JAKARTA - Indonesia's foreign ministry on Tuesday urged citizens to postpone travel to the Middle East unless absolutely necessary, as the government completed the first leg of an ongoing evacuation from Iran.

Foreign Minister Sugiono issued the advisory at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, where he greeted 22 Indonesians who had just arrived from Iran. It’s the first sub-flight of a 32-person initial evacuation wave, with the remaining 10 expected to land Wednesday. 

“If you want to travel to the Middle East, reassess the current situation, and if it's considered non-urgent or unnecessary, I think it's best to hold off until conditions truly allow,” Sugiono said. He welcomed the returnees home and said the government would help them continue onward to their home regions.

The 32 evacuees left Iran by road in a 10-hour journey from Tehran to Baku, Azerbaijan, per Sugiono’s account, then flew via Istanbul to Jakarta on Turkish Airlines TK56, because Iranian airspace has been closed since the conflict began. 

Wave 1 comprised 14 students, 10 workers, 5 tourists, 2 formal migrant workers, and 1 teacher or journalist. As of late February, 329 Indonesians in Iran had been accounted for by the KBRI Tehran, most of them students concentrated in Qom, roughly 156 kilometres southwest of Tehran. 

The government has described further evacuations as contingent on security conditions.

The foreign ministry puts the total number of Indonesians across the Middle East at 519,042, per data as of 28 February 2026. A moratorium on domestic worker placements to the region under Permenaker 260/2015 has been in place for over a decade without stopping informal departures.

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto has previously warned that the ongoing Iran–Israel–US conflict could trigger economic hardship at home, with falling markets, a weaker rupiah, and oil prices surpassing $100 per barrel.

Speaking on March 10, 2026, he urged Indonesians to prepare for difficulties while promising a full national briefing and reaffirming Indonesia’s “free and active” foreign policy.