SAUDI ARABIA TO PROTECT RI MIGRANT WORKERS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 2 (ANTARA) - For as long as 40 years, Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia had been running the risk of experiencing  all sorts of unexpected difficulties ranging from maltreatment by employers to brushes with the law because of the absence of a legal umbrella regulating their presence in the Middle Eastern country.          But this situation is soon to change for the better with the conclusion of  an agreement between  the Indonesian and Saudi governments  to improve their services for placement  and protection of Indonesian workers in that country. The agreement was reached at a Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia held in Jedda over the weekend.         "Thank God, we have signed a statement of intent toward the signing of an MoU with Indonesia," Saudi Arabian Manpower Minister Adel Mohammad Fakeih said after attending the meeting.          Fakeih said the two countries needed to sign the MoU as a legal umbrella for the placement and protection of about 1.5 million Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia. The statement of intent  is expected to be followed by the signing of an MoU by both governments within the coming six months.          The statement of intent was signed between Moh Jumhur Hidayat, head of the National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers Overseas (BNP2TKI), in his capacity the Indonesian chief delegate to the SOM, and  Adel Mohammad Fakeih who head the Saudi delegation.          "The agreement would lead to  maximal protection of the Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia," Jumhur said.          Through the Statement of Intent, both sides agreed the establishment of a joint working committee to formulate a memorandum of understanding that would be signed between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.          He said that the placement of Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia now would enter a new phase of good protection and respectable services as the supervision of both countries would be involved under the MoU as a legal umbrella.          According to Jumhur, the letter of intent contains a number of matters relating to the arrangement, placement and protection of Indonesian workers so that they would be able to work comfortably and securely with protection.          After all, Jumhur said,  Adel Muhammad Fakieh has assured that the MoU was needed as a legal umbrella in settling various TKI problems, while at the same time it served as a protection scheme for about 1.5 million TKIs working in Saudi Arabia.          Based on the statement of intent, the placement and protection of TKIs included efforts to respect workers' dignity with the provision of an insurance program, health, legal counseling and an interpreter team when they are facing various problems and disputes.          "Ahead, Indonesia wants TKIs to work in Saudi Arabia securely and comfortably in accordance with their desires, " Jumhur said.          He said that over the past 40 years of Indonesian workers' placement in Saudi Arabia, both countries had never yet made any joint statement of intent or commitment to produce an MoU because so far Saudi Arabia had never made any agreement with any worker exporting countries.          "So this is the first agreement reached during the SOM of both nations in Jedda aimed at the eventual signing of an MoU between the two," Jumhur said.          He said that the Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia   had brought many advantages to Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. But so far they had faced many problems. Therefore, the SOM is a historic meeting because it constituted the first of its kind ever held over the past 40 years.          Before the SOM was held Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar expressed hope that the SOM would produce maximal results.       "The Saudi minister of manpower understands Indonesia well so that we should be able to convey our desires as well as possible," Minister Muhaimin said when he held a meeting with Moh Jumhur Hidyat.          The minister expected that the meeting would result in an agreement to improve placement services, protection and employment contracts of TKIs and other things such as the availability of complete information on the employers, better access to communication, insurance protection and accommodation.          Of the 1.5 million TKIs in Saudi Arabia, about 650 thousands are estimated to have been staying in accredited areas of the Indonesian Consul General in Jedda, and some 800 thousands others are in the Indonesian Embassy's accredited areas in Riyadh.          Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have also faced problems with the big number of Indonesian migrant workers overstaying their visas.          Initially, overstayers were those of problematic workers who fled their employers' homes  to various boarding facilities partly because they were not paid, treated inhumanely, had heavy workloads, worked not based on their contracts, had sexual harassment, had been abused, were not competent in work and  faced cultural shock.          But some other overstayers have also been visitors who come to Saudi Arabia to perform a minor haj pilgrimage or umroh.          An estimate has put the number of Indonesian oversayers in Saudi Arabia at 50,000. The government had planned to help some 25,000 return home this year for lack of funds while the remaining 25,000 will still have to stay there until they see what the government will do with them.          Until last March, 2,073 of the planned 25,000 have been facilitated to return home, and early in May, the government returned again 2,349 overstayers. The MV Labobar, a ship carrying the 2,349 migrant workers  from Jidda, Saudi Arabia, arrived at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok seaport in the first week of May 2011.***4*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/18:10/a014) 02-06-2011 19:37: