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Special team assigned to deal with RI haj pilgrims in Manila
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Muslim pilgrims pray the Fajr prayer before sunrise, outside the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia on Sept. 8. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
T
he Foreign Ministry has dispatched a special team to Manila to process the expected hundreds of returning haj pilgrims who may have illegally posed as Philippine citizens, according to a ministry statement.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has assigned the team led by the ministry's director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, according to the statement released on Thursday.
"The government, under the coordination of the Foreign Ministry, will ensure that the Indonesian haj pilgrims returning via Manila can be processed quickly and can be deported within the shortest amount of time," the statement said.
The Philippine government has indicated that there are hundreds of foreign citizens who have slipped through the Philippines using illegally obtained Philippine passports. The majority of the people are believed to be from Indonesia and Malaysia.
The groups of haj pilgrims are expected to travel through Manila throughout the period of Sept. 18 - 30.
The Foreign Ministry has said that a team had previously carried out a "marathon meeting" on Wednesday with a Philippine task force responsible for the illegal haj case, which was revealed by the discovery of 177 Indonesian pilgrims posing as Philippine citizens in Manila last month.
Both countries are synchronized in the view that the pilgrims are victims, a decision discussed in a meeting of respective presidents, Indonesia's Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, during the latter's visit to Jakarta last week. (bbn)
