As Indonesia bans Eid homecomings, Chinese worker arrivals raise questions

Two of the more than 400 workers who arrived from China this month tested positive for Covid-19 – but Indonesia’s daily caseload is in the thousands

Long-held tropes about foreign workers taking locals’ jobs and a latent suspicion of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia has fuelled the debate, observers say

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Security officers stop a minivan at a checkpoint in Indonesia after the government imposed a travel ban earlier this month ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival. Photo: EPA

Published: 2:00pm, 12 May 2021Updated: 10:37pm, 12 May 2021

As Indonesian authorities turn back thousands of people trying to return to their hometowns for the Eid ul-Fitr festival despite a nationwide interstate travel ban, some have questioned the inflow of foreign workers into the country.

Earlier this month, charter flights from China brought in more than 400 workers to work on infrastructure projects ranging from toll roads to airports and ports in different parts of Indonesia. Two of them later tested positive for Covid-19 – leading to accusations of government hypocrisy for stopping citizens from travelling domestically for the festival, known as Lebaran or Idul Fitri in Indonesia, that marks the end of Ramadan.

“Of course the public will wonder why Chinese citizens are allowed to enter Indonesia even though people are prohibited from going home,” Indonesian parliamentarian and activist, Netty Prasetiyani, said in a written statement on Sunday. “Do not let the public judge the government to be inconsistent in its Covid-19 control policy.”

Passengers queue with their luggage at a train station in Jakarta on May 5. Photo: Reuters

The government’s domestic travel ban, effective from May 6 to May 17, was designed to stop large numbers of people moving around a country that has reported more than 1.7 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

In a typical year, some 20 million people travel around Indonesia in the run up to the festival, according to Transport Ministry figures, with more than 1 million privately owned cards usually leaving the capital Jakarta as part of an annual homecoming known as mudik.