Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH – A majority of the 80,000 workers who contacted the Indonesian consulate here in Jeddah have been living for up to 25 years without valid passports or without passports at all because their sponsors had not handed over their documents to them, an official told Saudi Gazette.



The absence of valid passports could have put these Indonesians at risk of losing their nationality, said Tatang Razak, Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s chief for legal aid and the protection of Indonesian overseas workers.



According to Indonesian Citizenship Law 2006, Article 23, the Indonesians staying outside Indonesian territory for five consecutive years, not stating the will to stay as Indonesian citizens before the five-year period is over, and not reporting every five years to a representative of the Indonesian government or not renewing their passports automatically lose citizenship and become stateless.



If they want to obtain the citizenship they will have to go through a number of procedures and approvals.



Razak said that considering the special circumstances, the Indonesian government has dropped some necessary procedures for those with invalid passports and for those who never reported to the consulate. These people, he said, are now being given valid passports.



Asked about the case of people who did not show up at the consulate during the amnesty period and who do not have valid passports, Razak said, “We are evaluating the situation and we need to work closely with Saudi government. We do not want such a condition to continue.”



“We have to obey the law, but we are also considering the condition because domestic workers have limited knowledge, belong to poor families and some of them have been exploited by other parties,” he said.



Razak said that each year they receive at least 5,000 cases of torture, sexual abuse and unpaid salaries.