Why green passports?

Many Indonesian would-be haj pilgrims, who were using green passports, were arrested by the Saudi Arabian government and were even reportedly placed in jail.

They were found guilty of using green passports, which means that they participated in the pilgrimage through illegal channels. (The government-sponsored pilgrims use brown passports.)

We believe that Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher will be able to settle this case without causing any trouble. But we must also consider some opinions that have emerged in the society. Is sending these pilgrims back to Indonesia the best alternative?

Or perhaps the Indonesian government could ask the Saudi government to accept the faulty pilgrims this year, considering that Indonesia has a good reputation in haj-pilgrimage matters. Anyhow the pilgrims are already there.

Of course we cannot blame them for this incident because they obviously left for Saudi Arabia using legal documents and the Saudi's Embassy has issued them visas. And the immigration office did not make any attempt to stop them from leaving.

The government should have anticipated the problem and subsequently prevented this undesirable incident. The root of the problem is lack of coordination between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Why should the pilgrims become victims of the shortcomings?

-Republika, Jakarta