Saudi Arabia reconsiders TKIs

Saudi Arabia reconsiders TKIs

JAKARTA: Irritated by the government's decision to suspend the
dispatch of Indonesian workers (TKI) to the Middle East, Saudi
Arabia is considering calling a stop to recruiting workers from
Indonesia.

Saudi Arabia's Al-Riyadh newspaper reported last week that the
country was seeking alternative sources for labor recruitment,
and that the kingdom's officials had held talks with Vietnam and
Cambodia about recruiting workers from there.

Saudi Ambassador to Jakarta Abdullah Aalam said there were
three major hurdles to labor recruitment from Indonesia.

For one thing, Jakarta only allowed 27 of 400 Indonesian labor
recruitment offices to handle Saudi labor applications, delaying
recruitment procedures and harming the interests of Saudi
recruitment offices, he said.

Second, the Indonesian government wants its embassy in Riyadh
to endorse work contracts at a charge of US$25 per contract. The
kingdom rejects this intervention.

Third, the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration
has imposed a quota system on recruitment offices, which are
allowed to process only a certain number of visas a month. This
measure, the Saudis fear, would also hamper recruitment from
Indonesia.

The Saudi Arabian Embassy has held off more than 40,000 labor
visas since Indonesian authorities stopped exporting workers to
the kingdom. --Al Riyadh.