Immigration on alert for bank owners

JAKARTA (JP): Immigration check points across the country have been put on alert and ordered to "delay" the departure of the owners of the 16 liquidated banks if they try to leave the country.

Mursanuddin A. Ghani, the head of public affairs at the director general of immigration's office, said the bank owners were not officially banned or blacklisted from traveling abroad but precautions were being taken.

"The (official) wording is not 'banned' because there has still been no official request from the Ministry of Finance or the Attorney General's office," he said yesterday.

"But we've instructed all 83 immigration check points throughout the country to postpone the departure of the owners of the 16 banks," he said as quoted by Antara.

"We don't want to take any risks or be blamed should any of them try to escape abroad," he said, adding there was no list of names prohibited from traveling abroad as there was no official order.

Mursanuddin said his office was merely being careful and inserting the names of known bank owners into the immigration computer. He said the names had been obtained from newspaper reports.

"If they are found at the airport or trying to go abroad we'll ask them to wait a bit. We'll check with the Ministry of Finance and Attorney General whether they are prohibited or not," he said.

According to immigration files, as of yesterday afternoon, none of the known owners of liquidated banks had tried to leave the country. (mds)