Embassy repatriates another 58 Indonesian overstayers

Ambassador Tatang leads the wards in prayer before their departure. Embassy of Indonesia repatriated another 58 Indonesian nationals who have no valid residence permit in Kuwait on 11 November 2015 by Qatar Airways. They were scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Nov 12, 2015 at 03.15 pm local time.

Ambassador Tatang stated that this programme is a policy from the Government of Indonesia to repatriate all Indonesian overstayers around the world, and the Government of Indonesia pays all the expenses of all Indonesian overstayers repatriation, and following their arrival in Indonesia they will be empowered by providing the training, and also will be given financial assistance to begin their activity on entrepreneurship sector.

According to the data from Kuwait Immigration in 2015 there are 8,887 Indonesians in Kuwait where 5,499 among them are domestic workers, and the rest are professional and formal workers and their families. The Indonesian overstayers in Kuwait are estimated to be less than 1,000. By the end of next year it is expected that there will be no more Indonesian overstayers in Kuwait. Meanwhile there are 30 people in the Embassy’s shelter in the year 2015, this number decreased significantly since the Embassy has taken necessary steps to ensure and take care seriously of all Indonesians in Kuwait, and working closely with the relevant authorities in Kuwait.

It is worth to note that prior to the implementation of the policy to halt the sending of domestic workers to Kuwait in 2009, there were so many cases of abuse happened to Indonesian workers. Even the Embassy once sheltered around 1,000 workers with various cases.