“This was happening for quite a long time due to poor supervision,” Tembagapura Immigration Office head Jesaja Samuel Enock said as quoted by Antara in Timika on Monday.

According to the immigration office, 13 workers were taken to Timika from Nabire on Sunday. Eight more Chinese people will be transferred to Timika on Wednesday.

Samuel said the office found out about the alleged illegal employment of Chinese citizens at local gold mines based on reports from local residents and tribal councils.

Samuel said he later launched an investigation into the reports and carried out unannounced inspections at gold mining sites in Nabire, where his personnel allegedly found Chinese people working without proper permits. The gold mining sites in Nabire are located in four locations, namely Kilometer 70, KM 52, KM 38 and KM 30 on the trans-Nabire-Enarotali Paniai highway.

“We received reports from the residents that more than 10 local gold mining sites in Nabire hired Chinese people. We’ve managed to reach four sites only so far,” Samuel said.

He said the local residents were disappointed and felt cheated by the companies where the Chinese nationals allegedly worked.

“There are no local people working at the companies. They have even been banned from the sites. That’s why they don’t know the exact details on the production capacity of those mines.” (stu/ebf)

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