Crackdown on expats continues

JAKARTA: The City Population and Civil Registration Agency has checked, as of Friday, the documents of as many as 1,175 foreigners working in four municipalities, discovering many violations of entry permits.

Agency head Silviana Murni said that the Operation for Foreigner Supervision and Order (OPPOA) was being carried out from May to October in cooperation with the immigration office.

"We have a map showing the location of their workplaces. We have warned companies to renew their foreign workers' out-of-date documents and also met with companies recruiting foreign workers prior to the start of the operation," Silviana told The Jakarta Post.

Without stating the number of foreigners involved, she said that those with the greatest number of problem documents were Chinese nationals who had entered the city on tourist visas but were working as teachers or traders.

The agency's data shows that its staff checked 439 foreigners in Central Jakarta, 219 in North Jakarta, 210 in West Jakarta and 307 in East Jakarta. The data for South Jakarta was not yet available because the crackdown was still under way.- JP