Jakarta Police crack down on illegal foreign workers

Jakarta Police crack down on illegal foreign workers

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Recent raids conducted by city police and the immigration office
have revealed thousands of foreigners staying in the capital
either without proper permits or with expired permits.

Jakarta Police spokesman I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said that
many foreign citizens from China and several other Asian
countries, Africa and Europe were working or staying in the
country without proper working permits or with expired visas.

"We have launched checks on several apartments and residential
areas across the city and we have found many foreigners staying
here with expired permits, or even with no permit at all," Ketut
told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Starting early this month, police have launched massive
searches in many areas of the capital to locate terror suspects,
including fugitive Malaysian bomber Noordin M. Top.

Noordin, together with another Malaysian Azahari bin Husin,
have been accused of being behind a series of bomb attacks across
the country, including the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202
people, the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel attack, which claimed 12
lives, the 2004 bombing outside the Australian Embassy that
killed 10 people, and the Oct. 1 Bali attacks, which killed 23
people, including three suicide bombers.

Azahari was shot by police during a raid at his hide-out in
Batu, East Java, last Nov. 7, while Noordin is still at large.

Ketut said that city police have handed over foreigners caught
without permits to the immigration office to be deported.

He also said that many foreign citizens in Jakarta have
misused their permits to work in Indonesia.

"Many women from mainland China have been expelled because
they worked as prostitutes while here on tourist visas," he said.

In the past three months, city police have arrested over 500
Chinese women who were either without work permits or who were
working as prostitutes.

Immigration office spokesman Supriatna Anwar confirmed that
his office had found many document violations by foreign citizens
during joint operations with city police.

According to data provided by the immigration office, at least
1,901 foreigners have been deported this year because of misuse
of stay permits. There are approximately 42,000 foreign citizens
living in Jakarta alone.

The government announced last week that it would limit permit
allocations for young women from China and for citizens of
Nigeria as records showed that many citizens from these countries
worked as prostitutes or drug dealers.

Meanwhile, an official at the Jakarta Population and Civil
Registration Agency, Edison Sianturi, said on Monday that many
foreign citizens were not registered with his office as they
either came to Indonesia illegally or did not renew their
permits.

He said that with number of foreigners entering the country
and capital, terrorists, prostitutes, drug dealers and other
criminals could easily hide among ordinary visitors.