JP/7/JUNITA

JP/7/JUNITA

Foreigners steal Indonesian
jobs, says Immigration dept.

Junita Sitorus
Directorate General of Immigration
Jakarta
junita_st@yahoo.com

A parade of reactions against the new visa policy released by
the government on March 31 were recently published in The Jakarta
Post and other media.

Proposals to revise (not to revoke) visa-free-entries were
initiated by the administration of then president Abdurrahman
Wahid in December 1999. Since then, the proposal for revision was
followed up by the Directorate General of Immigration. Criticism
was raised particularly by the tourism industry and the Ministry
of Tourism and Culture. While arguments against the policy were
disseminated widely, the government thesis to revise the visa
policy was not well communicated.

How far does the policy really amount to the government
"shooting itself in the foot", or killing tourism?

Presidential Decree No.15/1983, followed by a decree of the
Ministry of Justice, which was amended up to 13 times by 1999,
led to the policy granting nationals from 48 countries visa-free
entry to Indonesia for holidays or business meetings. After 10
years, immigration authorities concluded the policy needed
revision for a number of reasons.

Data compiled by immigration reveals that most visa-free
entries were abused by foreigners. The offenders are mostly
working, overstaying or have committed criminal offenses. Such
data usually only reflects a third of actual offenses.

How about immigration's capacity to execute surveillance of
foreigners in Indonesia? Ten years ago the policy of visa-free,
short-term visits (BVKS) was designed to lure the maximum number
of foreign tourists to visit the country. Later on it was
revealed that no prior feasibility study had been made on
immigration's readiness to survey the inflow of foreigners,
particularly those becoming illegal aliens.

The authorities lacked human resources, financial support and
sophisticated equipment. The visa-free-entrants were permitted to
enter and exit from the country through all immigration
checkpoints in the absence of online networks at checkpoints. To
check foreigners' activities during a 60-day stay requires
overwhelming efforts beyond immigration's existing capacity.

The commonly detected practice is that of a holder of a visa-
free-entry alien, actually working with that 60-day stay permit,
who departs to Singapore or Johor Baru on the 59th day to get
another 60-day visa and so on. Most are working as foreign
language teachers, consultants, sales persons, tour guides or
commercial sexual workers.

Expatriates are only legally permitted to work if they have
rare skills, are investors, top executives or are employed in
other listed areas.

Expatriates here have often been paid higher than his/her
local counterparts with the same quality of skills. How much have
we lost in paying for their salaries, income tax, exit levies,
and visa revenue? And how much unemployment has been caused by
these stolen jobs in the past 10 years?

Immigration authorities, helped by the police, have proven
also that the visa-free-entries are often used to commit criminal
acts, like drug trafficking, which are very difficult to
suppress.

Other criminal acts by those abusing visa-free entries so far
have been involved in riots, rallies, activities supporting
separatism like in Aceh and Papua, international terrorism, and
other transnational organized crimes.

Under Abdurrahman's presidency, Indonesia opened its doors
widely for Chinese holidaymakers. This led to a boom of tourists
from China. Yet most turned out to be smugglers for merchandise
from the Chinese mainland, who were arrested for violation of
immigration rules. Again, in the bid to lure foreign exchange,
this policy to welcome tourists proved to be immature.

The revision of the visa policy has not been made without
considerations of its impact on the tourism industry.
Observations have found no significant correlation between the
visa free entry and foreign tourist inflows.

When tourists were asked, "What attracts you to spend your
holiday in Indonesia?" -- the free-visa entry never featured as
the first, second or third answer.

The majority of answers to the question "what stops you from
spending your holiday in Indonesia?" referred to the domestic
security problems.

Given that data from the tourism industry shows that the
average stay of foreign tourists in Indonesia is only 14 days,
there is the potential for abusing the visa among those who stay
for the remaining 46 days.

Most foreigners coming into the country, or 85 percent, hold
visa-free entries, according to data from Immigration Traffic; in
Bali the figure reaches 95 percent. With no significant
correlation between visa policy and the volume of genuine tourist
inflow, how many billions of dollars have been wasted in the last
10 years?

Despite strong opposition, the government decision to revise
the visa-free policy was appropriate. Tourists who really aim to
enjoy Indonesia's nature and culture would not mind paying visa
fees of US$40 to $50 at the airport. In immigration entry
processing, the visa-free and visa-on-arrival are the same in
procedure. Just pack your things and go to the airport with your
valid passport!

The urgent matter now is perhaps improving the immigration
service at the airport. This following visa-on-arrival service
should not be bureaucratic, difficult, stupid, corrupt or create
long queues at the airport.

It is clear now that the problem behind the policy of visa-
free-revision and to lure foreign visitors to the country is not
as simple as offering candy at the airport, as Stefan Reisner
wrote in The Jakarta Post.