Govt anticipates rising influx of illegal immigrants

JAKARTA (JP): The government has taken the rising influx of illegal immigrants as a serious problem, especially in connection with widespread fear to organized terrorism, an official said here on Tuesday.

Muhammad Indra, director of Immigration Supervision and Control of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said the government's seriousness was based on the possibility of much bigger influx of immigrants, especially because of the current conflict between the United States and Afghanistan.

Indra made the remarks after a closed meeting of the interdepartmental coordinating team on supervision of foreigners here on Tuesday.

The meeting, hosted by the directorate general of immigration, was attended by officials from the immigration office, the National Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General's Office, the Indonesian Navy and the National Intelligence Body.

Indra said that although the issue of a possible war between the United States and Afghanistan was not specifically discussed during the meeting, a bigger number of Afghans was feared to flee their country.

"Most of Afghans will likely run to other countries, mainly Australia, via our country. There have already been thousands of them in Malaysia by now," he said.

"We cannot close the possibility that these Afghans are members of militia forces in their country or trained personnel of terrorist groups.

"If we fail to handle the illegal immigrant issue seriously with comprehensive measures, the effect may be fatal to Indonesia since we can be considered as a safe transit area for terrorist groups," he told journalists after the meeting.

The government has taken a policy to limit the issuance of entry permit for citizens of certain countries, including from Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq.

The people from the above-mentioned countries can only obtain visas to enter Indonesia after getting approvals from the immigration office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' clearance house, which will screen their applications and sponsors responsible for their visit.

Indra underlined the importance of proper quarantine facilities which restrict the illegal immigrants' freedom so as to discourage prospective illegal immigrants to choose Indonesia as their transitory destination.

"Many illegal immigrants fled detention center or guest houses where they are sheltered. We cannot detain them as illegal immigrants since they claim of seeking refuge, therefore there is no tight security. This condition should be changed in the future where they should be put in the quarantine centers pending deportation.

"Indonesia doesn't want to be a processing center for the illegal migrants intending to enter their destination country. We think neighboring countries who are concerned with the influx of immigrants can help us establish such quarantine facilities," Indra argued.

Indra explained that the illegal migrants actually enter the transitory country in a legal way using tourist documents. However, they later threw away all their documents as soon as they reached the transitory country or before being caught by the law enforcers while trying to reach their destination country through unusual entrances.

"To make it worse, it's difficult to send them back due to their vague nationalities because the embassies of the countries they claimed to have come from reject them," he added.

As of this month there are at least 1,663 illegal migrants sheltered in many places all over the country. Out of the total number, 514 are Afghans, 355 Iraqis, 57 Iranians, 20 Pakistanis, 11 Palestinians and 2 Vietnamese. (bby)