JakartaPost-Mar 3, 2026
At least half a million Indonesians are stranded in the Middle East with limited options to escape, Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday, as the United States-Israeli war against Iran spread out across the region on its third day. According to the Foreign Ministry’s interim director for citizen’s protection, Heni Hamidah, there are 519,042 Indonesian nationals recorded as resident in the region, based on data from diplomatic missions as of Feb. 28. The figure does not include travelers transiting through the Middle East. Many are feeling the dread of the conflict. Radya, a 41-year-old engineer based in Doha since 2021, said emergency alerts and intercepted missiles shattered any sense of the safety he once had. “Reality really hits when we receive emergency alerts on our phones, and then just minutes later we begin hearing the sound of intercepted missiles exploding,” Radya said on Monday.
Qatar’s defense ministry has said it “thwarted” several attacks on the country. Since the attacks on Saturday, several governments such as the United Kingdom, Thailand and Russia have since drawn up contingency plans, with the latter reportedly preparing evacuation overland via Azerbaijan. Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yvonne Mewengkang said Jakarta was still closely monitoring developments but had not yet ordered evacuations. “We continue to carry out intensive monitoring of the security situation in Iran and the Middle East,” she told the Post on Monday from Jakarta. A decision to evacuate, she said, would be made based on “security considerations, field preparedness and access, according to the conditions in each country”. The ministry previously said its diplomatic missions in the region had already prepared contingency scenarios.
