Foreigners arrested for lacking passports
JAKARTA (JP): The immigration office has arrested six foreigners who failed to show legal travel documents and is hunting for a passport forgery syndicate, an official said.
The arrested expatriates, all in their 20s, are M. Niki Abdelhak, Abdel Ehafouf and Berkia Hassan of Morocco, Saleban Deria of Somalia and Abdel Kadir and Eric of Algeria, the director of the immigration supervision department, Zaiman Nurmatias, said yesterday.
He said a team from the immigration office that had been monitoring the illegal tourists caught them at various places, such as the Sogo shopping center, Hotel Indonesia and a number of entertainment sites.
"The arrested foreigners said their passports were being held by a syndicate who promised to send them to countries such as Australia and Canada for a better standard of life," the Antara news agency quoted Zaiman as saying.
He said airports and seaports in Bali, Kupang and Pelabuhan Ratu in West Java are suspected to have been used as departure sites.
Zaiman said the syndicate promised the foreigners they would exchange their passports with ones stolen at elite shopping and entertainment centers.
Charges
"The arrested foreigners were to be charged between US$2,000 and $5,000 each by the syndicate for a forged passport and an additional charge of $2,000 each for transportation to Australia," Zaiman said.
Members of the syndicate are believed to be citizens of Iran and Morocco, he said. Their targets are citizens of Algeria, Bangladesh, Morocco, Pakistan and Somalia. Zaiman also suspected them of dealing in drugs and narcotics.
"Their modus operandi is lending money to victims by holding their passports as collateral," Zaiman said.
Zaiman said further that some foreigners who had overstayed their visas tried to survive by marrying local women and earning a living by working as illegal tourist guides.
The immigration office also investigated 18 Canadian and United States citizens last month for allegedly abusing their immigration privileges.
The foreigners are suspected of working for PT Ariawest International, which has a contract with the West Java branch of the state-owned telecommunications company, PT Telkom.
He said the suspects could face up to five years in jail or a Rp 25 million fine.
Similar cases also occurred last month when the immigration office detained five citizens of the People's Republic of China for using forged visas or for overstaying their visas.
Three young women were arrested at the Mercury Hotel in Central Jakarta and two men were arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, while trying to leave the country.
The women were identified as Zhang Hong, Yuan Guiyu and Huang Min Lin. The men were Chen Xun Biao and Chen Qi Jin. (kod)