Riyadh, Jul 18(Arab News): Minister of Justice Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa will hold talks with members of a high-level task force sent by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with a mission to rescue 27 migrant workers facing execution in the Kingdom.
The task force that arrived in Jeddah on July 15 will gather facts and set out priorities, provide aid to the workers in distress and recommend immediate measures to save them from execution.
The talks between the Saudi justice minister and members of the Migrant Workers and Indonesian Citizen Protection Taskforce "will be a major opportunity to address several issues and defuse the crisis between the two sides," said Indonesian Embassy spokesman Hendrar Pramutyo in Riyadh on Sunday.
He said the delegation led by Maftuh Basyuni will also attend to several other urgent cases during its weeklong visit to the Kingdom. Some of the urgent cases include the impending beheading of four women workers, Siti Zaenab, Satinah binti Jumadi Ahmad, Aminah binti Hajibudi and Darmawati binti Taryani.
"Some members of the task force will also visit the Qassim region, where a few urgent cases are to be examined," added Pramutyo.
Members of the delegation have already visited Makkah and Jeddah and have had consultations with NGOs on a range of labor issues, said Didi Wahyudi, an officer of the Jeddah-based Indonesian consulate’s citizen protection wing.
The task force will also discuss issues affecting the recruitment of workers from Indonesia, especially after the Kingdom announced it would stop issuing visas. Over 30,000 workers will be affected because of the planned moratorium on sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia that will be enforced from Aug. 1 this year.
"The two governments, officials of the two countries and the task force are supposed to take steps to address the issue," said another official.
He, however, noted that the violence against migrant workers continues to make headlines even today. He pointed out that the task force would be gathering information, providing advocacy, evaluating migrant worker issues and giving recommendations to the Indonesian president based on its findings. He said the team would also contact Islamic workers, religious scholars and NGOs to act as mediators to resolve the cases.