Members Of The House Of Representatives Highlight The Action Of Indonesian Citizens Who Become Prospective Deportations In Saudi Arabia

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

Member of Commission I DPR RI Muhammad Farhan highlighted the actions of Indonesian citizens (WNI) in Saudi Arabia who were the deportation brokers governing the arrest of Indonesian citizens to be deported by the local government and sent home for free.

"There are many brokers in Saudi Arabia. However, as long as the Saudi Arabian government cannot arrest those (who violate the law), we also cannot arrest them," said Farhan, quoted from Antara, Thursday, August 17.

He added that there were so many cases of violations by Indonesian citizens abroad, especially Indonesian citizens who did not have official documents (undocumented).

"Nevertheless, the state is still obliged to protect these Indonesian citizens regardless of the violations of the law they commit," he said.

"The state is obliged to protect by ensuring that it gets good and correct court rights and legal rights in accordance with applicable law," he said.

"Even though they acted repeatedly and left again for the country and then they asked to be sent home, the state was obliged to repatriate," he added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously said that there were still many Indonesian citizens abroad who were not documented and did not have a residence permit.

Cases of immigration violations of Indonesian citizens abroad are the most common cases among other cases, such as employment, hostage-taking, trafficking in persons, and the issue of Hajj and Umrah.

The Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) noted that Saudi Arabia is one of the countries most targeted by non-procedural Indonesian migrant workers and without official documents.

Saudi Arabia has been chosen as the destination country for PMIs because it only requires a Umrah visa or a pilgrimage visa.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handled 17,977 cases of Indonesian citizens abroad from 18,820 cases that entered until mid-2023. The most cases are immigration and evacuation.