JEDDAH — It will take at least two years to recall all Indonesian domestic workers from Saudi Arabia in implementation of a decision by President Joko Widodo, Al-Eqtisadiah business daily reported on Sunday quoting a source at the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh. Indonesian president announced las month that his country will stop sending its women to work as maids overseas to preserve the country's dignity, and told Congress that “Indonesian women going overseas to work as housemaids must stop immediately.” Originally, Indonesia planned to stop sending domestic workers abroad from 2017, but certain incidents prompted Widodo to accelerate the plan. “The plan of the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration to stop sending Indonesian manpower overseas has not been finalized yet. The Indonesian housemaids working in the Kingdom can not be expected back before 2017,” the source told the Arabic daily. “It is not yet clear if the plan includes housemaids or if the halt only applies to the new recruits,” he said. The source said the ministry was still working on the plan. According to the source, there are about 800,000 Indonesians working in the Kingdom consisting mainly of housemaids and drivers. “As many as 10,000 Indonesian violators of the residency and labor laws have been deported since the launch of the first crackdown campaign,” he added. He said the embassy is working closely with the Saudi authorities to deport the remaining Indonesians who are working and residing here illegally. The recruitment of Indonesian housemaids to the Kingdom has been on the halt for a long time though the two countries signed an agreement a few months back to resume their recruitment. The Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi has confirmed that the country has already stopped sending domestic workers to the UAE, a Dubai newspaper reported last month. There are 90,000 Indonesian workers in the UAE.
