Tuesday, June 12, 2012

INDONESIANS REPATRIATED FROM SYRIA CAUTIOUSLY by Fardah

Jakarta, June 12, 2012 (ANTARA) - The Arab Spring has continued to affect Indonesia indirectly, as over 12,000 Indonesians, mostly migrant workers are still trapped in the violence-ravaged Syrian towns of Homs, Hama, and Allepo.

In 2011, Indonesia was busy evacuating thousands of its citizens from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen - the Arab countries that saw popular uprisings, known as the Arab Spring or Arab Awakening.
And now, an uprising is happening in Syria. According to the United Nations, 9,862 civilians have been killed since the Syrian uprising began in March last year, while Syrian activists put the death toll at more than 13,000.

When the Syrian rebellion began, the Indonesian government started mulling over the repatriation of its approximately 12,500 citizens, most of whom are housemaids, the rest being students and professionals.

"Repatriation is going on. Of around 12,000 Indonesians in Syria, 233 have been repatriated safely to Indonesia this year. About 108 more Indonesians are already gathered at our embassy in Damascus, ready to leave the country as soon as the administration process in Syria is finished," Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa told the press in his office, on Monday (June 11).

He explained the repatriation process had to be carried out cautiously for the sake of the safety of all Indonesians in the Arab country.

A mass evacuation of thousands of Indonesian workers in Syria without good planning could put the evacuees in danger, the minister said.

Besides, the repatriation process will take time and require a lot of funds. In order to leave Syria, the migrant workers must get permission from their employers and then obtain exit permits from the Syrian authorities.

"There still might be some Indonesian workers who are bound to their jobs in Syria," Marty said.

Apart from the repatriation, the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus has been keeping in touch with Indonesians in Syria and urging them to avoid dangerous zones in the country.

Minister Marty said that as many as 108 Indonesian nationals in conflict-torn Syria had been evacuated to the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus and would later be sent home.

Although there are no immediate threats against foreigners, including Indonesians in Syria, the foreign ministry has set up two safe houses outside Damascus for Indonesian citizens needing a temporary shelter and protection before leaving Syria.

A Syrian national, Abdul Rojak Harbi, who was working as a driver at the Indonesian Embassy, was shot dead in Damascus while he was taking the embassy`s car to a workshop on May 30, 2012.

Due to the worsening situation in the Arab nation, the Indonesian government has stopped sending workers to Syria since August 9, 2011.

According to the National Agency for Manpower Placement and Protection (BNP2TKI) data, there are 11,760 Indonesian migrant workers in Syria, most of whom - 11,559 - are domestic workers while the rest 201 are formal sector workers.

BNP2TKI chief Jumhur Hidayat recently said 233 migrant workers, during the February-May period, had been flown back to their home country in 10 flights and then sent to their respective villages in West, Central and East Java, Banten, West Nusa Tenggara, Lampung and South Sulawesi.

"Right now preparations are still under way to fly home around 30 of the 103 migrant workers accommodated at the Indonesian embassy in Damascus," he said.

Ever since the conflicts broke out in Syria, the Indonesian government had set up a team to handle its citizens and migrant workers in the Arab nation.

And the Indonesian embassy has also stationed officials in conflict areas such as Homs, Hama and Daraa, whose main task is to evacuate Indonesian citizens or migrant workers.

"Apart from them, there are also military (TNI) members working as observers for the United Nations in Syria. So, the government has cooperated with them in many ways to save or evacuate the Indonesian citizens or migrant workers from the conflict areas," he said.

Jumhur stated if flights were banned in Syria, the evacuation would be done by land, to Lebanon and Jordan, before the Indonesian citizens could be flown to Indonesia. Marty explained the government had coordinated with the authorities in Syria`s neighboring countries to ensure the evacuation by land if necessary.

The other problem facing the repatriation process is the fact that not all Indonesians want to go back home, and not all employers are willing to let their migrant workers leave Syria.

The Indonesian Ambassador to Syria, Wahib Abdul Jawad, said that many Syrian employers were reluctant to send Indonesian migrant workers back to Jakarta.

"We have asked them to allow the Indonesians to go back, and we have even offered them compensation, but they refused. They chose to keep their employees rather than the compensation cash," the ambassador told ANTARA recently, adding that most of the migrant workers were employed as house servants in Syria.

However, Syrian employers have so far sent back 400 migrant workers to Indonesia.

According to the embassy`s data, the embassy has repatriated some 233 Indonesians to Jakarta since January 2012.

Darussalam Islamic Studies Institute in Gontor, Ponorogo, East Java, recently reported that 11 alumni of the institute chose to stay in Damascus to continue their studies.

"We have contacted the Gontor alumni living there, but they said the situation [in Damascus] was still safe, so they were reluctant to return home," the assistant for foreign cooperation affairs to the institute`s rector, Amal Fathullah, told ANTARA recently.

"The number of Gontor institute`s alumni pursuing their studies in Syria reached 16," Amal said, adding that five of them had returned home.

Amal stated the institute had no intentions of asking them to return home, because it was the Indonesian embassy`s responsibility.

He said the Gontor institute would keep monitoring the students` safety in cooperation with the Indonesian embassy.

Indonesia`s National Defense Forces was scheduled to send six of its officers to join the UN team to monitor the implementation of a full cessation of armed violence in Syria.

The Indonesian government had accepted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon`s impromptu request to send its officers to join the UN team, TNI spokesman Col Minulyo Suprapto said in April 2012.

Indonesia also supported the UN General Assembly`s resolution condemning human rights violations in Syria and had called for an end to the crisis in Syria earlier this year.

The UN General Assembly had voted overwhelmingly for a resolution backing an Arab League`s plan that called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and it also strongly condemned human rights violations by his regime.

"Indonesia took three stands on the Syrian issue: Firstly, the civilian community must be protected at all costs; secondly, violence will not solve problems in Syria and, therefore, emphasis must be put on dialogue; and thirdly, the UN and international community must play a role in restoring peace," a spokesman of the foreign ministry, Michael Tene, said in March.

In February, Marty had called on the two conflicting forces in Syria - the government and the opposition - to start a dialogue and give preference to diplomatic efforts.

"We already asked the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to play a greater role in efforts to resolve the problem in Syria through talks at diplomatic forums," Marty said. ***1***

(f001/INE/H-YH)

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