Special team set up to supervise expats
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration set up a special joint team yesterday to control and supervise the presence and activities of foreigners in Jakarta, an official said.
The team leader, Iman Santoso, from the city immigration office, said the Foreigners Control Coordination (Sipora) team, which integrates 14 institutions involved in the control and supervision of expatriates, would create a central information network.
"We will have better and more accurate data about expatriates' activities here. It will certainly help us monitor their activities, if, for instance, some expatriates are involved in crimes or illegal activities," Iman said after a ceremony to mark the team's founding.
"All this time we haven't had a proper system or coordination among institutions to monitor expatriates' activities."
The team was established based on a Ministry of Justice decree No. M-43.PR.09.03/1996.
Under the decree, the Jakarta-based team will be a pilot program for Sipora, which will eventually have similar teams in the nation's 26 other provinces.
"Jakarta is the first to have this team. Hopefully this kind of team will be set up in other provinces, especially those areas popular among expatriates."
Iman said the Regional Justice Office and the City Population Agency were among the participating institutions.
The team was inaugurated by Governor Sutiyoso, who was represented by Deputy Governor for Economic and Financial Affairs Harun Al Rasyid.
Data from the immigration office shows an average of 1,000 violations committed by expatriates per year since 1993.
Zaiman Nurmatias, the immigration office's director for supervision and control, said: "Based on our observations, most of the incidents are people overstaying their visa or violating their work permits.
"With this new team, we hope to help curb and anticipate those kinds of activities."
Zaiman said the immigration office would also crack down on the issuance of visas for certain nationalities, including Nigeria, Bangladesh and India.
Action needs to be taken as many citizens from particular countries have repeatedly committed crimes and immigration violations here, he said.
Immigration representatives overseas must submit all visa applications to the Directorate General of Immigration in Jakarta to be checked thoroughly before approval is granting, Zaiman said.
"The bottom line is that now we are becoming stricter with comings and goings in this country.
"We have no choice but to tighten supervision and control on expatriates. It will not mean that we're going to tail them and monitor their activities. It's just that we don't want them to break the laws here." (edt)