RIYADH, 23 November 2004 — Some hospitals and primary healthcare centers in Saudi Arabia, for the first time, will be manned by Indonesian doctors and nurses following a decision by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to hire trained medical personnel from the Southeast Asian country.
A group of 22 Indonesian doctors and 48 nurses arrived here Sunday evening in what is also said to be Jakarta’s maiden effort to send skilled workers to the Gulf states including the Kingdom with a plan to phase out domestic helpers and maids.
“In fact, a total of 32 Indonesian doctors and 63 nurses have been recruited by the Kingdom in the first phase, with the remaining doctors and nurses flying to Riyadh later in a staggered schedule,” said M. Sukiarto, labor attaché of the Indonesian Embassy.
“Out of the first group, 11 doctors will be deployed in the Asir region, five in the Taif region, five in the Madinah region and one in Riyadh,” Sukiarto said.
The Indonesian nurses, however, will not be deployed until they have undergone an intensive training session in the Kingdom.
All the doctors and nurses can speak English and some of them speak Arabic. A felicitation was organized for them in Jakarta before they boarded the flight for Riyadh. They were seen off by Indonesian Manpower Minister Fahmi Idris himself.
Said Umar, director of PT Amri Margatama, the manpower company that placed the medical workers here, said, “We hope this will be the first step toward meeting the future needs for doctors and nurses in Saudi Arabia.”
Asked about any plans to phase out housemaids or domestic workers, since Indonesia has stepped up efforts to deploy more skilled workers in the Kingdom, Sukiarto said there was no immediate plan.
At the same time he pointed out, “Things are getting better on all fronts, especially in terms of handling the problems of Indonesian maids and disposing of the cases of harassment.”
However, he said 30 housemaids currently are languishing at the deportation center in Riyadh. He noted that a total of 2,000 housemaids have been repatriated to Indonesia so far this year. Many of those sent back have leveled charges of maltreatment, nonpayment of wages or physical abuse against their sponsors.
Some six Indonesian housemaids committed suicide this year, prompting a call by Jakarta to ensure more protection for Indonesian female workers in addition to the measures already in place.
A majority of the more than 250,000 maids currently working in Saudi Arabia are from Indonesia. Large numbers of maids from other Asian countries such as Sri Lanka and the Philippines are employed in the Kingdom.
The Indonesian diplomatic mission claims that though a strong initiative has been taken to train female workers, the government is working toward improving the recruitment of maids in order to minimize exploitation.
Jakarta, Sukiarto said, also is working to set up and strengthen a network of support groups in Saudi Arabia to provide more assistance to maids and domestic workers.
A recent report said Indonesia is setting up 18 support groups in the Kingdom to safeguard the interests of its workers and monitor cases of abuse and harassment. Recently, the ill-treatment heaped on maids was strongly criticized and protested by many Indonesian officials and human rights organizations.
