Eight Indians held for illegal entry
JAKARTA (JP): Immigration officers acting on a tip-off arrested eight Indian nationals in Depok, West Java, for entering Indonesia using forged visas, very likely aided by the service of an illegal immigration syndicate.
The director for immigration supervision, M. Indra, said in a statement on Wednesday that his men raided their hiding place in Depok on Tuesday.
Indra identified the eight Indians as Avtar Singh, Sharminder Singh, Hartup Singh, Daljit Singh, Iqbal Singh, Amardep SIngh, Gurdial Singh and Gurjit Singh.
He explained that his office received information about the arrival of the eight Indians in Jakarta from the Batam immigration office in Riau.
He speculated that the captured Indians had benefited from the service of an international syndicate transporting illegal immigrants from developing countries to developed countries such as Australia, Britain or the United States.
"Avtar Singh is a member of the syndicate that arranges their travel," Indra said, adding that the detained Indians used Indonesia as a transit point before traveling to a third country.
He noted that Avtar Singh cooperated with a number of local companies to arrange the travel of Indians from India to developed countries using Indonesia as a transit point. They are PT Mina Panca Sejahtera, PT Deha Cemerlang and PT Samudera Surya Abadi.
Avtar Singh and his Indonesian counterparts would produce forged passports for those Indians already arriving in Indonesia. They would then travel to a third country using Indonesian passports.
Some of them had even secured U.S. visas and were ready to go, Indra said.
Avtar Singh, according to Indra, charged each Indian US$4,500 for the visa. The total cost to bring them to a third country could reach US$50,500.
Indra noted that the forgery of Indonesian passports was on the rise during the past few years. Hundreds of forged Indonesian passports had been produced during the last three years.
"This is very serious," Indra said, adding that the immigration office was currently preparing the issuance of new passports with increased security, and thus, they could not be easily forged. (rid)