Authorities have no funds to deport German students
JAKARTA (JP): Six German students, who were scheduled to be deported on Tuesday for visa violations, are still in the city as immigration authorities do not have the funds to send them home.
"We don't have the funds to deport them," Mohammad Indra, director of the immigration enforcement section of the Directorate General of Immigration, said.
This, however, does not mean that the immigration office has canceled its plan to deport the foreigners, he said
The office announced on Monday that they would deport the six German students who were arrested by police on Saturday for allegedly doing research in a slum area with a local non- governmental organization, the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC).
Indra said it was unusual for deportations to be delayed due to a lack of funds.
The students hold return tickets that allow them to make a stopover in Bali and Kalimantan, while they should be deported directly to their country of origin.
Indra said he did not know where the six students were staying.
"They are under the guarantee of the German Embassy," he said.
Indra added that the six foreign students were not quarantined.
"The quarantine center (in Kalideres, West Jakarta) caught fire in April. Our office do not have the funds to renovate the center, so the foreigners are not isolated," he told The Jakarta Post.
Indra added that the German Embassy had quaranteed that the students would be available to the immigration authorities when required.
The students, Miriam Hinz, Norber Binternagel, Ina Maxime Chaefer, Niklas Gebert, Martin Geiger and Katrin Christine Bohle, were arrested last Saturday in a slum area of Karang Anyar, Central Jakarta while they were interviewing residents of the area. They were released on the following day.
They are among the 27 students from Bonn University who arrived in the city last Friday for a study tour.
Indra, however, asked the case not be blown out of proportion as it would only show the international community "how poor our country is." (emf/06)