Hundreds of Saudi-bound

workers stranded here

JAKARTA (JP): More than 1,600 Indonesians planning to work in Saudi Arabia have been stranded at the Soekarno-Hatta airport for the past week as they were told by the immigration that they required a special pass from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Yesterday, The Association of Manpower Supplier Companies (IMSA), whose members are involved in the sending of these workers, criticized the government for imposing extra costs and additional red tape unnecessarily.

Beginning this week, immigration officers were under strict orders to prevent Indonesians from leaving for Saudi Arabia unless they had a written permission from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

The restriction has been imposed during the current haj pilgrimage season amidst concerns by the government that Indonesia might surpass the 160,000 quota of pilgrims allocated by the Saudi authorities to Indonesia.

The move meant that, in most cases, whole plane loads of Indonesians intending to work in Saudi Arabia were told they could not leave.

IMSA, whose members are already under pressure to lessen the extra charges imposed on would-be workers, said more paperwork means additional costs.

IMSA Executive Director Muchlis Danuwikarta told reporters yesterday that there were about 2,400 workers leaving for Saudi Arabia this week.

Those booked on Saudia Airlines were eventually allowed to leave after an intervention by Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Abdul Rachman Alim, according to Muchlis.

Muchlis was accompanied to the press briefing by IMSA Secretary General Saleh.

He blamed Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher for causing the problems because it was he who gave the order to the immigration in the first place. "The government should annul this requirement and let the workers leave," he said.

Muchlis dismissed the government's concern that some of these workers might decide to perform the haj pilgrimage and take up the quota allocated to pilgrims traveling under the government- sponsored program.

They are traveling on different set of documents and therefore could be easily distinguished, he said.

Saleh said that IMSA has filed a complaint to the Ministry of Manpower over the regulation, but has received no response.

Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief said on Thursday that he had talked with Tarmizi on the workers' and decided that it was not a problem. It was decided that the workers could leave as soon as they obtained the additional pass.

Government officials said the regulation has been in existence since 1980 but never enforced until now because there was never any problem with pilgrims' quota in previous years.

This year a record number of 157,000 people are registered to travel under the government's sponsored pilgrimage tour to Saudi Arabia.

Saleh said it would take at least three weeks for the workers to obtain the recommendation from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. (rms)