Immigration Foils Passport Forgery Attempt by Migrant Workers
8 October 2016 11:08 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Directorate General for Immigration of the Ministry for Law and Human Rights Affairs have foiled an attempt to forge Indonesian passports by 14 would-be migrant workers.
"The migrant workers hail from West Sumatra and South Sulawesi - two of which are women," said the Director General of Immigration, Ronny F. Sompie, through a press released received by Tempo on Saturday, October 8, 2016.
The workers - 10 hailing from South Sulawesi and the remaining four from West Sumatra - attempted to forge the passports with the intention of working in Japan. However, they didn't have the necessary recommendations from the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI).
The migrants initially wanted to take advantage of Japan's visa-waiver program for holders of electronic passports - but out of the 14 workers who was going to go, only six applied for the necessary passports.
The remaining eight individuals were apprehended by the immigration's enforcement and monitoring officers in Mampang, South Jakarta - where they stayed in a shelter.
Authorities are looking into the case and are currently working to determine whether the arrests are linked to an migrant workers trafficking ring.
DIKO OKTARA
