Triyono Budi Sasongko
Secretary, National Agency for Border Management

IN areas of west and north Kalimantan along the border separating Indonesia and Malaysia, life is hard for most of the local residents, economically, socially, and in matters pertaining to education. Across the border in Sabah, Malaysia's largest oil palm plantation region, over 200,000 Indonesians work on plantations and the refineries, mostly as unskilled labor or domestic helpers. According to the National Migrant Worker Placement and Protection Agency out of that number, about 140,000 are illegal workers.

It is their status that causes them untold problems. One of the most critical issues they face is education for their children. Living in plantations, around 20,000 of these school-aged migrant children have no access to any kind of educational institutions. Parents must often make the painful choice of sending their kids back to their families in Indonesia, or keeping them close, but without getting any education. As illegal migrants, they are also denied the right to attend local schools.