Lampung police send 5 Afghans to immigration detention
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/23/2009 2:18 PM
Police at Lampung's Bakauheni port handed over five illegal immigrants from Afghanistan to the local immigration office on Saturday.
The police arrested the five Afghan nationals, who had managed to enter the province without official documents, on Thursday.
"The five Afghan nationals were handed over to us this morning by the police to undergo due legal process," the immigration office spokesman Deddy Haryadi said as quoted by Antara state news agency.
Haryadi said the illegal immigrants from Afghanistan were identified as Mohamehdi, Abdullah, Asker Ali, Imron, and Mohreza. They are between 20 and 30 years old.
When arrested, they were in a car which was driven by Muhammad Sudarmadi (35) of Riau.
Sudarmadi said he and his brother Andi were on the way from Riau to Jakarta when someone stopped them and said he would pay them Rp 2.5 million (US$243) to take the five Afghans, who claimed to be tourists, to Jakarta.
Sudarmadi maintained that he did not know that the men were illegal immigrants from Afghanistan. (dre)
