Police bust fake document scam targeting migrants
Police bust fake document scam targeting migrants
Damar Harsanto
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Police investigators have announced the break-up of a crime
syndicate that sold forged documents to migrant workers seeking
to travel abroad. The fraud, they added, also implicated Jakarta
city immigration officials.
"We have managed to arrest members of three organized-crime
syndicates which have been sending the migrant workers abroad
with illegal documents," City Police Chief, Det. Sr. Comr.
Bambang Hendarso Danuri, said at a press conference on Friday.
Bambang said that the first group was led by Benny Siregar,
45. The seven-member group was experienced in counterfeiting
documents.
Benny was taken into custody after police received reports
from Arsinna Adiandi Utama, a licensed company which assists
people interested in getting documents for the purpose of
becoming migrant workers.
The company's allegations were based on its own investigation
of a faked immigration document at the behest of a migrant
worker.
In its investigation, police found that Benny, a resident of
Condet, East Jakarta, had made the fake documents in cooperation
with Syahrul, an official at the Central Jakarta Immigration
Office.
The illegal documents, investigators said, had caused
difficulties for many migrant workers, leaving them prone to
exploitation and unfair treatment, as they had no legal
protection from the companies which employed them.
The latest incident occurred early this year in Malaysia,
when more than 300 Indonesian workers rioted in anger against
unfair treatment by their employers.
The migrant workers who returned to Indonesia were also
reportedly exposed to extortions on the way home.
According to information from the Coordinating Body for
Indonesian Workers Placement, Indonesian migrant workers mostly
travel to 25 nations, including Britain and United States. Many
others have gone to their destinations illegally.
Bambang added that police have arrested Kulwant Singh, a 40-
year-old Indonesian of Indian descent, who leads a group which
counterfeited visa permits and other travel documents.
Officials and also thwarted another group, led by Gunawan, 39,
which faked financial documents.
In addition, police also confiscated evidence including some
of the faked documents, along with printers and rubber stamps.
Another detective, Adj. Sr. Comr. Ike Edwin, blamed the lack
of coordination between the Ministry of Manpower and
Transmigration and the Immigration Office for putting the migrant
workers in a difficult position.
Ike Edwin said that, when the workers encountered trouble in
the countries where they worked, they often had no rights, or
protection from the Indonesian government.
Bambang said that police were also tracking down similar
syndicates which sent the migrant workers to South Korea.
Bambang said that they would be charged mainly with the
Criminal Code No. 263 on document forgery, which carries a
maximum punishment of six years in jail.