Kuwait deports 291 illegal RI workers

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.