T

he Immigration Office has denied entry to 85 child sex offenders since November last year thanks to tip-offs from the Australian Federal Police.

'€œWe have denied entry to 85 people since November last year, when we began cooperating with our Australian colleagues. It is clear that these people posed a danger to our children, and this is reason enough not to allow them to enter the country,'€ said the Immigration Office'€™s investigation and enforcement director, Mirza Iskandar,

While most have complied with the decision, some have resisted deportation, intimidating officers at the country'€™s airports.

'€œOur field officers have received threats, but that'€™s part of the job,'€ Mirza said.

However, immigration officials decided to grant entry to some alleged child molesters because they had jobs or families here. However, if allowed entry, they were subject to constant supervision.

'€œOne small mistake indicating a sexual offense against children and they'€™ll be immediately deported,'€ Mirza said.

He acknowledged that the information shared by the Australian authority had played a major role in efforts to monitor alleged sexual predators.

The Immigration Office, he added, intended to begin similar cooperation with the US and New Zealand in the near future.

Forensic psychologist Reza Indragiri Amriel praised the intelligence-sharing cooperation as the most effective way to prevent sexual predators from entering the country.

'€œSince you cannot notice somebody'€™s malicious intentions just from his or her outer appearance, the most feasible way is to strengthen the use of databases and share them with our allies,'€ he said.

The information shared with the Indonesian authorities came from the Australian National Child Offender Register (ANCOR), a national database used by authorities to register, case-manage and share information about persons convicted of child sex offenses or other serious offenses against children.

ANCOR requires convicted child sex offenders to inform registrars in the relevant state or territory of certain personal information for a period of time after they are released into the community. This includes any plans for overseas travel.

It is a criminal offense for registered child sex offenders to fail to provide the required information.

Federal agent Andrew Perkins, the Australian Federal Police'€™s liaison officer in Jakarta, applauded the response of the Immigration Office.

'€œHopefully, the action taken by the Immigration Office will send a strong message to those child sex offenders who intend travelling to Indonesia for the purpose of offending,'€ he remarked to The Jakarta Post recently.

Perkins said that Indonesia had been the number one foreign destination for registered Australian child sex offenders since 2010.

In 2014, he added, an average of 21 child abusers per month traveled to Indonesia. Ninety percent entered the country via Denpasar, Bali, from where they could continue their journey to remote areas of the island.

'€œIt is also common for child sex offenders to travel to Indonesia via a third-party country, such as Singapore and Malaysia, as a ploy to hide their intention to travel to Indonesia,'€ Perkins said.

National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) coordinator Ariest Merdeka Sirait concurred, adding that usually such predators dissembled their insidious plan with acts of generosity.

Many offenders, Ariest said, showed kindness toward communities, founding or involving themselves in philanthropic works.

In Bali, he added, poor enclaves in Buleleng and Karangasem had long been targeted by pedophiles, who enticed poor children with money.

'€œChild sex abuses happen because public monitoring is still weak. Our community seems reluctant to contribute to efforts to provide a child-friendly environment,'€ he said.

The Children Protection Law stipulates that sex offenders may be given maximum prison terms of 15 years for their crimes.

In 2013 and 2014, Komnas PA recorded nine and seven reports, respectively, of child sex abuse committed by foreigners. The reported crimes occurred mostly in areas popular with tourists such as Bali and West Nusa Tenggara and major cities home to international schools, such as Jakarta and Medan.