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Americans, Canadians deported for illegal photo shoot
Not for work: Customs and excise officers display foreign passports at the Bali Immigration Office in Denpasar on Tuesday
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span class="inline inline-center">Not for work: Customs and excise officers display foreign passports at the Bali Immigration Office in Denpasar on Tuesday. As many as 11 US citizens and four Canadian nationals who were arrested on Friday for working on the island are to be deported for misusing tourist visas. JP/Zul Trio Anggono
The Ngurah Rai Immigration Office has arrested 15 foreigners for violating immigration regulations by conducting a photo shoot in a villa in Canggu, Badung, Bali.
The 15 foreigners, consisting of 11 Americans and four Canadians, were arrested while doing the photo shoot.
'They conducted a photo shoot on Bali without a working permit. They just used tourist visas when entering the island,' Ngurah Rai immigration official Mohamad Soleh told a press conference on Tuesday.
Soleh said that the foreigners were participants in a photo shoot event called Paradise Challenge, which was being held on Bali.
The arrested foreigners were organizers of the photo shoot, seven models, two photographers, a lighting engineer, a hairdresser and make-up artists.
The models were identified as Americans Candace Marie Dexheimer, Veronica Gonzalez, Jennifer Lauren Summers, Jessica Rose Jones, Cassandra Cody Sienega and Pashence Marie Cannon and Canadian Holly Wolf. The two photographers were Americans Sultan Yousef Ghahtani and Gary Edward Miller.
The immigration official also arrested the organizers: a manager of the event, Luis Munoz, marketing officer Ronald Hansen and sales staff Mariel Dulgicer ' all Americans ' as well as Canadian hairdresser Dina Morel, make-up artist Aurelie Elisabeth Renout and a lighting expert Chloe Terae Thomson.
Soleh said that the immigration team had conducted an undercover operation for three days from April 8 to 10. The team, he said, found that the foreigners conducted photo shoots in several other area, besides in the villa in Canggu.
'They had also conduct photo shoots in the Bali Zoo, in Tabanan and in a hotel area in Seminyak,' Soleh explained.
The immigration office had filmed video of their activities as evidence, he said
After the three-day undercover mission, on the night of April 10 the immigration team conducted an inspection of the villa in which the foreigners were staying in Canggu, North Kuta.
'From the inspection, we found 15 foreigners who were involved in the photo shoots only had visas on arrival. We also found their photography equipment,' he said.
During interrogation, the foreigners reportedly admitted that they were participating in the Paradise Challenge event until April 21. The immigration team found that the event had been promoted through social media.
Soleh said that all 15 foreigners had been proven guilty of violating article 122 of Law No. 6/2011 on Immigration. 'They had been deliberately doing an activity that was not appropriate with their visa permit,' he said.
All 15 foreigners will be deported in several stages. As of Tuesday night, the Immigration had deported six of them to their countries of origin. 'The others will be deported in the next several days,' Soleh added.
