Indonesian Citizen Migrant Workers In Syria Not In Accordance With Procedures, Indonesian Ministry Of Foreign Affairs: Countries Closed To Placement Of Domestic Sector

The press statement from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the condition of Indonesian citizens in Syria. (VOI/AFI)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ensures that Indonesian citizens (WNI) who work in the domestic sector in Syria do not comply with procedures, because the country is closed to the sector, asking families in Indonesia to establish communication with the ministry.

That was said by an official from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the midst of efforts to evacuate Indonesian citizens from Syria related to the development of the situation in the country.

Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Judha Nugraha said the majority of Indonesian citizens in Syria are migrant workers, mainly working in the domestic sector.

"We can confirm that all the domestic migrant workers departed according to procedures," Judha explained in a press statement in Jakarta, Monday, December 16.

"Because suriah is a closed country for the placement of domestic migrant workers. So the data does not exist in central agencies, both in the Ministry of Manpower (Ministry of Manpower) and P2MI. Maybe they have limited access to self-report, so the active role of families to report to foreign ministries is very, very expected," he explained.

The situation in Syria escalated rapidly after rebel groups attacked a number of cities in the country in late November. At its peak, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group took control of the capital Damascus, overthrowing President Bashar al-Ashad's government on December 8.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that so far there have been two waves of evacuation of Indonesian citizens, of which 47 migrant workers and 18 people in Syria arrived in the country.

Most recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing a third batch of evacuation efforts consisting of 83 Indonesian citizens in Syria.

"We appeal to the public, our citizens in Syria to immediately report themselves," said Judha.

"We conveyed this appeal from the start, even before Damascus fell, we had a virtual meeting with Indonesian citizens that we were able to reach, to convey to Indonesian citizens there to report themselves," explained Judha.

"The figure that we previously conveyed was 1,162 wni figures submitted by Syrian immigration. It was incomplete and not updated. We are trying to update, some turned out to have gone home, some were contacted not to pick up and so on," added Judha.

It is known that the evacuation process was carried out with Indonesian citizens first collected and kept at the Shelter of the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus, to then collect data, complete travel documents, before the coordination meeting with related parties in accredited countries.

Then, Indonesian citizens moved from Damascus to Beirut, Lebanon by covering a distance of 108 kilometers for approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Arriving in Beirut, Indonesian citizens were kept in the Shelter of the Indonesian Embassy in Beirut to wait for flight time. Upon his return time, Indonesian citizens were flown by commercial aircraft from Rafiq Hariri Airport in stages.

Judha ensured that the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus remained fully operational to provide services and protection for Indonesian citizens.

Despite the situation in Syria, especially Damascus in general is relatively normal, Judha said the security situation was still very dynamic, because there were still attacks from Israel.

Considering that, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus maintain a standby status.