Why we need changes in RI's visa policy<\/p>\n
Junita Sitorus, Directorate General of Immigration, Jakarta,
\njunita_st@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
A parade of reactions against the new visa policy released by
\nthe government on March 31 were recently published in The Jakarta
\nPost and other media.<\/p>\n
Proposals to revise (not to revoke) visa-free-entries were
\ninitiated by the administration of then president Abdurrahman
\nWahid in December 1999. Since then, the proposal for revision was
\nfollowed up by the Directorate General of Immigration. Criticism
\nwas raised particularly by the tourism industry and the Ministry
\nof Tourism and Culture. While arguments against the policy were
\ndisseminated widely, the government thesis to revise the visa
\npolicy was not well communicated.<\/p>\n
How far does the policy really amount to the government
\n\"shooting itself in the foot\", or killing tourism?<\/p>\n
Presidential Decree No.15\/1983, followed by a decree of the
\nMinistry of Justice, which was amended up to 13 times by 1999,
\nled to the policy granting nationals from 48 countries visa-free
\nentry to Indonesia for holidays or business meetings. After 10
\nyears, immigration authorities concluded the policy needed
\nrevision for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n
Data compiled by immigration reveals that most visa-free
\nentries were abused by foreigners. The offenders are mostly
\nworking, overstaying or have committed criminal offenses. Such
\ndata usually only reflects a third of actual offenses.<\/p>\n
How about immigration's capacity to execute surveillance of
\nforeigners in Indonesia? Ten years ago the policy of visa-free,
\nshort-term visits (BVKS) was designed to lure the maximum number
\nof foreign tourists to visit the country. Later on it was
\nrevealed that no prior feasibility study had been made on
\nimmigration's readiness to survey the inflow of foreigners,
\nparticularly those becoming illegal aliens.<\/p>\n
The authorities lacked human resources, financial support and
\nsophisticated equipment. The visa-free-entrants were permitted to
\nenter and exit from the country through all immigration
\ncheckpoints in the absence of online networks at checkpoints. To
\ncheck foreigners' activities during a 60-day stay requires
\noverwhelming efforts beyond immigration's existing capacity.<\/p>\n
The commonly detected practice is that of a holder of a visa-
\nfree-entry alien, actually working with that 60-day stay permit,
\nwho departs to Singapore or Johor Baru on the 59th day to get
\nanother 60-day visa and so on. Most are working as foreign
\nlanguage teachers, consultants, sales persons, tour guides or
\ncommercial sexual workers.<\/p>\n
Expatriates are only legally permitted to work if they have
\nrare skills, are investors, top executives or are employed in
\nother listed areas.<\/p>\n
Expatriates here have often been paid higher than his\/her
\nlocal counterparts with the same quality of skills. How much have
\nwe lost in paying for their salaries, income tax, exit levies,
\nand visa revenue? And how much unemployment has been caused by
\nthese stolen jobs in the past 10 years?<\/p>\n
Immigration authorities, helped by the police, have proven
\nalso that the visa-free-entries are often used to commit criminal
\nacts, like drug trafficking, which are very difficult to
\nsuppress.<\/p>\n
Other criminal acts by those abusing visa-free entries so far
\nhave been involved in riots, rallies, activities supporting
\nseparatism like in Aceh and Papua, international terrorism, and
\nother transnational organized crimes.<\/p>\n
Under Abdurrahman's presidency, Indonesia opened its doors
\nwidely for Chinese holidaymakers. This led to a boom of tourists
\nfrom China. Yet most turned out to be smugglers for merchandise
\nfrom the Chinese mainland, who were arrested for violation of
\nimmigration rules. Again, in the bid to lure foreign exchange,
\nthis policy to welcome tourists proved to be immature.<\/p>\n
The revision of the visa policy has not been made without
\nconsiderations of its impact on the tourism industry.
\nObservations have found no significant correlation between the
\nvisa free entry and foreign tourist inflows.<\/p>\n
When tourists were asked, \"What attracts you to spend your
\nholiday in Indonesia?\" -- the free-visa entry never featured as
\nthe first, second or third answer.<\/p>\n
The majority of answers to the question \"what stops you from
\nspending your holiday in Indonesia?\" referred to the domestic
\nsecurity problems.<\/p>\n
Given that data from the tourism industry shows that the
\naverage stay of foreign tourists in Indonesia is only 14 days,
\nthere is the potential for abusing the visa among those who stay
\nfor the remaining 46 days.<\/p>\n
Most foreigners coming into the country, or 85 percent, hold
\nvisa-free entries, according to data from Immigration Traffic; in
\nBali the figure reaches 95 percent. With no significant
\ncorrelation between visa policy and the volume of genuine tourist
\ninflow, how many billions of dollars have been wasted in the last
\n10 years?<\/p>\n
Despite strong opposition, the government decision to revise
\nthe visa-free policy was appropriate. Tourists who really aim to
\nenjoy Indonesia's nature and culture would not mind paying visa
\nfees of US$40 to $50 at the airport. In immigration entry
\nprocessing, the visa-free and visa-on-arrival are the same in
\nprocedure. Just pack your things and go to the airport with your
\nvalid passport!<\/p>\n
The urgent matter now is perhaps improving the immigration
\nservice at the airport. This following visa-on-arrival service
\nshould not be bureaucratic, difficult, stupid, corrupt or create
\nlong queues at the airport.<\/p>\n
It is clear now that the problem behind the policy of visa-
\nfree-revision and to lure foreign visitors to the country is not
\nas simple as offering candy at the airport, as Stefan Reisner
\nwrote in The Jakarta Post.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/why-we-need-changes-in-ris-visa-policy-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}