Bekasi Immigration Office Deports Six Chinese Migrant Workers

TEMPO.CO, Bekasi - The Bekasi Immigration Office deport six out of nine Chinese migrant workers employed by PT Batawang Indonesia, who had been detained since Wednesday, January 11, 2017.

"Three others will follow because they haven't gotten plane tickets yet," Harry Lesmana, head of immigration supervision and enforcement said at the Bekasi Immigration Office at Soekarno-Hatta airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday, January 18, 2017.

Harry explained that the immigration office had found three sponsors responsible for the existence of Chinese migrant workers employed by the brick manufacturer. Harry added that the immigration office is still figuring out the sponsors for six others.

According to Harry, the sponsors are responsible for the migrant workers' repatriation. However, since some of the sponsors are still unknown, the repatriation costs were paid by one of the deported workers.

Bekasi Immigration Office head Sutrisno said that the migrant workers were arrested by foreign national supervision officers at PT Batawang Indonesia on Wednesday last week.

"They violated immigration permits," Sutrisno said.

Among violations committed by the migrant workers were mismatches between their job titles and their actual positions at the company. In the documents, one of the migrant workers claimed to be working as a director. However, the migrant worker was actually employed as a regular worker making bricks for the company.

"They also lived within the company's premises," Sutrisno added.

ADI WARSONO