Six Indians deported

JAKARTA (JP): The immigration office has deported six Indians earlier arrested for entering Indonesia using forged visas, allegedly using the service of an illegal international syndicate.

Immigration office spokesman Mursanudin Ghani said on Tuesday that the six deported Indians were among the eight Indians nabbed from their hiding place in Depok, West Java, last week.

He identified the six as Sharminder Singh, Hartup Singh, Iqbal Singh, Gurdial Singh, Amardep Singh and Gurjit Singh. They were deported on Sunday.

The other two -- Avtar Singh and Daljit Singh -- were still in quarantine, awaiting deportation, Mursanudin said in a statement.

Ghani explained that after intensive investigation, it was discovered that they were brought into Indonesia with the help of a syndicate transporting illegal immigrants from developing countries to developed countries such as Australia, Britain, the U.S. or South Korea using Indonesia as a transit point.

"Avtar Singh is a member of the syndicate and he works together with PT Mina Panca Sejahtera, PT Deha Cemerlang and PT Samudera Surya Abadi which forge travel documents by using Indonesian passports and changing their photos," he said. (bby)