Immigration Office Secures 129 Passport Covers Found Scattered in BSD

The Class I Special Non-TPI Tangerang Immigration Office has secured 129 used covers of Indonesian passports and one expired passport, which recently went viral after being found scattered in the BSD bus stop area on Jalan Letjen Sutopo, South Tangerang, Banten. “The evidence received consists of 129 used passport covers and one passport that has expired,” said Head of the Tangerang Immigration Office, Hasanin, in a statement on Tuesday (9/6). Hasanin explained that the handling of the case began with information circulating on social media regarding the discovery of a pile of passports in the South Tangerang area. Following up on this, the Immigration Intelligence and Enforcement Division (Inteldakim) immediately conducted an inspection of the location on Sunday (7/6). “Although officers no longer found the pile of passports at the location, they discovered two passport covers whose biodata and inner pages had been removed, along with a single sheet of a Hajj deposit receipt,” Hasanin stated. The Tangerang Immigration Office subsequently coordinated with the Serpong Police Sector on Monday (8/6). The pile of documents had previously been secured and handed over to the police before being transferred to the Immigration Office for further action. Based on a preliminary examination of the 129 secured passport covers, he said, all of them no longer contained biodata or inner pages. “Further coordination with the South Tangerang Regional Office of the Ministry of Hajj confirmed that all the documents are old, invalid passports belonging to Hajj pilgrims who have already departed,” said Hasanin. “The documents were under the responsibility of that agency,” he continued. Currently, the South Tangerang Regional Office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs is still conducting an internal investigation to determine the chronology of how these old documents could have escaped supervision and ended up scattered on the street. Following this incident, the Tangerang Immigration Office has urged the local Hajj Ministry office to evaluate the mechanism for returning old passports belonging to Hajj pilgrims to prevent a similar occurrence. Additionally, Immigration authorities reminded the wider public to always keep their passports safe. As an official state document, passports must be stored properly and securely by every owner, even after their validity has expired.