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)