Illegal workers in Saudi Arabia

From Jayakarta

Several days ago the minister of manpower said that 400,000 Indonesians who entered Saudi Arabia on an umroh (minor haj) passport and are now illegally employed in that country. This information has been spread by the media. Similar news also made headlines on March 22, 1995 when the manpower minister claimed that 400 Indonesian workers had departed for Saudi Arabia illegally through the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

The figure quoted by the minister aroused interest; it is, therefore, worth remarking on it. I heard from acquaintances with connections at the Saudi Arabian Embassy, and also from relations within the Ampuh Association, that the embassy issues in general about 50,000 umroh visas per year.

This number makes sense since a yearly haj quota has been fixed at 190,000 people.

Those who depart on umroh visas belong to the upper, middle and lower classes. Supposing 50,000 chose not to return to Indonesia, this would imply that every year some 10,000 people with umroh visas stay in Saudi Arabia.

To return to the minister's claim of 400,000 illegal Indonesians immigrants being in Saudi Arabia, it would take 40 years to reach that number. Has the matter not been exaggerated? We would not want to embarrass the Saudi Arabian government with an imprecise estimation, like that manpower ministry memo recently published by the media which informed that PT Astek released funds in the billions of rupiah for a film production titled Moon over Medina.

The Saudi Arabian government reacted unfavorably to the announcement since the producers had not applied for a permit to make the film.

About age requirements for the special umroh passports, if I am not mistaken an agreement between former manpower minister Sudomo and the ambassador of Saudi Arabia states that the minimum age was to be 30 years. However, the minister said then that at 30 years, one's productivity is beginning to slow down. Therefore it was then decided to regard 21 and 23 year olds as 30 year olds. That was what they agreed upon at the time.

I am also of the opinion that people from Padang or Aceh and who live in Jakarta should be allowed to make a passport in Jakarta as long as they do not trespass prevailing procedures.

YUNUS MOH UAMANI

North Jakarta