TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Director of Citizen Protection at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judha Nugraha, said there were over 53,000 Indonesian citizens who migrated abroad through unlawful means.

"There has been a consistent increase in the last 5 years," he told Tempo on Monday, June 24, 2024.

In 2019, the ministry recorded 24,000 cases, rising to 29,000 in 2021, and 35,000 the following year. Out of these cases, the ministry noted immigration breaches as the largest number, including by living illegally in the destination country. Workers who enter a country using a tourist visa fall into this category, even if the visa has yet to expire.

Judha warned against trivializing immigration breaches, as they are not mere administrative violations but an entry to bigger issues because they will be categorized as undocumented later.

Undocumented are divided into two types, namely those whose visa designation does not match their actual purpose in going overseas and then overstaying, and those who go overseas using unlawful means.

Judha gave the example of the case of an undocumented Indonesian migrant worker who died and was found in a suitcase in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2020. Initially, it was thought that the worker died of murder, but investigation results said they died because of illness. The Indonesian citizen was undocumented, causing the person to be unable to go to the hospital, and was later passed away.

The worker’s friends, who shared housing with them, didn’t dare to report to the Consulate General or the police and instead placed the worker inside a suitcase in the hope it would be found and given a proper burial.

Another case he gave was an Indonesian citizen who worked in Malaysia without being undocumented. They borrowed their friend’s passport to go to a hospital but later was pronounced dead using the name displayed on the borrowed passport. The actual owner of the document had to report to the Consulate General to clarify that they were still alive.

JIHAN RISTIYANTI

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