TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The immigration office of Soekarno-Hatta airport prevented 30 Indonesians from leaving the country yesterday. These people were suspected to become illegal workers abroad.
The immigration office's spokesman Agung Sampurno said 16 people who were apprehended planned to go to Doha, Qatar. "We stopped them from going because they couldn't explain their travel purposes," he said.
Last night, the Immigration Office also stopped 11 people from going to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and prevented three people from going to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Agung said the 30 people are prone to becoming victims of human trafficking, "we are doing this to prevent problematic cases with Indonesian migrant workers (TKI)," he said.
Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah said there are four things the government must do to prevent human trafficking. One of them is to establish an agency that can identify entities that exploit migrant workers, as well as track the origins and methods of human traffickers.
EGI ADYATAMA | MITRA TARIGAN