REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BATAM -- A total of 392 foreign nationals were refused entry into Indonesia by the immigration authorities in Batam City, Riau Islands Province, during 2018, an immigration officer stated. However, no further information from the immigration authorities' regarding reasons behind imposing an entry ban on those foreigners into the country nor their countries of origin.

"We denied entry to 392 foreign nationals into Indonesia," Head of Batam City's Immigration Office Lucky Agung stated here on Friday.

The Batam immigration officers did not merely refuse entry to certain foreign nationals into the country, but they also stopped 193 Indonesian citizens from leaving Batam City for traveling to countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, he remarked.

"We prevented the Indonesian citizens from traveling to Singapore and Malaysia because we suspected that they would become non-procedural migrant workers," he stated, adding that the refusal had no connection with suspicious acts of terrorism.

The Batam immigration authorities have the rights and responsibilities to halt non-procedural Indonesian migrant workers by preventing them from getting on board vessels and aircraft on their departure days.

The immigration authorities are also able to detect the Indonesian citizens intending to travel abroad for becoming non-procedural migrant workers when they applied for possessing new passports, Agung stated.

"Rejection can be done when the applicants are interviewed. This is our moral obligation to prevent our people from becoming the victims of human trafficking syndicates," he noted.

When questioned on issues related to deletion of notifications or stamps in passports, he remarked that the deletion was not possible for those with bad track records during their stays in destination countries.

The data and track records of the Indonesian citizens, who have ever traveled to foreign countries, including Malaysia and Singapore, have been well-preserved in their authorized systems, though they are changed or deleted, he added.

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