We were abandoned for 40 hours at the airport without food"Temanggung, C Java (ANTARA News) - Repatriated Indonesian workers have complained that they were traumatized in Libya due to the political conflict there.
One of the workers, Ciproni, said here Saturday he was traumatized by his experience in Libya after airport officers treated him and his co-workers inhumanely by confiscating his belongings such as money and cell phones.
"My 30 Dinar allowance and cell phone were confiscated by airport officers. We could only carry just our clothes. I`m traumatized by the violence at the airport, those who did not obey were beaten by the officers," he said.
Ciproni said he was forced to leave Libya after working there for two months of his one year contract due to the national political conflict.
Ciproni is an Indonesian who worked as a brick mason for an Indonesian building construction company, Wijaya Karya, that was carrying out building projects in Libya such as hospitals, malls, mosques, hotels.
Along with his co-workers, Sudiyat was repatriated to Indonesia for safety reasons by firstly evacuated to Tunisia from where they were flown to Jakarta.
According to another Indonesian brick mason in Libya, Sudiyat, there were 201 Indonesians working for Wijaya Karya company who had been repatriated.
"Every day we hear gunfire, we are still worried about the situation although the project director had guaranteed our safety, and finally we were sent home," he said.
For safety reasons during the repatriation effort, all of the workers were given a red uniform with the national red-and-white flag and "INDONESIA" written on their shirt so that the security would not mistake them for rebel activists.
"We were abandoned for 40 hours at the airport without food, we even had to drink from water taps, but under the hostile situation, Indonesian citizen managed to escape safely from Libya," he said. (*)
A050/HAJM/H-YH
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
