Six foreigners deported

BANDUNG, West Java: The West Java provincial immigration office has from January until April deported at least six foreigners for overstaying and breaching their stay permits, an official said Monday.

Head of the immigration office Syaiful Rahman identified the deported foreigners as Singaporean Liem Eng Kok, Malaysians Maria Kulling Wong and Roslan bin Sulaeman, German Hendrik Kunzke, Australian Helmut Richard and Chinese Chen Ziang Ping.

Syaiful said one of the deportees, Liem Eng Kok, violated his social-cultural visa as the latter had opened a massage business in Tangerang area, while Richard was deported because he had married two Indonesian women without reporting to the local immigration office.

Syaiful added that immigration officials found it difficult to arrest one of the Malaysians, Roslan, who had married a local woman, because his Muslim neighbors had protected him.

"It took us days to persuade residents in the neighborhood to let Roslan go. They protected him because they felt he being a Malay and a Muslim they shared similar origins," he said. (25/emf)