The move follows the emergence of a phenomenon involving several foreign nationals entering Indonesia by abusing their residence permits to work as scammers, as recently revealed in the arrest of 210 foreign nationals in Batam City, Riau Islands.
“In light of this phenomenon, we will look further ahead at preventive measures against certain countries that tend to become ‘sources’ of scam perpetrators,” Director General of Immigration Hendarsam Marantoko stated during a press conference, monitored online from here on Friday.
The arrest of foreign nationals suspected of engaging in scamming activities by Immigration authorities is not the first case.
A previous case in Sentul, Bogor District, involved 13 Japanese nationals, while another in Sukabumi involved 16 foreign nationals from Hong Kong (12 people), Taiwan (one person), and Malaysia (three people) suspected of planning to carry out love scams.
In Batam, the 210 foreign nationals consisted of 125 Vietnamese nationals, 84 Chinese nationals, and one Myanmar national.
According to Hendarsam, the most important step in anticipating this phenomenon is strengthening early detection and intelligence functions, including enhancing the capabilities of Immigration personnel stationed at land, sea, and air border points to conduct proper screening.
He stated that if all such measures have been implemented but similar incidents continue to occur, then evaluating the visa-free policy would be necessary as a preventive effort to ensure Indonesia is not used by scammers as a safe haven.
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Translator: Laily, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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