Foreigners wait for release from cells

Foreigners wait for release from cells

By Joko E.H. Anwar

JAKARTA (JP): A number of small children were seen on Monday
putting their hands through bars of a window while screaming
playfully from a cell on the second floor of a two-story building
on Jl. Peta Barat in Kalideres, West Jakarta.

From their appearance and the language they spoke, the kids
were obviously not Indonesians. They were Indian children,
detained with their parents in the immigration quarantine.

Dozens of foreigners including Burmese, South Africans,
Armenians, and Indians have been detained in the quarantine for
various immigration violations.

From the outsiders, the immigration quarantine facility looks
very similar to any other building.

But anyone able to pass through the multi-layered bureaucracy
and enter the compound soon notices that the building is no
different from other prisons.

In a visit on Monday, after a lengthy bureaucratic procedure,
The Jakarta Post learned that the quarantine comprised several
blocks with small cells for the inmates.

Many of them have been locked up for years and have almost
given up hope that their respective governments will help them
return home.

"People here have contacted their embassies but the embassies
did nothing to help," a 35-year-old Indian inmate, Bhaksi (not
his real name), told the Post.

Last week, for example, one frustrated inmate committed
suicide, he explained.

"A Burmese who had been locked up for six years hanged himself
three days ago," Bhaksi said.

Bhaksi refused to disclose the crime he committed but said
that most of the inmates were being held for overstaying.

Bhaksi was interrupted by an Indian song being sung very
loudly in a nearby cell.

He hastily shouted down the row of cells: "Hey! Keep it down
for five minutes! OK?"

The song stopped, followed by some soft grumbling from the
unseen man.

According to an employee there are 110 foreigners currently
being detained inside the building -- most cannot speak
Indonesian or English.

There were four young Indians next to Bhaksi's cell who have
been detained for overstaying expired visas.

"Can you help me, Sir?" asked Danny Fernandes, 24, from the
next cell.

The question seems to be the normal greeting from inmates to
visitors.

Like other prisons, the inmates' stories vary.

Danny, one of 14 young Indians, claimed that he and his
friends were recruited by an Indian agent as crew for an
Indonesian cargo ship called Al Makkah.

"We were promised employment on the ship and the agent said he
would pay 15,000 rupees or $375 a month. Each of us had to pay
$1,100 to join," Danny said.

He explained that most of them were from poor families.

"Our family borrowed the money from relatives for the job
here, he said.

Danny who shares a two meters by two meters cell with three
friends said the Indian agent, Chandra Khalul, sent them to an
Indonesian, Kusdi S., who claimed to own the ship through his
company PT Raudah Bakti Trans.

They arrived in Jakarta on May 24 and were picked up by Kusdi,
who promised to employ them soon and renew their visas. But Kusdi
never kept his promise and the Indians were arrested by
Immigration officials and sent to the quarantine on June 18.

"They were all fake companies and agents," Bhaksi said. "The
immigration was not wrong (for detaining the young Indians),
those bogus companies were."

"We called the Indian Embassy many times but they did not want
to help," Danny said.

"The cost of a ticket is only $350 to $400 but the Indian
Embassy demanded $1,000 for the ticket," Bhaksi said with Danny
confirming the allegation.

No one could be reached at the Indian Embassy when the Post
called for confirmation.

Danny said that the quarantine is also home to many hungry
thieves, who will take anything, including underwear.

Danny has had a walkman tape player and six pairs of underwear
stolen.

"Why would anyone steal someone's underwear?" Danny said.

Passing other cells in Block C, several inmates voiced polite
greetings.

A 19-year-old Burmese, Suisu, who did not speak Indonesian or
English asked his 20-year-old cellmate, Hilicai, who spoke a
little Indonesian to tell the Post that he had been detained for
three years.

"It was his friend who hanged himself three days ago," Hilicai
said.

In one cell, a child, appearing to be about nine years old,
was asleep on a mattress next to his father.