Ismira Lutfia – Some 406 migrant workers were repatriated from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with most complaining that they had not been paid by their employers.

The workers, comprising 80 who had overstayed their visas in Jeddah, including five children and 13 babies, and 326 workers who had been in Kuwait, were greeted at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport by Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Triyono Wibowo, and Jumhur Hidayat, the head of the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI).

Triyono said at a joint press conference that the government has repatriated 1,230 migrant workers since July and would continue to work with host countries to speed up the process.

Muhaimin said Indonesia had stopped sending migrant workers to Kuwait indefinitely while reviewing negotiations to improve the working conditions for Indonesian migrants there.

"We are also going to establish a new integrated system starting from recruitment, training, through to protection of migrant workers to avoid too many problems in the future," Muhaimin said, promising that the government would take the necessary legal action to get workers' insurance claims paid.

Muhaimin and Patrialis both said any workers' children fathered by foreign nationals would be given Indonesian citizenship.

"As long as there is proper documentation from both the Foreign Affairs and Manpower and Transmigration ministries, we could use that as our basis to process their birth certificates," Patrialis said.

Siti Khoirum, one of many who claimed to have spent three days living under a bridge in Jeddah, said she ran away from her employer because she was not allowed to stay with her husband, also an Indonesian, who worked in Jeddah.

Wiwin, of Karawang, West Java said she had decided to stay under the bridge because she heard that it was the place to meet others who wanted to go home to Indonesia but lacked proper documentation. "I had no identification at all since my employer held on to my passport," Wiwin said.

Nunung Nurlatifah, of Subang, West Java, said she fled Kuwait after her employer tried to strangle her because he did not want to hear his baby crying.

He later threatened to kill her, she said. "I was afraid so I ran away to seek shelter at the [Indonesian] embassy," Nunung said.