Kuwait deports 291 illegal RI workers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Kuwaiti government has deported 291 illegal Indonesian workers and they are scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Thursday.

Chief spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Hotma Panjaitan said here on Wednesday that manpower minister Jacob Nuwa Wea was scheduled to meet the workers at Terminal III of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

"They were employed illegally not of their own volition, but they were duped by labor exporters who benefited financially by supplying them to that country," he said.

The minister has suspended the operations of 25 recruitment agencies for sending undocumented and untrained workers to Kuwait, an action that has sparked strong protests from labor agencies and their associations.

The action was taken following the finding by the minister last month that hundreds of Indonesian workers were stranded at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuwait and had been working there without the required legal documents.

The minister also met 99 workers serving time at the Kuwait Penitentiary for having illicit sex with their employers, some of whom were pregnant.

Separately, Yunus Yamani, executive director of Waliamanah consortium, which provides insurance for workers employed in the Middle East, also confirmed the planned deportation and hailed the Kuwaiti authorities' actions as humane.

"Kuwait is taking the initiative to repatriate the troubled workers to maintain good bilateral ties with Indonesia," he said, citing that according to Ministerial Decree No. 104A/2002 on labor export, the cost of repatriation should be borne by the companies that recruited the workers.

The workers could be jailed if Kuwait imposes its immigration law against them for illegally entering the small but rich country, he added.

Yunus also said the workers were also covered by the insurance scheme and Waliamanah would pay compensation to them upon their arrival in Jakarta.