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View all search resultsAnalysis: Testing Indonesia’s Mideast evacuation contingency plan
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Foreign Minister Sugiono (center) walks alongside Indonesians evacuated from Iran at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten on March 10, 2026 amid the United States-Israeli conflict with Iran. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
T
he first batch of Indonesians evacuated from war-besieged Iran landed back home on March 11, after an overland journey that took them through Azerbaijan and Turkey before they were flown to Jakarta. Following this group of 22 people will be a few more batches in the coming days and weeks as citizens flee the ongoing United States-Israelis attacks.
This successful first evacuation attests to the government’s current plan to transport its citizens to safety from conflicts around the world.
More than 300 Indonesians, mostly university students, were living in Iran when the latest round of US-Israeli attacks began on Feb. 28. With the war not only escalating but also widening to involve more Gulf countries, the government may face its biggest test regarding its evacuation contingency plan, which is yet to be activated.
The government says more than 500,000 Indonesians live and work in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; countries that are being dragged into the war because they host US military bases.
The real number could be much higher, since many Indonesians don’t register with the embassies or consulates in these countries. The bulk of Indonesians who reside in the Middle East are domestic helpers or construction workers, but there are also some white-collar workers, including oil professionals.
If the government is prompted to activate its contingency plan, the scale will likely be much higher and more complicated than it has ever experienced before, given that the geography of these countries offers limited escape routes.
The Foreign Ministry, which leads the interagency team for managing evacuations, says it has formed a crisis response team to prepare for this eventuality so the government can move quickly if security conditions deteriorate further. This crisis team involves the military, including the Air Force, which in the past has deployed transport planes to evacuate citizens from troubled spots like Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Ukraine.
