Hundreds of Saudi-bound

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)