Immigration office to deport six German students

JAKARTA (JP): The six German students arrested by police last Saturday would be deported on Tuesday as they had violated immigration regulations, the immigration enforcement section said on Monday.

Mohammad Indra, director of the immigration enforcement section, said on Monday that they would also be prohibited from entering Indonesia for between the next six months and a year, as provided for in article 42 of the Indonesian immigration law.

"After questioning them today, we concluded they had violated their visas. They entered Indonesia with tourist visas, but during their stay they conducted research," he told a press conference.

Indra added that foreigners wanting to conduct research must obtain permits from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) then arrange the appropriate visa from the Indonesian embassy in their respective countries.

The students were arrested last Saturday in the slum area of Karang Anyar, Central Jakarta, while holding a dialogue with the residents of the area.

The students, Miriam Hinz, Norbert Binternagel, Ina Maxime Chaefer, Niklas Gebert, Martin Geiger and Katrin Christine Bohle, were accompanied by Horas Siringo-ringo from the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) and a translator. They are part of a group of 27 demographic and geography students from Bonn University.

The rest of the group will not be deported.

"Only the six students will be deported. We have yet to decide about the rest," said Ade E. Dahlan, spokesman for the immigration office.

The students however insisted that they were on an excursion and were not conducting any research.

"Aside from visiting tourist destinations in Java, Kalimantan and Bali, we would also like to see how people in Indonesia live. For example, we would like to know how many garbagemen live here as some of us study demography," said Niklas Gebert, who organized the trip.

Nonetheless, the fact that they interviewed some people in the slum area is considered as "compiling data", a method used in research, according to the immigration office.

"With their agenda, it would have been more appropriate if they had used a social and cultural visit visa, which allows foreigners to conduct research in Indonesia," Indra said, adding that the students should have consulted the Indonesian embassy in their country if they were uncertain about the visa requirements.

After their arrest, the police alleged they were connected with last week's clash between pedicab drivers and city public order officers, in which a civilian guard was killed.

The students arrived in Jakarta two days before the incident.

The UPC is known to have helped pedicab drivers in fighting to be allowed to continue operating in the city.

The students claimed that they found the UPC's website on the Internet, and later on asked for its assistance in directing them to slum areas.

"We are victims of circumstance. We arrived at the wrong time and in wrong place. We were completely unaware of the current political situation," Gebert said, referring to the UPC's role in relation to the pedicab drivers.

Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said the legal process for the six foreign students had been completed and they had been handed over to the German Embassy.

"Their deportation will be jointly coordinated by the immigration office and the German embassy," Anton told reporters on Monday.

According to Anton, the police had to arrest them because they played "hide-and-seek" with the police over their research activities, and had failed to notify police about their visit to the area where they were allegedly conducting their survey."

"For foreigners, the visa-upon-arrival facility can be used for many purposes, except for research activities. They have to notify the local police before starting their research," Anton maintained.

The students, however, accepted the immigration department's determination and apologized for the inconvenience they had caused the government.

"We'd like to apologize for causing problems for the government. We will follow the procedures designated by the government," Gebert remarked. (06/emf)