TEMPO.CO, Tangerang - The Manpower Ministry together with Soekarno-Hatta Airport Immigration and Airport Police managed to thwart the illegal dispatch of 63 potential female workers to the Middle East. Deputy Minister of Manpower Afiansyah Noor said they were allegedly illegal Indonesian migrant workers (PMI).

"There are 63 women using tourist visas. They will work with employers who are already waiting [for their arrival]. However, their departure is non-procedural,” said Noor at Soekarno-Hatta Airport on Thursday evening, December 15, 2022.

According to him, the women hailing from Central Java, West Java, and Banten planned to work in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh.

Noor explained that it was not the first time for most of them to work overseas using tourist visas. “Of the 63 people, 60 said to have done many times, even five times for some. Meanwhile, three people admitted that it was their first time,” he explained.

The planned departure was discovered by the monitoring team from the Manpower Ministry, the airport immigration, and the airport police. Officers carried out a joint operation on Thursday, December 15, 2022.

Noor added that all the women claimed they did not know who the sponsors would be sending them to the Middle East. Because of this, Noor suspected, their sponsor is a disconnected syndicate network.

The Manpower Ministry, said Noor, promised to take action against the sponsor who dispatched these suspected illegal migrant workers. “We will take action, make a report to the police so that the police will conduct an investigation and find out who is behind all this,” he said.

JONIANSYAH

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