KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — Some 125 Malaysians arrived back home Tuesday night from Kualanamu International Airport in Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra.
According to The Jakarta Post, Kualanamu airport spokesperson Mulia Rahman said that this was after 69 Indonesians arrived at the airport at around 4pm on a Malaysian Airlines flight.
Around 45 minutes later, 125 Malaysians flew home with the same airline.
Malaysia Airlines station manager Rahmat Iskandar Dinata said the repatriation of the 125 Malaysians from Sumatra was facilitated by the Malaysian government.
“The majority of them are students studying in Medan, Aceh and Padang,” he said.
They are expected to be screened and will serve a mandatory 14-day quarantine at a government-designated centre.
Yesterday, it was reported that authorities detected 72 cases of Covid-19 among those who had returned from Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the group of Indonesians that returned from Malaysia comprised 13 men, 53 women, two children and a toddler, the majority of whom were migrant workers.
Earlier this month, 513 Indonesian domestic workers arrived from Malaysia at the same airport.
The Indonesian government had previously stated that it had no plans to repatriate Indonesian migrant workers and other citizens living in Malaysia, despite the ongoing movement control order (MCO), effective since March 18, to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
The MCO has reportedly forced thousands of Indonesian workers to voluntarily return home.
Unfortunately, not all workers have used legal means to return. Authorities in North Sumatra and Riau Islands recently caught dozens of Indonesian migrant workers attempting to sneak past border authorities while returning from Malaysia.
