Arab news Boat mission repatriates 2,349 illegal Indonesian workers By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWS
Published: Apr 23, 2011 22:30 Updated: Apr 23, 2011 22:30 RIYADH: The Indonesian Consulate announced on Saturday that 2,349 illegal Indonesian workers, mostly housemaids, left Jeddah seaport for Jakarta Friday night in a renewed bid by the Indonesian government to repatriate all stranded workers and those released from jails recently in the Kingdom. "This was a unique boat mission under which the workers are being repatriated by a passenger ship that will reach Indonesia on May 3," said Didi Wahyudi, a citizen protection officer at the Indonesian Consulate, Saturday night. "The workers have been sent home by the Labobar passenger ship belonging PT Pelni, which will take 11 days to reach Tanjung Priok Port in Indonesia," said Didi. He pointed out that the group had only 30 male workers. He said that the group included overstayers, runaways and Haj and Umrah overstayers. He said that "this huge repatriation exercise was made possible following successful talks between the Saudi and Indonesian government officials for quite some time now." Referring to the route of the ship, Hendrar Pramutyo, a spokesman of the Indonesian Embassy, said that the ship will make ports of call in Aden, Colombo and Padang (West Sumatra) before reaching Jakarta. "A panel of doctors and psychiatrists sent by the Indonesian government is also accompanying the workers on board," said a report, quoting Indonesia's Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar. A number of women and children are on board the ship and hence the doctors will provide all assistance to them, said Linda. Before the workers were picked up, they had spent some time living under a bridge in Jeddah and in different places across the Kingdom. Jakarta chose to repatriate the workers via sea because the cost of repatriation was minimal. The capacity of the ship is 3,000. Asked about the release of workers requested by the Indonesian Minister of Law and Human Rights Partialis Akbar, Hendrar said this boat mission is different. He pointed out that the Indonesian government has requested the Saudi government to free all 316 prisoners in the country. "The Saudi government agreed to release soon all 316 Indonesian prisoners except those facing murder charges," said a report published recently. The report said that 316 Indonesians, most of them migrant workers, were serving prison sentences of between one and 12 years for various offenses, including theft. Of the total, 212 were convicted in Riyadh and 32 in the Eastern Province. The Saudi government, however, refused to release the 23 Indonesian prisoners on death row. © 2010 Arab News ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
