TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As many as 84,000 undocumented Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are having difficulties finding a new employer. Ironically, one of the prerequisites for getting amnesty from the Arabian government is a letter from their employer.
"The problem is that the Indonesian embassy and consulate general in Saudi Arabia cannot directly find an employer for these migrantworkers," said Director General of Indonesian Manpower Management and Placement at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, Reyna Usman, on Monday.
Reyna said the office that is able to distribute manpower to employers is the foreign representative of the private Indonesian migrant worker agency. They are the ones who have the right to distribute these workers and have a network to employer agencies. Therefore, Reyna called on all of these representatives to search for agents in Saudi Arabia that can seek new employers for these migrant workers.
Reyna said there is currently some 91,000 Indonesian migrant workers that already have permits equal to passports. Of that amount, only 7,000 Indonesian migrant workers have found new employers and been granted amnesty from the Saudi Arabian government. She hopes the process of all these documents will be complete by the amnesty deadline on November 3.
IRA GUSLINA SUFA
