Jakarta – ‘Tourist marriages’ have increased in Indonesia during the summer months when Saudis travel abroad.
Officials are saying during the summer months when there is an increase in Saudi tourists to a region, some men marry local women in ‘tourist marriages’ and then leave the country, abandoning them.
Faraj Al-Dawseri who heads a section at the Saudi Embassy caring for citizens said one case involved four young Saudis who married four Indonesian girls in Bandon, 220km from Jakarta.
The Saudi men alleged the marriages were unofficial because they did not acquire a permit from the Ministry of the Interior in Saudi Arabia and instead the marriages were officiated by a mosque’s Imam in the presence of the girls’ father. They alleged they did not deceive their father-in-law because they declared the marriages were only being conducted to “protect them from temptation.”
They also said they were being cautious not to father children with the women because the marriages were strictly “tourist marriages.”
Al-Dawseri said there were thousands of children in Indonesia abandoned by their Saudi fathers, Al-Watan reported. He said many of the cases go unreported because many of the victims do not approach the embassy. The embassy attempts to facilitate contact between the Saudis and the allegedly abandoned wives and children.
Al-Dawseri said many times Indonesian families have settled for payments of SR2,000 or 4 million Indonesian rupees. The increase in these marriages is associated with match makers offering their services to vacationers coming from Gulf countries in return for money.
These match makers often carry albums of the women they are promoting as wives and customers can select a ‘wife’ for SR2000, Al-Watan quoted a source as saying. – SG