"The National Police Criminal Investigation Directorate (Bareskrim) and the KPK definitely think that there may be cases of fraud and even corruption here at the airport. If there are general crimes then the police will handle it, but we will take more concrete steps to handle possible corruption cases," KPK chairman Abraham Samad said at the airport in Tangerang on Saturday, according to Antara news agency.

The KPK  detained 18 men during the inspection, including one National Police officer and two Indonesian Army personnel, who allegedly extorted migrant workers and foreigners who had just arrived at the airport from overseas.

Abraham said that they did not find any suspects from the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI). However, that did not quell their suspicions that there might be a group of people from the agency who regularly extort migrant workers, he said.

The KPK has found many customer service violations against migrant workers since the commission started evaluating the services in 2006. 

"So we encourage the police, [state-owned airport management company] PT Angkasa Pura II to focus on these violations together [with the KPK]. During the sudden inspection, we found that there were many opportunities for corruption and we are very concerned about it," he said.

Separately, detective chief Insp. Gen. Suhardi Alius explained that several of the 18 people that were arrested used to work at the airport. 

Angkasa Pura II director Tri S. Sunoko acknowledged that the extortion of migrant workers had been going on for a decade.(fss)

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