Foreigners arrested for lacking passports<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The immigration office has arrested six
\nforeigners who failed to show legal travel documents and is
\nhunting for a passport forgery syndicate, an official said.<\/p>\n
The arrested expatriates, all in their 20s, are M. Niki
\nAbdelhak, Abdel Ehafouf and Berkia Hassan of Morocco, Saleban
\nDeria of Somalia and Abdel Kadir and Eric of Algeria, the
\ndirector of the immigration supervision department, Zaiman
\nNurmatias, said yesterday.<\/p>\n
He said a team from the immigration office that had been
\nmonitoring the illegal tourists caught them at various places,
\nsuch as the Sogo shopping center, Hotel Indonesia and a number of
\nentertainment sites.<\/p>\n
\"The arrested foreigners said their passports were being held
\nby a syndicate who promised to send them to countries such as
\nAustralia and Canada for a better standard of life,\" the Antara
\nnews agency quoted Zaiman as saying.<\/p>\n
He said airports and seaports in Bali, Kupang and Pelabuhan
\nRatu in West Java are suspected to have been used as departure
\nsites.<\/p>\n
Zaiman said the syndicate promised the foreigners they would
\nexchange their passports with ones stolen at elite shopping and
\nentertainment centers.<\/p>\n
Charges<\/p>\n
\"The arrested foreigners were to be charged between US$2,000
\nand $5,000 each by the syndicate for a forged passport and an
\nadditional charge of $2,000 each for transportation to
\nAustralia,\" Zaiman said.<\/p>\n
Members of the syndicate are believed to be citizens of Iran
\nand Morocco, he said. Their targets are citizens of Algeria,
\nBangladesh, Morocco, Pakistan and Somalia. Zaiman also suspected
\nthem of dealing in drugs and narcotics.<\/p>\n
\"Their modus operandi is lending money to victims by holding
\ntheir passports as collateral,\" Zaiman said.<\/p>\n
Zaiman said further that some foreigners who had overstayed
\ntheir visas tried to survive by marrying local women and earning
\na living by working as illegal tourist guides.<\/p>\n
The immigration office also investigated 18 Canadian and
\nUnited States citizens last month for allegedly abusing their
\nimmigration privileges.<\/p>\n
The foreigners are suspected of working for PT Ariawest
\nInternational, which has a contract with the West Java branch of
\nthe state-owned telecommunications company, PT Telkom.<\/p>\n
He said the suspects could face up to five years in jail or a
\nRp 25 million fine.<\/p>\n
Similar cases also occurred last month when the immigration
\noffice detained five citizens of the People's Republic of China
\nfor using forged visas or for overstaying their visas.<\/p>\n
Three young women were arrested at the Mercury Hotel in
\nCentral Jakarta and two men were arrested at Soekarno-Hatta
\nInternational Airport, while trying to leave the country.<\/p>\n
The women were identified as Zhang Hong, Yuan Guiyu and Huang
\nMin Lin. The men were Chen Xun Biao and Chen Qi Jin. (kod)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/foreigners-arrested-for-lacking-passports-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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