Jakarta ( WNAM MONITORING): Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar has said that Indonesia will send more skilled migrant workers to Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to bolster the relations between the two countries.
“Our current policy is to send skilled experts abroad,” he said after attending a luncheon at the residence of the Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Indonesia in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Umar noted that Indonesia’s relations with Saudi Arabia are good on account of their cooperation in Hajj affairs and other issues, including education, labor, oil workers, and experts.
To this end, he observed that efforts to improve the skills of Indonesian migrant workers are essential, including language and other training programs, to enhance Indonesia’s image on the global stage.
Foreign Affairs Minister Sugiono, who also joined the luncheon, said that Hajj and Umrah affairs are one of the reasons behind the close ties between the communities of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
In this regard, it is deemed essential to continuously maintain and strengthen strategic relations, including supporting the supply of workers.
“We hope that going forward, there will be more significant things to bolster the cooperative relations. Recently, there has been a wish to establish a Hajj village in Makkah. We hope this plan can be realized,” he added.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Faisal bin Abdullah Amodi, highlighted the drastic decline in the number of Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia during a meeting with Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, on December 4, 2024.
The number of Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia was recorded at two million earlier, but at present, based on the records of the Indonesian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, it is only around 100 thousand.
According to Amodi, this is likely due to the impact of the moratorium that has been running for almost 10 years.
The ambassador also expressed the hope that Indonesia will send migrant workers to Saudi Arabia again.
