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undreds of Indonesians are facing the death penalty abroad, with 80 percent of them related to drug charges and the rest connected to torture, murder and robbery.

'€œCurrently there are 236 Indonesians who are facing the death sentences and 188 of them are related to drug abuse and trafficking,'€ the Foreign Ministry'€™s director for legal aid and protection of Indonesian nationals overseas, Tatang Budie Utama Razak, said Monday.

He was speaking at a coordination meeting on protection for Indonesian nationals and migrant workers (TKI) in eastern Indonesia. Representatives from regional administrations attended the meeting as well as those from various NGOs.

A similar meeting for western Indonesia will be held in Batam, Riau Islands, on Dec. 18.

Tatang said that Malaysia had the largest number of Indonesians on death row with 173, followed by Saudi Arabia (37), China (19), Singapore (4) and Brunei Darussalam, Iran and the United Arab Emirates with one each.

There are 120 drug-related cases in Malaysia while all the cases in China and Iran are drug-related. '€œMost of the drug cases in Malaysia are for marijuana smuggling,'€ Tatang said.

He said most of the Indonesians on death row had been used by international drug syndicates. They had been arrested at airports or other entry points carrying drugs for syndicates in bags, luggage or inside their bodies.

'€œThe Indonesian smugglers did not use working visas but tourist visas to enter countries such as China,'€ he said.

Tatang added that the female Indonesians who had been used as mules by drug syndicates were often lured into it through new friends or chatting on the Internet.

Other than those on death row, Tatang said there were many other Indonesians imprisoned abroad on drug charges, in Europe, Latin America, Afghanistan and South Africa.

The Foreign Ministry is assisting suspects sentenced to death through Indonesian embassies or representative offices and local lawyers hired by the state.

'€œThe advocacy conducted by the ministry is not merely to acquit them of all charges but also to guarantee their rights as Indonesians to get legal assistance and counselor access abroad,'€ Tatang said.

'€œBut we are working hard so that they will not be executed.'€

He added that since 2011 the Foreign Ministry had managed to commute 162 capital punishment cases.

An expert staffer to the foreign affairs minister, Muhammad Ibnu Said, said the coordination meeting for foreign nationals was held to increase synergy between the ministry and related regional administrations to protect Indonesian nationals and handle cases involving Indonesians abroad.

He said that the number of cases involving Indonesians and TKIs abroad showed a decreasing trend, from 38,880 cases in 2011 to 19,218 cases in 2012. As of September, there had been 12,967 cases in 2013.

He said most of the cases were dominated by TKIs who did not understand the regulations in host countries and who had incomplete working and immigration documents.

'€œRegional administrations play an important role in early prevention to at least reduce the cases by preparing TKI both in education and skills as well as preparing complete documents,'€ he said.