Harassment by immigration officials

Harassment by immigration officials

It seems that things are getting worse, much worse, in certain
areas of the Indonesian bureaucracy. And the immigration
department seems to be the worst of all. Virtually every
expatriate of my acquaintance has a "horror" story to tell, while
more and more tourists are complaining of harassment from
immigration officials.

Just this week, a British tourist, a fairly frequent visitor
to Indonesia, a country he is rather fond of, returned to Jakarta
from Singapore, where he had gone to extend his visa in order to
spend another month here, only to be subjected to what I can only
describe as intimidation. This took the form of verbal abuse,
shouting and denigration of his character and motives from the
immigration officers at Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

They demanded he show them US$2,000 or its traveler's cheque
equivalent, which they claim every tourist should be carrying,
and threats were made to put him on the first flight out of the
country. There is indeed a regulation that incoming visitors have
this sum available but that in no way justifies the treatment,
which went on for a period of two and a half hours, he was given.

During this time, there was a constant stream of other
harassed individuals through the office, each "coughing up" money
to the officials. Many of these hapless victims were, it seems,
Indonesians returning from abroad. One official, the tourist
alleged, placed his feet on the desk. As a sign of respect? It is
a fact that one's first impression of a country is a lasting one.
Is the Ministry of Tourism aware that immigration officials are
creating a negative impression of the country on tourists. The
ministry should be doing something about it!

I have had enough bad experiences over the years with the
immigration officials at Soekarno-Hatta Airport to disbelieve
this tourist.

DAVID JARDINE

Jakarta