The DPR Urges The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Not To Delay The Evacuation Of Indonesian Citizens In Wuhan

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of Commission I DPR RI, Teuku Riefky Harsya asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to seek unexpected funds or contingency budgets to evacuate Indonesian citizens (WNI) residing in Wuhan, China.

"We hope that (the evacuation) can be carried out not to be still looking for contingency funds. It must be prepared from the start," he said, during a joint meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, BNPB and the TNI Commander at the DPR Building, Parliament Complex, Sanayan , Jakarta, Thursday, January 30.

Currently, there are around 243 Indonesian citizens trapped in Hubei Province and in the Wuhan area, China. As is known, the lock down or isolation conditions created by the Chinese government made it difficult for the Indonesian government to evacuate Indonesian citizens.

Riefky said, everything must be prepared from now on. He emphasized that this was in anticipation of delays in the evacuation process due to waiting for the disbursement of funding.

"Do not let the momentum evacuate only two days while waiting for one week of funding, eventually the momentum closes again and it becomes even more isolated," he said.

In this regard, the Director General for Asia Pacific and Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Desra Percaya, ensured that there was no problem with the funding to be used to evacuate Indonesian citizens in China. In fact, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also provided charter flights from civilians to pick up Indonesian citizens.

"We are preparing charter flights from civil flights. From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we can guarantee that there is no problem with the budget," said Desra.

According to Desra, the government's priority in handling the corona virus is to protect and protect Indonesian citizens in Wuhan and a number of other parts of China. His party has also conducted a video conference and calculated evaluation options since Sunday, January 26.

"During the Sunday outbreak, we were instructed by Mrs. Retno to take a video conference from the start, there is an option for evacuation. Evacuation has been calculated, we have made a contingency plan," he said.