RI immigration responds

With reference to the letter published in your paper on Aug. 30 titled RI Immigration office deplored, we would like to clarify the matter as follows.

The Singapore Bike Hash group arrived at the Teluk Senimba ferry terminal at 7:35 p.m. They were actually divided into smaller groups and each group arrived at the ferry terminal at different times. The last group arrived at 7:45 p.m. They should have allowed time to check in and load their bikes on the ferry. To allow time for them to all board the ferry would have caused a delay and the ferry would have been unable to leave until 8:20 p.m. at the earliest.

The immigration officers remained in the terminal one hour after the ferry's departure. In fact, it was the ferry company which refused the group access on the grounds that it would have delayed the ferry and the company would have had to pay a fine for arriving in Singapore beyond the scheduled time.

So the fault was on the part of the group, and not our mistake. Please refer to the response by the general manager of the Teluk Senimba ferry terminal in this newspaper on Sept. 4.

As the complaint of the group was not compatible with the facts, we call on the writer, Monique Cordiero, to apologize to us on behalf of the Singapore Bike Hash.

MURSANUDIN A. GHANI

Acting Head of Public Relations

Directorate General

of Immigration, Jakarta