves because if they keep their factories in China the price is expensive," he continued.

For information, the government has now imposed a moratorium on the arrival of foreign workers following the high daily cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The decision itself is contained in the Regulation of the Minister of Law and Human Rights (Permenkumham) Number 27 of 2021 concerning Restrictions on Foreigners Entering Indonesian Territory During the Enforcement of Restrictions on Emergency Community Activities.