Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar asked all people in the work force not to aspire and force themselves to work in Saudi Arabia after the moratorium on dispatch of manpower to that country takes effect on August 1, 2011.

"During the moratorium, do not push yourself to work (in Saudi Arabia) through other channels such as the minor hajj pilgrimage or private travel to Saudi Arabia," the minister said when officially opening a Migrant Workers Crisis Center here on Monday.

The government had decided to temporarily stop sending domestic workers to Saudi Arabia effective August 1, pending improvement in the legal protection of Indonesian workers in the Middle Eastern country.

The decision was taken following the execution of Ruyati binti Satubi (54) from West Java, who was beheaded with a sword in Mecca on Saturday (June 18) after being found guilty of killing the wife of her Saudi employer, Khairiya binti Hamid Mijlid, by striking her repeatedly on the head with a meat chopper and stabbing her in the neck, the Saudi interior ministry said in a statement.

Muhaimin on the occasion also asked the community and related parties to support the government`s decision on the moratorium.

The moratorium, according to him, was not only the decision of the government and Parliament as the legitimate representatives of the Indonesian people.

The crisis center was set up to receive and address complaints from migrant workers in trouble abroad or their families at home.
(Uu.B003/HAJM/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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