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Mataram. Concern is growing over the fate of a Lombok resident who has not been heard from since going to work in Saudi Arabia five years ago.

Nasirah said she had not heard from her oldest daughter Sahnun binti Salikin , now 23, since she left for the Middle East.

“Sahnun comes from a low-income background and members of her family make a living by doing odd jobs or helping out as farm hands,” said Zakiyah, a resident in the village of Kebon Baru in Lombok’s Kediri subdistrict, where Sahnun lived.

“She felt that she had to try her luck at becoming a migrant worker because her family was deep in debt and she had to pay for her siblings’ education.”

Nasirah admitted she did not imagine the last time she would see her daughter would be right before she left.

“I don’t even know the name of the migrant worker placement firm [PJTKI] that recruited her,” she said. “I only know the name of the agent: Haji Safwan from Gelogor village in West Lombok.”

Nasirah said she also did not have copies of any of the documents Sahnun signed. However, she keeps a photograph Sahnun sent from Jakarta right before she left for Saudi Arabia. “I was told that Sahnun had run away from her employers,” she said.

On the back of the photo was a short note from Sahnun, but Nasirah had never read it as she is illiterate. The Jakarta Globe read the letter from Sahnun, in which she said she had begun to miss home and wanted her parents to pray for her safety and success in Saudi Arabia.

Zohri, the chief of Kebon Baru village, said he had tried since 2008 to help Nasirah find news of her daughter but that it was a difficult task as there were no documents or letters from which to start a search, and that Nasirah didn’t even know the name of the PJTKI. “I want to take this case to higher authorities, but I can’t even do that because we don’t have anything to go on,” he said.

When contacted, Haji Safwan acknowledged he had recruited Sahnun and that at the time he was working in Jakarta for a company, Yomba Biba Abadi.

He said that when pressed by the family, he had asked the company to look into the whereabouts of Sahnun, but the company did not respond.

Safwan claimed he heard that Sahnun’s neighbor had phoned her employer in Saudi Arabia who said Sahnun had run away.

He added that Sahnun herself had called to say she would be transferring money after four months but that her parents had told her to wait until she had saved more.

Safwan said the Yomba Biba Abadi received a finder’s fee of Rp 8 million ($900) for each successful hire. The money was to be used to bring the workers to Jakarta and pay the agents.

Migrant worker Aisah, who hails from Safwan’s village, also has not been heard from since going to Saudi Arabia eight years ago. However, her family kept copies of all her correspondence with her recruiter and PJTKI.

The West Nusa Tenggara branch of the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI) has taken up Aisah’s case.