Immigration Directorate General pushes for strengthened authority through TPPO Bill revisions

JAKARTA — The Directorate General of Immigration is pushing for strengthened authority through revisions to the Trafficking in Persons (TPPO) Bill. According to Director General Hendarsam Marantomo, immigration has strengthened administrative prevention functions effectively but faces limitations in legal enforcement actions in TPPO cases. ‘We are pushing for strengthened immigration authority in the TPPO Bill so that officers have a stronger legal basis for profiling, suspending passport issuance, and delaying departures,’ Hendarsam stated in Jakarta on Tuesday. The push was made during a hearing with the House of Representatives’ Commission XIII on Monday (25 May). He noted that cross-border TPPO cases recorded in Indonesia have significantly decreased by 65.92% from 2003 to 2025. However, he stressed that this decline should not lead to complacency among all parties. ‘The reduction in cases does not mean the threat has disappeared. Data also shows that vulnerability remains high, particularly in migrant worker hotspots,’ he said. Hendarsam explained that East Java, Central Java, and West Java remain the provinces with the largest migrant worker hotspots. At the regency level, Indramayu, Cilacap, and East Lombok top the vulnerability map. To mitigate these risks, he said, Immigration has implemented a layered approach targeting critical points in Indonesian citizens’ journeys, from village level to abroad. He noted this preventive ecosystem is strengthened from pre-passport application, departure at Immigration Checkpoints (TPI), to overseas monitoring. At the upstream level, Immigration is optimising the role of 885 Immigration-Assisted Villages (DBI) overseen by 446 village immigration officers (Pimpasa). Technologically, Border Control Management (BCM) and Subject of Interest (SOI) systems are integrated with the Immigration Management Information System (SIMKIM) to detect high-risk subjects in real time. This intensive counselling and profiling approach is claimed to have prevented approximately 7,414 non-procedural Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) departures in 2025. As a result, rejections of passports suspected of non-procedural cases dropped by 63.97%, and departure delays at TPI decreased by 67.85%. ‘This declining trend indicates the success of the early warning system; upstream education has raised awareness, leading communities to abandon non-procedural travel intentions before reaching the border,’ he said. On the other hand, immigration functions abroad are optimised as protection instruments through residency status validation during passport replacement and issuance of Travel Document in Lieu of Passport (SPLP). From 2023 to 2025, the Directorate General of Immigration recorded over 27,000 SPLPs issued to assist troubled Indonesians returning home, mostly from Indonesian missions in Malaysia. Hendarsam added that TPPO is not merely a routine immigration violation but a serious crime against the nation’s future, with Indonesian citizens as the target. ‘Therefore, in line with Immigration’s spirit for the people, it must be granted space and authority to act faster, more preventively, and more integratively,’ he said.