Evacuation of Indonesians in Yemen Hampered by Constant Conflict

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Ministry for Foreign Affairs said that 15 out of the 23 Indonesian citizens are still under the custody of Yemeni authorities since they were detained several days ago. It is known that two individuals were released by Yemen's authorities, while six others had just been released with the Ministry's assistance today.

According to the information received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, those who were arrested are actually students which had some issues relating to their immigration documents. "Our Embassy staff visited each prisons, and one citizen is known to be detained in Shumaila prison," said the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Retno marsudi, at her office on Monday, March 30, 2015.

The spokesperson for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Arrmanatha Nasir, said that Embassy staff had some difficulties in releasing the students because of the ongoing conflict in the country, which severed road access and caused communications disruptions throughout the country.

That said, Nasir assured that the government will strive to do the best to locate and free the students through intense lobbying and negotiations.

Nasir added that the students are not detained in the same correctional facility, but are instead detained in different prisons spread across several cities.

The spokesperson refused to speculate on whether some other detainees were arrested because of their suspected involvement with the ongoing conflict in Yemen. "We are not going to make any guesses on the matter - we'd rather clarify and investigate the matter further before arriving at any conclusion," he said.

Nasir also affirmed that the Embassy in Sanaa will remain open to help facilitate the evacuation of Indonesian citizens which are still stuck in Yemen. "This counts as an extraordinary circumstances - we can't access several areas with ease and the flow of communication is often disrupted amid the chaos," he said.

It is known that the Indonesian government has evacuated 90 Indonesians from Sanaa - including 38 Embassy staff and their relatives. The evacuation was done overland - through Sanaa to the port town of Al-Hudaida, where the evacuees will be evacuated through a safe airport.

ROSALINA