Migrant workers wait at Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta in December 2007. The Indonesian government has begun repatriating thousands on undocumented Indonesian migrant workers expelled from Saudi Arabia under its stiff new labour law. [Adek Berry/AFP]

Government officials say they are trying to ease the return from Saudi Arabia of close to 8,000 Indonesian workers whom the kingdom is expelling under its new Nitaqat labour law.

"I've instructed our officials to ensure that all of them can arrive home safely," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wrote on his Twitter account last month.

He was referring to the 7,885 Indonesians detained by Saudi authorities after the kingdom's deadline for migrant workers to legalise their immigration status expired in early November.

Junnah Sarjanti and Siti Zubaidah were among those Indonesians who did make it home November 10th.

"I had been working with proper paperwork for eight years. However, after all of those years I spent there, it was hard to return home. I was afraid I would not get a job that I like," Junnah, 41, whose visa and passport had expired, told Khabar. "Additionally, the pay is much lower here.

"It's also not easy getting a job without complete documentation, and I [was] advised to return home," she added.

Siti, a 42 year-old worker from Sukabumi, in Central Java, said she didn't expect to return to Saudi Arabia for employment because of her age.

"I worked in Saudi Arabia through a private agency. I did not pay anything for my departure. However, in the first eight months, I did not receive any money," she told Khabar. "I [had] to go home; my employer no longer needed me."

Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, Co-ordinating Ministry for People's Welfare and Co-ordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs were to jointly handle worker repatriations, presidential spokesman Julian Pasha said.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian and Saudi governments discussed how to repatriate the non-legal workers as soon as possible, said Jumhur Hidayat, head of the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI).

"As a result of the meeting, the countries agreed to make priorities for the elderly, pregnant women, toddlers, and people with illnesses," he told Khabar Southeast Asia.

On November 10th, 481 Indonesians, including children and infants, were deported.

"Alhamdulillah (God willing), they are arriving in different waves. We also provide them with local transportation to return to their final destinations," Jumhur said.

Under a strict new Saudi policy, all foreign migrant workers had to legalise their status by early November or risk imprisonment or deportation. The policy stemmed from the kingdom's new labour law which guarantees that one out of every 10 jobs in the kingdom must go to a Saudi.

"I think all of this is related to the high rate of unemployment in the kingdom, which currently stands at 12.5%," Jumhur said, referring to the domestic jobless rate among Saudi nationals. "This is the highest rate it has been in decades. Since we have tens of thousands of migrant workers in the country, it is very hard to bring them home immediately."