4 June 2007
Jakarta - At least 560 Indonesian workers with various problems with their employees were sheltered in a temporary accommodation at the Indonesian embassy complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
"They are waiting for the settlement of their cases, and their number are increasing from time to time," said Labor Attache at the Indonesian embassy Sukamto when contacted from Jakartaover week end.
It was also reported that the Riyadh Governor has formed a team for helping settle the problems of the Indonesian migrant workers. The result could be seen next week as scores of the migrant workers had obtained an exit permit to leave Saudi Arabia.
The team had classified the workers seeking shelter at the Indonesian embassy into three groups. The first wishing to go back to their employers, on the condition that they receive their still unpaid wages.
The second group wished to go home to Indonesia, but hoped to receive their unpaid wages first, and the third group are going home even without their wages.
To settle the problem of the first and second groups would not be so easy, as locating their employers would be difficult. While the third group has practically no problem to solve, because even if they have no money for their air trip home, the problem would be solved by the Paramitra foundation, a kind of Indonesian workers insurance company operating in Saudi Arabia, Sukamto said.
Earlier, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said his side had formed a team to handle home-bound as well as departing Indonesian migrant workers.(*)
