Indonesia To Increase Service Counters After Rioting In Jeddah

Jakarta, June 10 (Antara) - Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the government would increase the number of service counters in its consulate general in Jeddah following rioting due to service problems. He said after hearing with House Commission IX here on Monday the government would increase the counters at its Consulate General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to speed up service for Indonesian workers seeking documents in connection with the amnesty program imposed by the Saudi government. "Actually it has all been planned well. Even until more than 50,000 documents for overstaying Indonesian workers/citizens joining the amnesty program have been issued," he said. The minister said the rioting happened only because of the long queue the workers/citizens had to take to make them angry and set fire outside the compound causing one person dead. He said according to information he received the person who died in the incident was ill and involved in jostling for a place in the queue. Regarding the Saudi government`s amnesty program the minister said the Indonesian government had actually made preparations for processing the documents needed for up to 100,000 Indonesian citizens/workers in Saudi Arabia. "Even since June 6 the manpower ministry has sent the director general for workers` placement, Reyna Usman, along with his staff members to support service provided by the foreign ministry," he said. He said the number of people had risen above the capacity causing them to jostle with each other in competition for a place in the line leading to rioting. "Usually the number is only around 3,000 but that day it rose to 12,000 eventually causing the unexpected incident," he said. He said to prevent recurrence he said his office had coordinated with the Consulate General in Jeddah as well as the ministry of foreign affairs with regard to the possibility of increasing the service counters and personnel and opening other outlets in other cities such as in Medina. The Saudi government has given the amnesty program until July 3 for all foreign workers estimated to reach one million categorized as over-stayers or undocumented. After the deadline the Saudi government would jail for two years any foreign worker including Indonesian worker found not having a document and continuing to stay in Saudi Arabia. For employers found employing undocumented workers the Saudi government would impose a fine of 100,000 riyal.