Foreigners nabbed for breaching laws

Foreigners nabbed for breaching laws

JAKARTA (JP): Immigration officers in greater Jakarta area
captured at least 178 foreigners for violation of Law No. 9/1992
on Immigration and involvement in drug cases, an official said on
Thursday.

"We nabbed the foreigners during a routine operation in
January," Director General of Immigration M. Mudakir said in a
statement, copies of which were made available to the press on
Thursday.

The Tangerang immigration office caught two foreigners while
the Soekarno-Hatta Airport office netted 130 foreigners, he said.
In Bogor, he added, the office caught three foreigners.

"We also caught 30 foreigners in Central Jakarta, three in
South Jakarta, and one in East Jakarta," he said.

Mudakir said the operations, held in Palmerah subdistrict,
West Jakarta, concentrated on apprehending Africans. Other
operations in Pulogadung, Cibubur, Jatinegara in East Jakarta,
Jl. Jaksa, Kemayoran area, and Pasar Baru area in Central
Jakarta, in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, in Tangerang, west of
Jakarta and in Bogor, south of Jakarta, targeted other
nationalities.

He said that the captured foreigners included American,
Angolan, Australian, British, Chinese, Egyptian, Filipino,
Indian, Japanese, Jordanian, Malaysian, and Malian.

"We also detained Nigerian, Pakistani, Saudi Arabian,
Singaporean, South Korean, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Swiss national,
Taiwanese, Tanzanian, and Togolese," he said.

"The violations included fake visas, overstaying, fictitious
sponsors, stay permit violations, drug possession, and incomplete
travel documents," he added.

Supervision of foreigners entering the country has been
intensified following numerous cases of foreigners' involved in
drug cases and violations of the immigration laws, he said.

He denied the allegations that the immigration directorate-
general had been inactive in monitoring incoming foreigners.

"There were 596 foreigners with various nationalities caught
and deported for breaching the immigration laws in 1999," he
said.

There were also 193 foreigners quarantined in Kalideres, West
Jakarta as of last December, he added, saying there were at least
230 foreigners quarantined nationwide.

Mudakir also revealed that the Spanish government had given a
soft loan of US$ 35 million to finance the establishment of
digitally-transmitted Immigration Management and Information
System (SIMKIM).

"The new system will enable us to have on-line network with
all immigration offices nationwide and with all Indonesian
embassies," he said, adding that the deal was signed last
December.

"Currently, we still use manual data processing which delays
retrieval of data on incoming foreigners," he said.

He said that his office had established cooperation with other
government institutions to monitor visiting foreigners.

"The team includes the Ministries of Manpower and Tourism,
regional administrations, the police, the attorney general's
office, and immigration," he said, while citing that immigration
acted as the coordinator while each member enforces its own
jurisdiction.

Mudakir called on city residents to report to the immigration
offices if they suspected foreigners violating immigration
regulations in their respective neighborhood. (05)