T

he Immigration Office has stepped up its operations against undocumented immigrants staying in the country earlier this week, arresting more than 1,000 illegal immigrants.

'€œWe have arrested 1,069 undocumented immigrants during the three-day operation,'€ the Immigration Office'€™s investigation and detention department director, Mirza Iskandar, told reporters in a press briefing on Friday in Central Jakarta.

The three-day operation, conducted jointly by 120 immigration offices in the country, was to implement regulation rules.

Mirza said the immigration office would conduct such an operation once every three months in the future.

Most of the immigrants were apprehended for not having proper immigration documents, Mirza said.

'€œSome of them are working here but they only have a visa for visiting,'€ he said, adding that illegal immigrants from China were the most numerous.

The immigration office said it is currently working on a new immigration monitoring system that will be put into effect very soon to make the monitoring of foreigners more effective.

'€œWe will soon apply the Foreigners Monitoring System (PORA), which will be integrated into the existing Border Control Management applied in our Immigration Information System,'€ the Immigration Office said in a statement.

PORA is a new monitoring system that involves Indonesian citizens in the process. '€œSo, every Indonesian can participate by providing us with information on foreigners,'€ said Mirza, adding that the internal monitoring system of foreigners movements would be complemented with the launching of the new system.

'€œOur purpose is not to spy on foreigners, we just want to make sure their residency here brings benefit both to them and to Indonesians in general. We want to make sure every foreigner in Indonesia complies with our regulation,'€ said Mirza.

He said the immigration office was currently investigating those netted immigrants and would decide whether or not to deport them after having their documents probed.

'€œIf they do not have proper documents we will deport them. But if they break the law [by taking part in criminal action] then we will submit their cases to the court,'€ he said.

The Immigration Office reported that between January and April this year, it had deported 5,205 people and had handed over 33 cases to the courts for criminal action.

On Thursday, during the operation, South Jakarta Police netted 33 immigrants suspected to be from China in a house allegedly used for cybercrime. Out of the 33 immigrants, 18 of them are male and 15 are female.

'€œBased on the seized evidence, they are cyber criminals,'€ said Jakarta Police'€™s violent crime sub-directorate head, Sr. Adj. Comr. Herry Heryawan, on Thursday. (saf)