In March 2025, the Indonesian government announced plans to revoke their decade-long moratorium on sending workers to Saudi Arabia. While the move promises economic opportunities amid rising domestic unemployment, it also revives concerns about human rights violations and the safety of vulnerable Indonesian workers, who risk being sent to a Gulf nation built on the exploitation of its migrant workers.
Indonesia imposed the moratorium in 2015, following widespread reports of abuse, exploitation, and even deaths among its workers in Saudi Arabia. In one case, an Indonesian domestic worker suffered months of unpaid labor and physical violence before authorities intervened, while another died after being denied medical treatment. Indonesia also protested the use of the death penalty against its citizens in Saudi Arabia, which were carried out without prior notice to Jakarta. Central to these abuses is Saudi Arabia’s kafala system, a sponsorship regime that ties workers’ legal status to their employers, severely restricting their freedom and facilitating exploitation. Under this system, migrant workers risk detention or deportation if they report abuse, and are largely excluded from broader social protections and legal rights.
Despite this troubling history, a request from the Saudi government, combined with domestic pressures, has prompted Indonesian to reconsider the moratorium. The continued annual illegal migration of at least 25,000 Indonesians highlights the high demand for work and yet the lack of safe, legal channels. Without legal protections, undocumented workers are especially vulnerable to exploitation, including low wages and harsh working conditions, with little ability to report abuses. Their undocumented status also makes it difficult for the Indonesian government to monitor or intervene. In addition, rising unemployment domestically has pushed Indonesia to view Saudi Arabia’s demand for nearly 600,000 Indonesian workers as an economic opportunity, with officials projecting a potential foreign exchange gain of Rp31 trillion (USD 1.9 billion).
Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have outlined a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at reducing risks to Indonesian workers. It includes the creation of a joint data system to enhance monitoring and prevent illegal migration. Workers are promised health, life, and employment insurance, minimum wage protections, and regulated work conditions, which include guaranteed rest periods and decent housing. Recruitment will involve both Indonesian and Saudi agencies, with employers required to register with Saudi state-owned employment companies. Salary deposit systems and work dispute resolution committees are also planned to prevent wage theft. Lastly, Indonesia aims to bolster migrant worker training, with a focus on language and vocational skills, to reduce their vulnerability abroad.
Serious concerns persist about the reliability of the proposed partnership and the effectiveness of its protections. Indonesian officials assure that labor conditions in Saudi Arabia have improved under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, despite 2021 reforms to the kafala system, which nominally allow workers to change jobs and leave the country without employer consent, these rights only apply under limited conditions and often exclude domestic workers and undocumented migrants. Reports of forced labor, wage theft, and employer abuse continue, exacerbated by weak enforcement mechanisms and persistent employer control over workers’ residency and employment status.
The reliance on a non-legally binding MoU raises further alarm, as such agreements typically establish broad, non-enforceable principles of cooperation. Past experiences indicate that they often fail to protect workers. This is largely due to the power imbalance between sending countries like Indonesia, which face competition among themselves, weakening their negotiation leverage against wealthy receiving states like Saudi Arabia. Additionally, monitoring mechanisms remain underdeveloped, with recruitment agencies linked to exploitative practices, including exorbitant fees and misrepresentation of working conditions.
While Indonesia’s decision to lift the moratorium aims to control illegal migration, enhance worker protections, and boost employment, it remains premature and fraught with risk. Saudi Arabia’s legal framework continues to enable human rights abuses against migrant workers, and the non-binding nature of the MoU offers little assurance of real, enforceable protections. Without stronger guarantees and oversight, Indonesian workers risk facing the same systemic vulnerabilities that prompted the moratorium in the first place.