Labor exporters denounce tough new Saudi laws
Labor exporters denounce tough new Saudi laws
JAKARTA (JP): Companies which have been sending Indonesian workers to Saudi Arabia denounced yesterday Riyadh's decisions to hike working visa fee by 2,000 percent and to require AIDS-free certificates from incoming workers.
Executives of manpower supplier companies said that the new regulations would make it virtually impossible for them to send workers to Saudi Arabia, which has, until now, been a major destination for Indonesians seeking employment abroad.
On Jan. 1 the Saudi Arabian government raised the visa fee for workers from 50 real (Rp 30,000) to 1,000 real (Rp 600,000), in a move apparently designed to stem the flow of illegal workers.
At the same time, Riyadh now requires arriving workers to produce certificates vouching that they have not been infected with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
At least 19,000 Indonesian workers scheduled to depart for Saudi Arabia have failed to depart since Jan. 1 as a result of the increase in the visa fee.
Executives of manpower supplier companies in Indonesia say they have been negotiating with labor agencies in Saudi Arabia to have the visa fees reimbursed by the Arab employers.
The business of sending workers to Saudi Arabia will cease to be profitable if the companies here have to bear the increased cost, they claim.
"We will simply stop sending workers to Saudi Arabia," Mahfudz Djaelani, president of PT Djajalima Utama, told reporters yesterday. "We'd be better off feeding the workers here ourselves."
He said companies had been able to cover the cost of the visa when it was only 50 real.
Achmat Butapin of PT Zam-zam and Rustam Yusuf of PT Sinar Insani concurred that the fees for the visa and AIDS-free certificate should be paid by the employers in Saudi Arabia. These new costs should not be born by the Indonesian companies or the workers, they said.
The Ministry of Manpower, which oversees the affairs of the manpower supplier companies, has been negotiating with the Saudi authorities in the hope of finding a solution to the problem.
Ministry chief spokesman Fachri Taharuddin told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the two governments have agreed that the visa fees and the health certificate fees should be paid by the Saudi employers.
But Fachri acknowledged that the agreement might be difficult to enforce, given that these fees have to be paid before the workers leave the country.
Executives of manpower supplier companies said that on several occasions they had paid these fees hoping that the employers would reimburse them, but that had not happened.
Fachri however cautioned workers against attempting to work in Saudi Arabia illegally because, he said, in doing so they would expose themselves to exploitation.
Many Indonesians are in Saudi prisons for working illegally, Fachri said. (rms)