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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono praised the Migrant Workers Protection task force for helping dozens of Indonesians working abroad to avoid death penalties.

“This achievement is very important. It helps us evaluate our policies concerning migrant workers and provide better protection to our workers in the future,” he said during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

According to Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, at least 67 Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, China and Iran, who earlier faced death penalties, ultimately managed to walk free.

“In Saudi Arabia, 37 Indonesian workers managed to avoid beheading. Eight of them were declared innocent. Four of the eight workers acquitted have returned to Indonesia,” he said.

As many as 14 workers in Malaysia, according to Djoko, had also been acquitted in death penalty cases. “Six of them were declared innocent while the remaining eight people were sent to jail.”

Eleven Indonesian workers in China and two in Iran also ducked the death penalty, he added.

“Our policy to hire lawyers in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia has proven beneficial in terms of providing legal assistance to our workers who faced legal proceedings,” he said.

Yudhoyono claimed his efforts to improve communications with leaders of the countries where Indonesian workers were employed had also helped them receive lighter sentences.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, meanwhile, said the government had decided to maintain its current ban on recruitment agencies sending Indonesian workers to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Kuwait.

“Those countries have not adopted a legal framework that we think is sufficient to legally protect our workers and assure that their rights are fulfilled,” Muhaimin said.

Malaysia was no longer on the list since its government has approved Indonesia’s requests to provide better protection for migrant workers.

“Malaysia has agreed to oblige employers to provide one day off per week for domestic workers, let Indonesian workers keep their passports and pay salaries through bank transfers,” Muhaimin added.

He called on all labor recruitment agencies across the nation to obey the ban. “Because, if you insist on sending workers to those nations, the workers would become illegal workers, meaning they would be more prone to legal problems.”

Task force chairman Maftuh Basyuni said there were two Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia — Tuti Tursilawati from Majalengka, West Java, and Siti Zaenab from Madura, East Java — whose cases were of critical concern because they have not yet avoided the possibility of beheading.

Under Saudi law, forgiveness from a relative of the victim can save a convict from a death sentence.