Saudi envoy denies report on prostitutes

JAKARTA (JP): Saudi Arabian Ambassador Abdullah Abdulrahman Alim has said there are no Indonesian women working as prostitutes in his country, as reported in the press recently.

"There are no Indonesian women working as prostitutes there," Ambassador Abdullah Abdulrahman Alim told the Republika newspaper during a gathering Monday in Cisarua, West Java, of Jakarta-based ambassadors from the Middle East.

"The law in our country is very strict. It is impossible that we would let such immoral activities develop," he said.

Indonesia's State Minister for Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi said last Thursday she would visit Saudi Arabia soon to investigate the plight of the "hundreds" of Indonesian women allegedly working there as prostitutes. She did not disclose the source of her information.

Alim regretted that the report on Indonesian prostitutes made the press without proper checking with his government.

A long-time resident of Saudi Arabia, however, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that to his knowledge there were Indonesian women prostitutes in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the former employee at the Indonesian consulate in Jeddah said that "as far as I know they've been there since 1992."

Some of the Indonesian prostitutes were brought to the country specially for that purpose, he said, while others were women who, for various reasons, had fled their employers.

"The women came to the consulate for protection," the source said. "Outside, however, there were unscrupulous people waiting to prey on them, scaring them with stories that if they went into the consulate, they would be returned to their employers and mistreated.

"Those unscrupulous people told the women that, with their help, they could find new employers. One or two of the women did get new employers, but the rest, scared and usually broke, were forced into prostitution.

"Indonesian men working as drivers there sometimes take 'tourists' to sites where Indonesian women work as prostitutes," the source added.

In the middle of last year there were 3,456 Indonesian men and 22,120 women working in Saudi Arabia. (tis/swe)