TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - PT Angkasa Pura Sepinggan Sepinggan East Kalimantan have requested airlines to reject illegal immigrant passengers. These asylum seekers freely travel using domestic air transportation to Balikpapan’s Immigration Detention Office.

“We will find the airline and remind them,” General Manager Sepinggan Airport Wendo AR said on Monday, December 22, 2014.

Wendo admit having difficulty in filtering the arrivals of illegal immigrants who uses domestic airlines. He says passenger verification is only done in the departure terminal.

Deputy Head of Balikpapan’s Local Parliament, Thohari Aziz, questioned the illegal immigrants’ slip-off from the departure terminal check. Usually, airport security will confirm the identification of domestic and international passengers.

Aziz request airport authority to stay extra cautious to the passenger’s identity, where illegal immigrants have troubled Balikpapan City.

First Immigration Office Balikpapan East Kalimantan have relocated 156 refugees to the Lamaru’s Immigration Detention Office. These Afghanistan and Iranian refugees have crowded Balikpapan’s Head of Immigration official residence for the past two months. The amount is close to 300 people and are placed in Balikpapan’s Immigration Detention Office.

Zaki, an 18-year-old Afghanistan, said that he and the other immigrants are post-war refugees of Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Their safety are threatened if they remain in their land.

Zaki left his entire family in Afghanistan in order to survive the war. He does not care where to flee as long as he does not get deported to Afghanistan.

SG WIBISONO