Indonesian Lawmaker Calls for Crackdown on Immigration Corruption in Bali

JAKARTA, balipuspanews.com – Rieke Diah Pitaloka, a member of Commission XIII of the Indonesian House of Responsibility (DPR RI), has identified Bali as a province with the highest mobility of foreign nationals in Indonesia, noting that the influx of capital has not been sufficiently balanced by an integrated supervisory system.

“Exposing immigration corruption in Bali is not just about saving Bali. It is about safeguarding national security, protecting the people, strengthening the government’s digital transformation, and maintaining Indonesia’s sovereignty,” Rieke stated in a written statement received on Sunday.

The legislator from the PDI Perjuangan party explained that various cases of visa and stay permit abuse, shell companies, fictitious investments, nominee practices, illegal foreign workers, online scams, online gambling, human trafficking (TPPO), money laundering (TPPU), and international narcotics trafficking indicate serious vulnerabilities in national immigration governance, most visible in Bali.

“Bali is Indonesia’s front porch and the main gateway for international human traffic. Therefore, immigration governance in Bali should not be viewed merely as a matter of visas, passports, and stay permits,” she said.

Furthermore, Rieke noted that immigration is a strategic state instrument directly linked to national security, investment, employment, the protection of Indonesian citizens, state revenue, environmental sustainability, and the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia.

Data shows that throughout 2025, Bali received approximately 6.9 million international tourists with over 15 million international border crossings. During the same period, around 53,428 immigration stay permits and nearly 28,000 passports were issued, generating non-tax state revenue (PNBP) of approximately Rp1.5 trillion. Bali remains one of the regions with the highest levels of foreign labour, foreign investment, and foreign national mobility in Indonesia.

“The massive flow of people and capital has not been fully balanced by an integrated monitoring system,” Rieke explained.

She further argued that these issues stem from weak integration between immigration systems, the Online Single Submission (OSS) system, investment, taxation, labour, BPJS (social security), PPATK (Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre), local governments, law enforcement, and national security surveillance systems. When companies that exist only on paper act as sponsors for visas, work permits (KITAS), or investor permits without real business activity, it creates opportunities for immigration corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, and various transnational crimes.

Special attention must also be given to the supervision of foreign workers. The obligation for foreign workers staying in Indonesia for more than six months to participate in BPJS Health and BPJS Employment should serve as a state monitoring instrument to ensure alignment between stay permits, employment relationships, tax compliance, and the business activities of sponsoring companies. Without data integration between Immigration, the Ministry of Manpower, BPJS, the Directorate General of Taxes, BKPM, and OSS, the potential for abusing work permits and fictitious sponsoring companies will persist.

“This issue shows that the implementation of ‘One Data Indonesia’ and the Digital Government System in national immigration governance is not yet optimal,” Rieke said.

She emphasised that the entire immigration cycle—from the issuance of passports, visas, and stay permits to labour, investment, taxation, BPJS participation, business ownership, and foreign national supervision—should be connected within an accurate, up-to-date, integrated, and accountable government data ecosystem that allows real-time inter-agency exchange.

“Without an integrated ‘One Data Indonesia’ and Digital Government System, the state will continue to face data fragmentation, duplication of permits, weak supervision, leakage of state revenue, and delays in detecting illegal activities involving foreign nationals and transnational crime networks,” she added.

Urging Government Action

Addressing these issues, Rieke emphasised her support for the government to take immediate strategic steps:

First, to conduct investigative audits and digital forensic audits on the issuance of visas, KITAS, KITAP, investor stay permits, work stay permits, foreign national sponsors, and PMA (foreign investment) companies, alongside their links to OSS, taxation, and BPJS.

Second, to dismantle the links between shell companies, fraudulent investments, nominee practices, stay permit abuse, illegal foreign workers, human trafficking, money laundering, online gambling, online scams, and other transnational crime networks exploiting immigration loopholes. She supports the Attorney General’s Office and the KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) in moving against indications of immigration corruption in Bali.

Third, to mandate the integration of immigration data into the national ‘One Data Indonesia’ architecture and the Digital Government System, ensuring all data regarding passports, visas, stay permits, investment, labour, taxation, BPJS, population, and foreign national supervision can be accessed and verified in real-time by relevant authorities.

Fourth, to build system interoperability between the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Services, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Health, BPJS Health, BPJS Employment, BKPM, Directorate General of Customs and Excise, PPATK, National Police, BIN (Intelligence Agency), BSSN (National Cyber and Crypto Agency), local governments, and traditional village authorities as part of the National Digital Government System.

Fifth, to establish Bali as a pilot project for an Integrated National Immigration Governance System based on ‘One Data Indonesia’ and the Digital Government System to strengthen foreign national supervision, protect Indonesian citizens, prevent human trafficking and money laundering, and optimise state revenue.

Sixth, to immediately issue a Presidential Regulation regarding the [system…]