Foreign Ministry Handles Over 200,000 Cases of Indonesian Citizens
- ANTARA/HO-Kemenlu.
Bandung – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handled 218,313 cases involving Indonesian citizens abroad in the past nine years of President Joko Widodo's administration.
Retno Marsudi, the Foreign Affairs Minister stated that 360 Indonesian citizens were saved from the death penalty, while more than 18 thousand Indonesian citizens were repatriated.
"Then, 56 Indonesians were rescued from being held hostage, and more than IDR 1 trillion in Indonesians' financial assets were recovered," The Minister said during delivering the "2024 Annual Press Statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs" at Merdeka Building, Bandung, West Java, on Monday.
Menteri Luar Negeri Retno Marsudi
- VIVA/M Ali Wafa
The ministry also helped arrange COVID-19 vaccination for more than 88 thousand Indonesian citizens living abroad via diplomatic means.
According to Minister Marsudi, the achievement shows that the protection of Indonesian citizens continued to be one of the main priorities of Indonesia's foreign policy from 2014 to 2023.
Indonesia is continuing to carry out diplomacy at all levels, such as bilateral, regional, and global, to protect its citizens, she said.
At the bilateral level, Indonesia has continued to strengthen the protection of Indonesian citizens by signing memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to establish a one-channel placement system with destination countries for migrant workers, such as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, at the regional level, Indonesia has initiated ASEAN cooperation for handling online scams.
At the global level, Indonesia has continued to contribute actively to the creation of the first international instrument that comprehensively regulates migration issues, namely the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration.
Indonesia is also one of the co-sponsors for the preparation of the IMO-ILO Guidelines related to the issue of handling cases of seafarer abandonment.
The "2024 Annual Press Statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs" was themed "Advancing Free and Active Foreign Policy: A Ten-Year Journey."