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)