Indonesia evacuates 600 workers from Sabah

JAKARTA. Hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers and their families are being evacuated from Sabah, Malaysia, amid an escalating stand-off between Malaysian security forces and Filipino gunmen, a minister said.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said in Jakarta on Tuesday that he had coordinated with the Foreign Ministry to ask the Indonesian Consulate General and labor attaches to help the migrant workers and their family working in the Felde palm oil plantation in the Tanduo village. 

“I have instructed the labor attaché and asked the consul general to have the Malaysian police and the plantation company evacuate all migrant workers and their families who have been trapped by the armed conflict which has lasted for more than two weeks. Most of the workers have been in safe areas located far from the conflict zone,” he said. 

More than 600 Indonesian workers had been evacuated, the minister said. They mostly come from East and West Nusa and Tenggara and were among 8,000 workers employed in 52 plantation blocks in Sabah. 

Police in Kalimantan said that at least 18 Indonesian workers had returned home from Malaysia following the clash, crossing into Nunukan regency and Sebatik district.

“Nunukan police precinct and Sebatik police sector are working with other parties, including the local administrations, so that personnel at border areas are all set to anticipate any measures regarding the process of returning the workers home,” East Kalimantan police spokesman Sr. Comr. Antonius Wisnu Sutirta said.

Wisnu added that the conflict areas in Sabah were located far from the Indonesian border, and confirmed that the situation in Kalimantan was relatively safe.

Mulawarman military command spokesman Colonel Legowo WR Jatmiko, meanwhile, said that the military saw no need to deploy extra personnel to the border areas. 

“As for now, the number of personnel from Battalion 407 deployed along the border remains at 650,” Legowo said.

The assault

On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported that Malaysia had launched airstrikes and mortar attacks against nearly 200 Filipinos occupying a Borneo coastal village to end a bizarre three-week siege that has turned into a security nightmare for both Malaysia and the Philippines.

The assault follows firefights this past week that left eight Malaysian police officers and 19 Filipino gunmen dead, several of the latter were members of a Muslim clan that shocked Malaysia and neighboring Philippines by slipping by boat past naval patrols last month and storming a remote village in Borneo’s 
eastern Sabah state.

The crisis has sparked jitters about the spread of instability in Sabah, which is rich in timber and oil resources. Unknown numbers of other armed Filipinos are feared to have encroached into other districts in the area recently.

More than seven hours after fighter jets were deployed, Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein reported no casualties among the Malaysian police or military personnel who had raided houses near palm oil plantations. 

“On the enemy side, we have to wait because the operation is ongoing. We have to be careful,” he said.

Malaysian national police chief Ismail Omar said ground forces had encountered resistance from gunmen. Police were slowly combing an area of about 4 square kilometers to look for the Filipinos, he said.

Prime Minister Najib Razak defended the offensive, saying Malaysia had made every effort to resolve the siege peacefully since the presence of the group in Lahad Datu district had become known on Feb. 12, including holding talks to encourage the intruders to leave without any serious legal repercussions.

The Jakarta Post