No Official Plan To Lift Moratoriun On Migrant Workers

Semarang, Central Java, Nov 25 (Antara) - Head of the recruitment and protection Indonesian migrant workers Moh Jumhur Hidayat said there has been no official plan to list the moratorium on the sending of workers to Saudi Arabia. "I think there has been no such plan," Jumhur said here on Monday commenting on petitions sent to the president and the manpower minister rejecting any plan to list the moratorium. Activist Mustofa Hasyim from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia sent a petition to the manpower minister calling for cancellation of any plan to lift the moratorium. "Cancel the plan before the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Arabia on protection of the rights of the Indonesian migrant workers (TKI)," the petition said. Another petition was sent to the president by Thobibuddin Ahmad saying, "Thousands of TKI are awaiting for you in Saudi Arabia." The petition spoke about thousands of Indonesian workers being jobless and becaming tramps in that country. "They are stranded and have been treated inhumanly. They need you to step in . Come to Saudi Arabia and see. Please help speed up exit permit to allow thousands of children and women to return home to Indonesia," Thobibuddin Ahmad wrote addressed to the president. He expressed concern that the suffering of the homeless people could be worse with rain beginning to fall and winter closing in that country. Jumhur said the ministry of manpower could not possibly lift the moratorium before a memorandum of understanding on protection of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Earlier migrant worker observer Syech Razie Ali Maula Dawilah said lifting moratorium without MoU with the Saudi government is tantamount to human trafficking . Razie, who was former staff at the Indonesian embassy in Abu Dhabi was commenting on statement by director general of worker placement Reyna Usman saying the moratorium would be lifted soon following bilateral talks between the governments of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. A lawmaker from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle Eva Kusuma Sundari blasted earlier statement by Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar about plan to lift the moratorium. Eva threw support for the petitions sent by activists in Saudi Arabia against plan to lift the moratorium. "There is no reason whatsoever supporting the plan," she said The plan is against the Law No 39 of 2004 and a recommendation from the Special Team of the House of Representatives for workers in 2011, she said. The recommendation requires a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia before resuming the sending of workers to that country. She said she hopes that the minister did not fail to notice that the Saudi government had shown no sympathy toward the Indonesian over stayers anguishing in their camps in that country. Around 8,000 over stayers have experienced a situation of inhumanity as a consequence of the absence of MoU and poor government policy on the workers, she said. "The workers suffered from hunger, their valuables were confiscated and there was no health care facility offered. "Some of them fell ill and there was no medical treatment provided for those seriously sick," she said. She said her party wanted to remind the minister to be consistent in carrying out and implementing the Law No. 39/2004 and observe the decision made in the plenary meeting of the House of Representatives in December 2011 stating that moratorium on sending workers to Saudi Arabia could be lifted only after there are improvements in the domestic policy , revision of the law No. 39 on worker recruitment and protection (PPTKILN) and MoU with that country.