Annual raids conducted by the population and civil registry agency kicked off Thursday for checks of ID and residence documents of more than 1,000 people in five municipalities.
Agency head Franky Mangatas Panjaitan said his officers had sent 661 people without the proper documents to court, after checking a total of 1,155 people.
He added the court had fined each violator between Rp 20,000 and Rp 50,000 (US$2.10 to $5.25).
"An article in the bylaw stipulates a maximum fine of Rp 5 million," Franky said.
"But we have to obey the judges' verdicts. Anyway, it'd be hard for drivers or domestic workers to pay such a hefty fine, right?"
The 2004 bylaw on population and civil registration says anyone not in possession of a valid Jakarta ID card must have a letter from their home authority to say they are in the process of moving to Jakarta.
Those who fail to present either document can face three months in prison or be fined a maximum Rp 5 million.
Franky said the raids were not aimed at severely punishing people, but rather at making people aware of the bylaw.
"The high number of violators we found today proves that many people are still flouting the rules," he said, adding most of the violators were newcomers to the city.
Governor Fauzi Bowo said strict law enforcement was required to make people obey regulations.
"Today's verdicts should have a sufficient impact," he said.
"But I'm optimistic that once we apply the Single Identity Number *SIN*, we'll accomplish a lot. There'll be a new regulation for the application of the SIN."
Five foreign nationals were netted in the raid, Franky said, and sent to the immigration office for not having complete documents, including passports.
Two of the five are from Cameroon, while the others are from Papua New Guinea, Liberia and India.
Franky said the raids also netted 27 local jobless people without IDs. They were sent to the Kedoya Shelter in West Jakarta.
"They don't have relatives in the city who can vouch for them," Franky said.
"The social affairs agency will decide whether they get sent back to their hometowns."
He added his agency had allocated Rp 15 million for Thursday's crackdown, which involved 100 personnel from the civil and neighborhood security forces.
He said the agency would hold six more raids in the capital's five municipalities this year.
The court collected Rp 11.4 million in fines Thursday, which will be handed over to the state.
Franky said the only challenge in conducting the raid was the time limit imposed by the court.
"The court only allows us to hold the raids for one day a week, so we have to wait a whole week before we can conduct another one," he said.
The raids are annual efforts by the city to trim the number of unskilled people migrating to the capital after the Idul Fitri holidays.
During this same period last year, the civil registry agency checked the ID and residence documents of 839 people, 482 people of whom were fined.
In 2007, the total number of newcomers without proper documentation was 109,000, down from 124,000 in 2006. This was a drop from 180,000 recorded in 2005 and 204,000 in 2003.
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