REPUBLIKA.COL.ID, BOGOR -- The West Java Immigration Office will strengthen the role of foreign worker supervision teams (Timpora) in preventing migration violations by foreigners. "We admit that we have a limited number of immigration personnel, and it is a shortcoming. But, we have Timpora whose role needs to be strengthened," Susi Susilawati, head of the West Java Justice and Human Rights Office, said here Friday.
The province has 214 teams that supervise the presence of foreign workers. Last year, the immigration recorded that Bogor had the largest number of immigration violations, including those involving Chinese nationals who had violated work permits and had committed cyber crimes, as well as Moroccan women who had been engaging in prostitution in the Puncak resort area.
Following the Indonesian government's policy to provide visa free facilities to nearly 100 countries to boost tourism, the country has faced a number of immigration problems as those using the facility are not only tourists, but foreigners intending to work in Indonesia.
Therefore, Susi has called on various stakeholders, including the public, military and police personnel to help supervise foreigners who might commit immigration violation.
Earlier, on December 27, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had said that rumors of Indonesia being flooded by illegal foreign workers, mainly from China, were slanderous and untrue.
Also read: President Jokowi denies Indonesia is flooded by Chinese workers
The president made these remarks while inaugurating the Lahendong Geothermal Power Plant (PLTP), Unit 5 and 6, as well as Ulubelu PLTP, Unit 3, Lampung, in Tampaso, Minahasa, North Sulawesi, on Tuesday. "I want to remind you once again, one should not believe the slanderous rumors which project foreign labor and foreign investment as a threat to local jobs and that the domestic economy will be flooded by foreign workforce. I have to say it is untrue," the president asserted.
According to the rumors, nearly 10 to 20 million workers from China had illegally entered Indonesia, he added. "The information that I received is that there are, indeed, Chinese workers, but their number is only 21,000. They come in and go back because there are a lot of things that we are not yet ready to do. When we are ready, we will use our own labor force," he said.
The immigration office in Cirebon, West Java, on the other hand, has arrested four Chinese citizens for misusing their stay permits. "We have arrested four who are married couples for allegedly misusing their stay permits," Raden Fajar Widjanarko, head of the immigration office of Cirebon, informed newsmen on Friday.
The four Chinese citizens had been found working in a factory in Cirebon, a violation of their stay permits, he explained. Widjanarko stated that the Chinese nationals were caught while making limestone fuel furnace heating equipment in the Hebel factory in Palimanan Barat Village, Gempol Sub-district. "They entered the country in August 2016 using a visit visa through a sponsor, who is now still being investigated," he noted.
Widjanarko remarked that the Chinese citizens were caught on Thursday with no proper document and were only able to submit it at around 9 a.m. local time on Friday. "They were arrested following a tip-off from the local people who had reported about the foreigners living in one of the residents' houses," he added.
He said no charge had been leveled against them, as investigation was still ongoing.
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