BATAM, Riau Islands (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network) - Financial issues top the cause of divorces in Batam, Riau Islands, where mostly wives file for divorce after their husbands are dismissed from work, according to data by Batam religious court.

The court recorded 1,300 divorce cases from January to September this year, triggered mostly by economic problems. Some 80 per cent of the cases were filed by the wives.

"The majority of the cases are due to financial issues - husbands who could not provide for their wives or family," the court's spokesman Ahmad Nabawi said on Friday (Oct 6).

The husbands did not have the income to support the family after they were fired from their jobs, as there had been many lay-offs taking place in Batam.

The number of divorce cases rose compared with 1,000 cases handled by the court throughout last year.

In an effort to reduce the high rate of divorce, the Batam office of the Religious Affairs Ministry has encouraged mediators to bridge the communication between couples who are on the verge of a divorce.

The mediation process takes place usually before the couple proceed with the divorce process in the court.

Batam Empowerment Agency reported that from January to July this year, 46 small scale and big scale companies in the city had filed for closure with the agency, amid negative economic conditions.

A total of 3,000 workers had been retrenched, the agency's head Rudi Syakyakirti said.