The chief of the National Agency for Manpower Placement and Protection (BNP2TKI) said from February to May a total of 233 people had been flown to the country in 10 flights and sent to their respective home villages in West, Central and East Java, Banten, West Nusa Tenggara, Lampung and South Sulawesi.
Right now preparations are still being made to fly home around 30 of 103 migrant workers so far accommodated at the Indonesian embassy in Damascus, he said.
Since conflicts broke up in Syria in March 2011 the Indonesian government has set up a team to specially handle its citizens and migrant workers in that country.
The Indonesian embassy has also stationed officials in conflict areas such as Homs, Hama and Daraa with a task of evacuating Indonesian citizens or migrant workers there.
"Apart from them there are also military (TNI) members working as observers for the United Nations in Syria. So, the government has cooperated with them in many ways to save or evacuate the Indonesian citizens or migrant workers from the conflict areas," he said.
Regarding evacuation Djumhur said if Syria bans flights evacuation would be done by land to Lebanon and Jordan before they are flown to Indonesia.
According to BNP2TKI data there are 11,760 Indonesian migrant workers in Syria consisting of mostly (11,559) domestic workers and 201 formal sector workers.
He said the Indonesian government has temporarily stopped sending workers to Syria since August 9, 2011. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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