Ismira Lutfia – Migrant Care says it has raised almost Rp 100 million ($11,000) in less than a month to help repatriate hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers languishing under a bridge in Saudi Arabia.

But Anis Hidayah, the director of the Indonesian nongovernmental organization, said on Tuesday that it would cost at least Rp 1.7 billion to bring home the roughly 200 workers camped under a bridge in the city of Jeddah.

The workers have found themselves stranded after running into contract disputes and being unable to raise the money to fly back home.

Speaking at a discussion in Jakarta hosted by the Indonesian Institute, Anis said Migrant Care had raised Rp 98.5 million from donors in 27 cities here and seven countries with large numbers of Indonesian workers.

"We're going to hand over the money to a government team that will leave for Saudi Arabia to handle the repatriation process this week," she said.

Though her group is working with the officials, Anis criticized the government for doing little to repatriate the workers, saying it only began addressing the issue after Migrant Care launched its fund-raising drive on Jan. 12.

The government has repeatedly claimed that the workers are camped under the bridge in a ploy to receive free flights home. "This argument shows the government's lack of responsibility," Anis said.

The government's handling of this issue, she continued, underlined its view of migrant workers as little more than "remittance-generating commodities."

If the government had treated the case as a human rights issue, the problem could have been resolved sooner, she said. "Using excuses such as the workers are undocumented is not acceptable and doesn't justify the government denying them repatriation," Anis said.

She also criticized the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah for making little effort to provide protection for the workers. "It seems the bridge gave them better protection than the government, and the fact that they chose to stay there proves the government failed them," she said.

Tatang Razak, the Foreign Ministry's director for the protection of citizens abroad, said the consulate did not have the staff numbers to deal with the scale of the problem.

He also said some of the workers had since settled their contract disputes and had accepted financial compensation instead of taking their cases to an employment tribunal, which would have forced them to stay longer. "Others disappeared after filing their complaints, so we can't process those cases," he said.

Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, a legislator at House of Representatives Commission IX, which oversees labor affairs, said the root of the myriad problems faced by migrant workers was the government's failure to consider their protection before sending them abroad.

"A moral movement such as that mounted by Migrant Care is both good and necessary, but it will be of no avail without a corresponding government movement," she said.