I

ndonesian female workers stranded in Amman will be able to return home soon after philanthropist Dato’ Sri Tahir promised to help repatriate them.

Most of the workers had some or all of their salary withheld by their employers.

“If the employers do not have enough money to pay the outstanding wages, I will pay the remaining amount so you can go home to Indonesia as soon as possible,” Tahir from the Mayapada Group said to 16 female Indonesian migrant workers currently taking refuge at the Indonesian Embassy in Amman.

Four other workers did not attend the meeting because they are being treated in hospital or are being questioned by the police.

“We are working together to bring you home as soon as possible. If the embassy does not have enough funds to repatriate them, just tell me and I will cover it,” Tahir told Niko Adam, the embassy’s chargé d’affaires ad interim.

Niko assured Tahir, an UNHCR eminent advocate who is visiting refugee camps in Irbid and Azraq, that the embassy had sufficient funds to repatriate the workers.

“The problem is that they’re withholding the salaries and taking it to court may take some time,” Niko said.

There are some 2,700 Indonesians living legally in Jordan and about 2,000 living there illegally, he added.

“Most of their passports have expired and they do not have proper local identification,” said the diplomat who handles political, economic, social and cultural affairs with Palestine.

“We are tracing them and offering them the opportunity to be repatriated, as directed by Jakarta.”

Most of them, however, refuse to return to Indonesia as they are already settled in the Middle-East.

Niko also said one of the female workers at the shelter had her two children taken from her to an orphanage following a divorce with her Jordanian husband.

“The father will not allow his children to be taken to Indonesia but we’re also trying to prevent him from taking custody of them,” Niko said.

Meanwhile, the workers are undergoing various training programs while being sheltered at the embassy.

“We also ask them to help with the embassy’s household chores for some pocket money,” Niko said.

In addition to acquiring skills such as sewing and cooking, Tahir also urged the workers to learn English and Mandarin.

“We hope that in the following years we will no longer send housemaids but more trained and skilled workers such as caregivers and nurses.”

“Our caregivers and nurses are highly sought after in Hong Kong and Taiwan because they are diligent and more polite,” Tahir said.

On Sunday, Tahir is scheduled to visit a Jordanian school that takes in Syrian children as well as Syrian families living outside the refugee camp in Irbid.