No rush of expats out of the country: Officials

No rush of expats out of the country: Officials

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Immigration officials said on Tuesday that there had been no
significant increase in the number of expatriates leaving the
country, even though flag carrier Garuda Indonesia's office in
Surabaya, East Java, said it had made a great number of
reservations for open date tickets.

The director general of immigration at the Ministry of Justice
and Human Rights, Iman Santoso, said that the number of
foreigners leaving the country due to the rising incidence of
demonstrations and threats against foreigners after the U.S.-led
attacks on Afghanistan was not significant enough to indicate a
rush.

"I don't have accurate data on the foreigners leaving the
country, but there is no jump in the number. It's just as usual,"
he told journalists on the sidelines of an impromptu visit by
legislators to the Soekarno-Hatta international airport.

Should there be an exodus, he said, his staff at the airports
would be prepared, while staff at the East Jakarta immigration
office would be deployed to the Halim Perdanakusuma airbase if
necessary.

Many protesters from hardline groups have staged nation-wide
rallies against the U.S. and its allies, threatening to launch
"sweeps" against expatriates in retaliation for the attacks in
Afghanistan.

Garuda's sales and marketing manager in Surabaya, Nicodemos,
said on Tuesday that his office had received telephone calls from
foreign companies and U.S. diplomats over the last few days
asking for schedules for flights leaving the country.

"They are asking whether there are still available seats with
many others reserving open date tickets," he said as quoted by
Antara.

Nicodemos added that, so far, Garuda flights plying the
Surabaya-Singapore route were still carrying their normal
passenger loads of between 50 percent and 60 percent capacity.

Supporting Iman's remarks, head of the operational division at
Surabaya's Juanda airport, Hari Utomo, told Antara on Tuesday
that the number of flights was normal and that there was no
exodus of expatriates.

Many travel bureaus in Surabaya also said that they were still
offering domestic tours and overseas travel packages, and that
there were no long queues of foreigners seeking overseas travel
bookings.

Separately in Pekanbaru, Riau, the military district commander
Darmawi Chaidir said his force had prepared a contingency plan to
evacuate Americans and other foreigners should "sweeping" take
place.

Commenting on reports that Indonesian jihad forces had left
for Afghanistan, Iman said that immigration points in the country
had not received any requests for destinations in either
Afghanistan or Pakistan.