TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - More than 6,600 Indonesian workers have been detained by Saudi Arabia since the amnesty policy ended last Monday. According to Indonesian Ambassador for Saudi Arabia, Gatot Abdullah Mansyur, the detainees are currently settled at Tarhil Sumayshi in Jeddah.
"All expenses including transportation home are paid by the government of Saudi Arabia," Gatot said yesterday.
According to Gatot, the government of Indonesia will negotiate on the fate of Indonesia workers who had processed their amnesty document but were stopped because of the deadline last Monday. They are estimated to be more than 20,000 people.
Indonesian Embassy has gathered 101,067 Indonesian workers to obtain travel documents in Lieu of Passport. However, they are required to obtain the amnesty document from the Saudi government. Until November 3, there are only 17,306 workers who are able to obtain their amnesty documents and get back to work, while the other 6,700 workers chose to go home.
Director General of Labor Placement and Protection Ministry of Transmigration, Reyna Usman, said that the government will keep negotiating to Indonesian workers' status improvement. "We hope there will be special treatment for Indonesian workers particularly in administrative document processing," Reyna said.
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