TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Tangerang Class I Immigration Office has deported three foreign nationals who were caught begging and collecting donations. Head of the immigration office Felucia Sengky Ratna on Thursday said to Tempo that the three were two Pakistani and one Chinese national.

She explained that the two people from Pakistan were arrested as they gathered donations from Mosques while the Chinese citizen was caught begging at a mall in Tangerang. “Their whereabouts came from public reports who found their activities to be a disturbance,” she said.

The most worrying aspect according to her is that there is no reliable information on what the donations are meant for. She noted fears that it would be misused to fund radicalism.

Begging and asking donations are just a small portion of the violations committed by foreign nationals in Indonesia. She said internal records show many have committed criminal violations such as the arrest of a Chinese citizen over fraud and African citizens who would intentionally commit overstay through various illegal measures.

“Violations against the law are immediately deported,” she said.

The Tangerang Immigration Office in 2020 logged 60 violations committed by foreign nationals with 25 of them ending up being deported. However, this number increased to 70 cases in 2021 (January-October) with 41 being deported.

There are a total of 9,744 foreign nationals residing in Tangerang that are mostly from China (2,917), South Korea (2,457), India (446), Taiwan (395), and the Philippines (490).

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JONIANSYAH HARDJONO