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.