The Indonesian Consulate cannot meet the deadline for all its workers to get travel documents to go home, with less than 10 percent likely to make it out of the country by July 3, said a senior official yesterday.

Addressing a press conference yesterday at the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah, Tatang Razak, director of protection for Indonesian citizens at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the consulate in Jeddah has received 74,020 applications for travel documents.

He said the consulate initially had the capacity to process only 2,500 documents a day. However, it is now issuing 7,500 a day, but this is still not enough. He said the Indonesian Foreign Ministry had sent 60 employees to Jeddah to assist its nationals.

He thanked the Saudi authorities for announcing the grace period but said only an extension would allow the consulate to sort out the problems of all its nationals.

Razak said that the deportation center in Jeddah was only able to record the biometric details of four out of 1,000 workers by 3 p.m. yesterday. He said many Indonesian workers had arrived at the center at 6 a.m.

“Only one counter was operating. If this slow pace continues on the Saudi side, then not even 10 percent will be able to leave.”

Commenting on media reports that Indonesian passport documents were rejected by Saudi passport offices, he said: “It’s a valid document issued by a sovereign state through proper diplomatic channels. It can’t be rejected by Saudi Arabia.”

Razak said workers are given permanent passports once they find employment in the Kingdom.

He added that the Indonesian government wants its workers to be paid a minimum of SR 1,200 a month and have a proper legal agreement between Saudi recruitment offices and employers.