INDONESIA
Jakarta Post-May 31
Since 2016, the Directorate General of Immigration has come up with various policies to make passport services more convenient, while withholding passport issuance for Indonesian citizens who might attempt to find work overseas as non-procedural migrant workers, also called illegal migrant workers.
Field research has identified the different methods Indonesians use to travel abroad as illegal workers, including falsifying their citizenship data and identities, as well as supplying inaccurate personal information to immigration officers.
To prevent such individuals from eventually getting abroad and becoming illegal workers, the directorate general has withheld issuing passports for individuals that are engaging in the abovementioned practices. The directorate general is also preventing individuals from traveling abroad at airport immigration counters if they are found attempting to use passports obtained through falsified identities.
The directorate general is carrying out these measures based on interviews during the passport application process and through strict monitoring of individuals’ identification documents at immigration counters.
Using these two methods, the directorate general is able to identify individuals that have supplied inaccurate personal data or are attempting to falsify their personal identities. Once officers detect these practices, they will withhold processing a passport for an applicant or prevent an individual from boarding an international flight.
In taking these preventive measures, the directorate general is engaging in an effort to save Indonesians from falling prey to human trafficking networks.
As of April 2018, the directorate general has withheld issuing passports for 2,360 citizens at 78 immigration offices across the country. The immigration offices with the largest volume of postponed passport issuances are in Medan, North Sumatra, with 185 applicants, Jember in East Java with 167 applicants, and Pontianak in West Kalimantan with 157 applicants.
In 2017, the directorate general withheld issuing passports for 5,057 individuals at 125 immigration offices in Indonesia. The immigration offices with the largest volume of postponed passport issuances in 2017 were in Medan with 379 applicants, Batam in Riau with 360 applicants, and Wonosobo in Central Java with 308 applicants.
By the end of April 2018, the directorate general had prevented 121 individuals from boarding international flights at 51 airports, stopping 31 people at Entikong International Airport in West Kalimantan, 28 people at Tanjung Balai Karimun International Airport in Riau, and 26 people at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten.
In 2017, the directorate general blocked 947 individuals from boarding international flights at 25 airport, stopping 183 people at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, 56 people at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, and 49 people at Entikong Airport.
Besides taking preventive measures to keep Indonesians safe from international human trafficking networks, the directorate general has also attempted to make passport services more convenient through its “one-roof integrated services” program in a number of provinces.
A few years ago, the directorate general also issued a formal letter on the internal policing of immigration services as part of its efforts to provide clean, efficient, effective, non-discriminative and extortion-free immigration services in Indonesia.
This letter was contested in 2016 by several service providers and other parties that felt their illegal practices were being threatened. The directorate general ultimately won the contestation, and the new policies remain intact.
The Foreign Ministry has recognized the directorate general’s efforts to provide better immigration services to Indonesians, as reflected in the ministry’s presenting the Hassan Wirajuda Award in 2017 to the directorate general for its success in reducing the number of Indonesians working as illegal migrant workers abroad.
The directorate general hopes that the Indonesian public will keep abreast of balanced and valid information on the government’s efforts to protect Indonesian migrant workers through legal means, especially through its strict monitoring of passport applications.
