Mystery of Passports Scattered at BSD Solved: They Weren’t Hajj or Umrah Pilgrims’ Documents
A video that went viral showing passports containing data of hajj and umrah pilgrims strewn along Jalan Letjen Sutopo in Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD), South Tangerang, Banten, has been resolved. It transpires the passports did not belong to active hajj and umrah pilgrims. The findings were immediately followed up by the Class I Special Non-TPI Immigration Office in Tangerang on Sunday (7/6/2026). When checked at the location, the scattered passports were no longer there; officers found only two passport covers and sheets of hajj deposit receipt documents.
“In connection with information circulating on social media regarding the discovery of a number of passports suspected to belong to hajj/umrah pilgrims scattered around the BSD Bus Stop, Jalan Letjen Sutopo, near Pasar Modern BSD and Santa Ursula, South Tangerang City, on Sunday 7 June 2026, the Class I Special Non-TPI Immigration Office Tangerang, through its Intelligence and Immigration Enforcement division, carried out tracing and direct checks at the location to verify the information,” the office stated in a written release on Monday (8/6/2026).
Initial suspicion points to the passports being expired ones. Officers from the Intelligence and Immigration Enforcement division nonetheless continue to investigate the facts behind the documents found scattered by residents. “Based on on-site checks conducted on Sunday, 7 June 2026 around 9 p.m. local time, officers no longer found any pile of passports as seen in the social media post. However, officers found two passport covers that had been separated from the biodata page and visa pages, indicating that there were indeed a number of expired passports previously at the location,” the immigration office explained. “In addition, officers also found several sheets of documents in the form of hajj deposit receipts believed to be linked to the documents that were previously at the site.”
Following the incident, the immigration office checked the passport numbers in the passport issuance system “to obtain further data or information regarding the owners and guarantors of the passports.”
The office has also coordinated with Serpong police sector on Monday. From this coordination, information was obtained that a number of passports found at the location had been secured by local security personnel and handed over to the police. The evidence handed over consisted of 129 expired covers of Republic of Indonesia passports and one Republic of Indonesia passport that had expired. Based on preliminary examination, none of the passport covers still contained biodata pages or internal pages.
The immigration office further coordinated with the South Tangerang Regional Office of the Ministry of Hajj to obtain information and dig deeper into the documents found. Based on the results, it was confirmed that the evidence indeed consisted of expired old passports belonging to hajj pilgrims who had already departed and were under the responsibility of the South Tangerang Regional Office of the Ministry of Hajj. The regional hajj office is currently tracing the chronology of how the documents disappeared from its supervision and ended up scattered on the road.
Serpong police chief Kompol Suhardono confirmed on Tuesday (9/6/2026) that officers had checked the site and found only passport covers and one expired passport. “We checked, it’s true. What was scattered were only covers, and one passport was found, and it had already expired,” he said. The covers and expired passport have since been taken by the Tangerang immigration office. Police are still investigating who dumped the covers and expired passport. “The perpetrator is still under investigation,” he said. Police have confirmed that the documents do not belong to hajj or umrah pilgrims. “No (they are not the property of hajj and umrah pilgrims),” Suhardono stated.