A migrant support organization yesterday called on the government to provide better protection for its citizens working overseas, following the beheading of an Indonesian woman in Saudi Arabia.

Migrant Care Indonesia says the Indonesian government failed to give adequate diplomatic support to Ruyati binti Satubi, who was executed in Mecca on Saturday for killing her employer’s wife with a machete.

The Saudi interior ministry said Ruyati confessed to her crime and that the death sentence was upheld by the country’s Court of Cassation (court of appeal) and Supreme Court.

The execution was the result of the government’s negligence and showed its lack of diplomatic clout, Migrant Care policy analyst Stefanus Wahyu Susilo said yesterday.

“NGOs only serve as facilitators. But the government has the main task of dealing with such issues, because it is the one which has the diplomatic relationship,” he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should dismiss Muhaimin Iskandar, the labor and transmigration minister and foreign affairs minister, he said.

“We care about migrant workers facing the death penalty, but they seem not to have the attention of the government,” he added.

Crosier Father Serafin Danny Sanusi, executive secretary of the bishops’ Commission for Justice and Peace, agreed the execution was a failure in government diplomacy.

“The government does not have any authority either inside or outside this country,” he said, suggesting the president should concentrate on protecting Indonesia’s citizens rather than his own image.

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