Six German students arrested over visa violations
JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested six German students who were conducting a demographical survey in a slum area of Karang Anyar in Central Jakarta on Saturday evening for immigration violations, a police spokesman said on Sunday.
The students were released at about 10 a.m. the following morning.
"They were arrested for immigration violations. They entered Indonesia on tourist visas although the purpose of their visit was to conduct a survey," city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam told The Jakarta Post.
He said the six students, who were arrested along with three local people, were taken to the Central Jakarta Police Station for questioning.
The foreigners are among a group of 27 students of the University of Bonn who arrived in the city on Friday for a demographical and geographical survey.
The six were identified only as Niklas, Ina, Katherine, Marie, Patrick and Martin, while the local people were Horas Siringo- ringo of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), Slamet Tompel, a resident of Karang Anyar and Elizabeth, a translator.
After they were released, the students were transferred to the immigration office. They were allowed to leave the office within an hour.
An immigration officer told the Post they held the students' passports and told them to come to the immigration office for further questioning on Monday.
The three local people were later released on Sunday afternoon.
UPC's advocacy division head M. Berkah Gumulya criticized the police for the arrest.
"It shows that the police tried to halt people's freedom of expression and union," Gumulya told the Post.
He said the students were interviewing slum residents when the police came. Some of them were taken to a police truck and some others were taken by taxi to the police station.
He said the students were questioned from about 6 p.m. on Saturday until 2 a.m. on Sunday morning "without being given sufficient food and drink".
UPC activists accompanied the students visiting five slum areas in the city's five mayoralties and also a luxury housing complex in Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang, where the German International School and a German center are found.
The 27 students are staying at Wisma Karya on Jl. Jaksa, Central Jakarta.
When the Post tried to contact them on Sunday night, an employee of the hostel said that the guests were not available.
Gumulya revealed the six students were initially charged by the police in connection with a clash between becak (pedicab) drivers and the city's public order officers, in which a civilian guard was killed.
The incident occurred in Central Jakarta on Tuesday, two days before the students' arrival in the city.
Meanwhile, a researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) Hermawan Sulistyo admitted that many foreign researchers used tourist visas, since it was difficult to obtain the appropriate visa.
"The process could take even up to a year," he told the Post
He said researchers were required to get permits from many state institutions, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Bakin).
In June this year, police arrested 32 foreigners who joined an international seminar on labor in Sawangan, South Jakarta.
They were later transferred to the immigration office. But immigration authorities said 31 of them had a short-visit visa, which allowed them to attend the seminar. Only a Pakistani was deported as he held a tourist visa. (jun)