MIGRANT WORKER'S BODY TO ARRIVE WEEKS AFTER DEATH

Jember, E Java, March 23 (ANTARA) - The body of Indonesian migrant worker Riadiyanto who died of a heart attack in Saudi Arabia last February 3 is to arrive in Jakarta on Wednesday (Mar 24), a trade union official said.

Chairman of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI)-East Java chapter Mohammad Cholily said here Tuesday he had received reliable information on the expected arrival of Riadiyanto's body.

"Officials of East Java Province's Indonesian workers recruitment and protection unit told me about the expected arrival of Riadiyanto's body," he said.

Riadiyanto, a resident of Puger Kulon village, Puger sub-district, Jember district, had already orked for a company in Saudi Arabia for several months when he died of a heart attack on February 3.

His family had been waiting for his body since the day of his death.

Cholily said Riadiyanto's body would arrive at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Wednesday. From the airport, the body would be immediately transferred to an ambulance.

The ambulance would bring the ill-fated worker's remains to his mourning family in Jember, East Java.

"Riadiyanto's body is expected to arrive at the mourning house on Thursday," he said.

Cholily said the Jember district's manpower and transmigration office was expected to ensure that all the rights of the late Riadiyanto as a migrant worker would be fulfilled.

"The mourning family is not responsible for the costs of the air cargo, land transportation and funeral of Riadiyanto ."
Instead, all costs would have to borne by the migrant workers recruiting agency (PPTKIS), he said.

The related authorities in Jember district administration should also ensure that Riadiyanto's rights to insurance payment and other compensations would be paid to his heirs, Cholily said.

"The amount of insurance payment for a dead migrant worker is Rp40 million. The money should directly be given by the insurance company to the worker's family," he said.

Riadiyanto is only one of several million Indonesians who work abroad to earn a living amid the limited job opportunities in Indonesia.

However, the Indonesian migrant workers are not always treated humanely abroad.

Teguh Wardoyo, the Foreign Ministry's director for protecting Indonesian people and entities, recently said many migrant workers were not paid by their employers.

He said about 80 percent of 2,116 troubled migrant workers who had returned to Indonesia from the Middle East had stopped working because they had not received their wages.

"We are doing our best to have their rights respected. If their (former) employers refuse to pay the workers' wages, the Indonesian embassies and consulate generals will report their employers to the police," he said.

Indonesian workers do not only fill the casual workforce markets in many Middle Eastern countries but also in Asia, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong (China).

In Malaysia, more than a million Indonesians were working in in the construction and plantation sectors.