Dubai (ANTARA News) - Head of the Indonesian Workers Placement and Protection Agency (BNP2TKI) Moh Jumhur Hidayat said the high officials meeting between the Indonesian and Saudi governments on Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) was the very first of its kind.

"This is a historical event, it is the first time that a high officials meeting was held to discuss the problems of TKIs," he said when on a transit at Dubai international airport in the United Arab Emirates on Friday.

Jumhur and a number of members of the Indonesian delegation arrived in Dubai on a transit on their flight to Jidda for the RI-Saudi high officials meeting on TKIs on May 28 and 29.

He landed in Dubai at 5.15 am local time, 09.15 am Jakarta time, after take off from Soekarno-Hatta international airport, Cengkareng, Banten, at 00.40.

Jumhur will be flying from Dubai to Jidda at 7 am local time, 11 am Jakarta time.

He was at the head of an Indonesian government delegation for the high officials meeting to discuss the problem of TKIs with a Saudi government delegation led by Manpower Minister Adel Mohammad Fakeih.

The Indonesian delegation included Director General for Protocol and Consular Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Lutfi Rauf, Acting Director General of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry Reyna Usman, expert staff of the manpower and transmigration ministry Abdul Wahid Maktub, deputy head of BNP2TKI for placement of TKIs Ade Adam Noch, and deputy head of BNP2TKI for TKI protection Lisna Yoeliani Poeloengan, and a number of high officials of the two government institutions.

Jumhur said that the high officials meeting will discuss improvement in the placement and protection of TKIs in Saudi Arabia.

Jumhur believed that with the reception of the BNP2TKI chief and entourage by the Saudi Manpower Minister shows that the Saudi government has a strong commitment to improve the fate of the TKIs.

He said the number of TKIs in Saudi Arabia has reached 1.5 million and 90 pct of them worked in the informal sector as house hold personnel or personal drivers for their employers. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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