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Govt tightens watch on foreigners amid drug trafficking concerns
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Officers from the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) raid an apartment inhabited by foreigners on Feb. 25, during an investigation into an alleged drug trafficking hub in Jakarta.
(TEMPO/Subekti)
T
span style="line-height: 1.6em;">The government has tightened surveillance on foreigners living in the country following concerns about drug trafficking cases, according to the Law and Human Rights Ministry.
The Central Java administration is setting up a watchdog group to monitor the movement of foreigners in the region in a bid to reduce the number of those who commit crimes, the ministry’s director general of immigration, Ronny F. Sompie, said on Thursday in Semarang.
“If they harm us, we will deport them. We have selective measures,” Ronny asserted.
The Foreigners Monitoring Team (Pora) consists of 33 secretariats under six immigration offices in Central Java, tasked with monitoring the entry and exit of foreign nationals, he said.
Ronny added that the team would form smaller groups to track the movements of foreigners at subdistrict levels, including at bus terminals, train stations, ports and airports.
According to Pora data, 85 of the 2,000 foreigners registered in Semarang were involved in crimes from January to April.
The National Narcotics Agency’s (BNN) Central Java head Brig. Gen. Amrin Remico said there was a new trend in drug trafficking in Semarang where drug dealers were marrying local people to cover up their crimes.
“Last January, we succeeded in discovering a drug network from China and seized 97 kilograms of narcotics,” Amrin added.
The South Jakarta Immigration Office previously announced that it had set up a team to monitor the large number of foreigners living in Jakarta. (dan)
