22 foreigners netted in New Year's raids

22 foreigners netted in New Year's raids

JAKARTA (JP): Immigration officers arrested 22 foreigners in a
series of raids on immigration violators in the Tanah Abang area
and on Jl. Jaksa in Central Jakarta on Friday.

Otong Hasan, an official of the directorate general of
immigration, said the foreigners had violated immigration rules,
including overstaying their visas and working illegally in the
city.

He said the raids were conducted by two teams involving 50
officers.

Eight Africans were arrested at Petamburan Hotel in Tanah
Abang at 8 a.m., Hasan said in a statement made available to The
Jakarta Post.

"We were informed that many Africans stay in the Tanah Abang
area. They have frequently been found to violate immigration
rules," Hasan said.

When the officers checked the Africans' immigration papers at
the hotel, they found that their visas were issued by the
Indonesian embassies in Bangkok and Lagos, he said.

The officers later arrested two other Africans staying in
houses near the hotel, he said.

One of the Africans, identified as Abdul Hakim Mohamed Awad,
is a Somalian citizen and is under the supervision of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He was waiting for a
third country to accept him as a resident, Hasan said.

Awad, however, had married a local woman with whom he has one
child, Hasan said.

He said nine foreigners, mostly Africans, were arrested in the
raid on Jl. Jaksa.

On New Year's Eve, an Indian citizen working at Kafe
Lamborghini in Senayan, South Jakarta, was arrested, he said.

He said the man's working permit identified him as the cafe's
marketing researcher but he worked as the general manager.

Two Malaysian were also apprehended when they failed to
produce their travel documents at Ming Restaurant in Senayan on
the same night, he added. (jun)