Surabaya targets 400,000 expats

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

About 400,000 foreigners living in the East Java capital, Surabaya, have failed to fulfill documentation requirements except for birth certificates, even though they have been living here for decades and have raised families from their marriages with locals.

Provincial population office head A. Hartojo said the local administration would likely find difficulties in providing adequate services for the unregistered foreigners.

But on the other hand, it was impossible to deport them because they had been living in the town for decades, he added.

Most of the unregistered foreigners stay in Kembang Jepun and Ampel.

"Surabaya has long faced social problems, including difficulties in providing services for its residents. In order to prevent other problems with public services in the future, we ask the foreigners to contact the local office to apply for their documents," Hartojo said.

Surabaya is the second-largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta. It is home to around five million people, but only 2.6 million are registered at the municipal office. The remaining three million are not recorded.

"Population-related problems have been rife because the making of blueprints for development planning has been based on the population that is officially registered at the office," Hartojo said.

Indonesia, home to some 220 million people, has difficulties in detecting the presence of foreigners due to poor monitoring by police and other relevant authorities.

The awareness on population registration has only increased following warnings on threats of transnational crimes, such as terrorism and people-trafficking, and increasing problems on foreigners seeking asylum.

For example, in a recent operation targeting foreigners in the East Kalimantan capital, Samarinda, 52 foreigners were netted in a raid for failure to produce work permits and temporary identity cards.

The raid was carried out jointly by the local police, immigration office, manpower and transmigration office and the military.

Data from the Balikpapan immigration office shows that about 1,600 foreigners work in the city. Most come from Australia, the United States and France.

Earlier, Papua Police also arrested two Pakistani nationals. They were charged with possessing and circulating counterfeit money.