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Jakarta. A proposal in Malaysia’s Sabah state to crack down on migrant workers bringing over their families could see more than 100,000 Indonesians sent home, but at least one official has played down any concerns.

The proposal was among 20 submitted last month to the Sabah administration by the State Foreigners’ Management Laboratory, Malaysian Home Minister Seri Hishamuddin Hussein said recently.

Agus Trianto, the manpower attache at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that the draft policy was based on a 1955 law and “should not be worried about.”

“We take this as a sign that Malaysia wants a stricter policy on foreign workers who want to enter and work in the country,” he said.

He said successive Malaysian governments had campaigned against migrant workers bringing over their families or marrying while in Malaysia.

Labor laws in Sabah prohibit unskilled foreign workers from bringing over their families, although this is largely overlooked by the thousands of Indonesian laborers working on palm oil plantations in the state or as construction workers.

Soepeno Sahid, the Indonesian consul-general in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, was quoted by Malaysia’s Daily Express newspaper as questioning why the “drastic new policy” was being touted, given that Malaysia had recently allowed Indonesia to buy a 1.6-hectare plot of land to build a school for the children of Indonesian workers.

Soepeno said the policy, if enacted, would affect not only the planned Kinabalu Indonesia School (SIKK) but also a recent campaign to deploy 109 teachers to teach the estimated 9,000 children of Indonesians working at palm oil plantations on the east coast of the state.

Agus, however, said the school would not be affected by the new proposal.

“We don’t have to worry about the operation of SIKK,” he said. “We have permission from the Malaysian government to run the school.”

Indonesia already operates a school in Kota Kinabalu but it can only accommodate 352 children. In addition to the school, there are also 115 learning centers set up and operated by the Borneo Child Aid Society (Humana) to teach the children of plantation workers.

Soepeno called on any Indonesians potentially affected by the policy not to be too concerned at this point, saying it was still at the proposal stage.

He said before the proposal could be adopted, Malaysian authorities would have to consider several factors, including the feasibility of repatriating the workers’ families.

Home Minister Hishamuddin was quoted as saying that if the policy was adopted, foreign workers in Sabah would no longer be allowed to bring over their wives and children, while those family members allowed into the state under previous policies would be sent back to their countries.

He added that stay permits for foreign workers’ dependents would also no longer be renewed or issued under the new policy.

The proposed policy is scheduled to be discussed by the Cabinet Committee on the Management of Foreign Workers and Foreigners, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.