The 31 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan were arrested by Jambi police at a hotel on Gatot Subroto street on Thursday evening.
"We are going to process the illegal immigrants as soon as possible and then hand them to the authorized institution," Gatot said.
According to Gatot, the 31 men from Afghanistan were seeking asylum because of civil war in their country.
He said the treatment of the illegal immigrants was different from that to a foreigner who violated immigration document and committed a criminal act.
"They will undergo administrative process and then be handed to the International Organization for Migration (IOM)," he said.
Meanwhile, Jambi Police Chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Yassir the the illegal immigrants from Afghanistan were arrested because
they did not have passports and other official documents.
According to him, the all male illegal immigrants of 20 to 40 years old left their country to Jakarta by Thailand and Malaysia, but the police arrested them when they arrived in Jambi.
Yassir said their main destination was Australia, but they wanted to stop over in Indonesia before crossing to Australia.
Meanwhile, Parman Ali, one of the illegal immigrants, admitted that they actually wanted to seek asylum in Australia.
"Our goal is to go to Australia to seek asylum because our country is still troubled, and therefore we hope the United Nations will help and protect us," Parman said. (*)
O001/HAJM
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
