East Java's Workers Prefer to Stay in Tunisia

SURABAYA, KOMPAS.com - Most of migrant workers from East Java preferred staying in Tunisia to joining the government-sponsored temporary evacuation, a government official said.

"We cannot force them to return home. What we can do is only facilitating them," Head of East Java Province’s Workforce Transmigration and Population Division Hary Soegiri said here Sunday.

The Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Ministry had recorded that there were at least 300 Indonesian migrant workers in Libya. About 90 of them were from East Java, he said.

Due to the dangerous situation in Libya, they had been flown out of Libya to Tunisia. However, most of 90 Indonesian workers from East Java preferred staying in Tunisia to returning to Indonesia while waiting for the normalcy in Libya, he said.

"Most of them do not want to be evacuated to Indonesia. Instead, they choose to stay in Tunisia for the time being," he said.

They believed that Libya’s political turmoil and instability would not be too long. Therefore, they preferred staying in Tunisia instead of returning to Indonesia.

The Indonesian government had also confirmed that it could not force Indonesian citizens evacuated from Libya and currently sheltered in Tunisia to be repatriated.

Presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said on March 2 that "the government cannot force them to do what is best for them. But at least, they have moved from the conflict area to a stable country."

Faizasyah said the government would in the end let them follow their conviction to stay in Tunisia and provide them with accommodations. The evacuation of Indonesian people from Libya and their being sheltered in Tunisia was a kind of protection from the Indonesian government because their daily needs and facilities would be met by the government.

"If they think they are safe in Tunisia, it is because of well-planned consideration and evaluation," he said.

At least 6,000 people had reportedly been killed in a civil war that broke in Libya following strong calls of the anti-government demonstrators for President Moammar Khadafi’s resignation. The political upheaval in Libya itself is believed to be part of the domino effect of pro-democracy movement in Egypt, which successfully toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

However, Moammar Khadafi himself had reiterated that he would not meet the anti-government demonstrators’ demand for his resignation. Instead, he had declared a firm stance in a recent address to the nation that he would remain in power.