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Mixed families separated by travel restrictions
Many Indonesians wedded to Singaporeans have had to make tough decisions during the pandemic, and not all are able to bear the high cost of travel.
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ust last week, 31-year-old Artinda was still smiling from ear to ear at the thought of finally reuniting with her Singaporean husband, Mohammad Shahrin, 51, who she and her toddler had not seen for nearly two years because of the pandemic border closures.
Their plan was to meet in the middle, with Shahrin due to fly out to Batam in Riau Islands to take advantage of the recently announced limited travel bubble arrangement between the outlying province and neighboring Singapore.
They contrived to meet in the Nongsa Beach area, on the northern tip of Batam, close to the site of the Nongsa Digital Park Special Economic Zone that Indonesia and Singapore are currently working on.
“At least that was our plan,” said Tinda, as she is known among friends and family.
As a father, Shahrin felt strong emotions just at the thought of meeting his daughter. It would have been the first time that he was able to see her in person, having missed her birth some 19 months before because of the prevailing COVID-19 curbs.
Tinda had high hopes after hearing whispers of a potential announcement on the travel bubble arrangement ahead of the meeting between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Bintan on Jan. 25.
Her husband, who has been stuck in Singapore with few options to make the journey to Batam, had coughed up some Rp 1 billion (US$69,000) to cover insurance expenses, one of the many requirements for travel.
But even though the Indonesian side had reopened its borders, the arrangement turned out to be one-sided, with Singapore noncommittal over a border reopening timeline.
“Of course I’m disappointed, any new piece of information I get from the media ends up being hearsay with no clear end in sight,” Tinda told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The basic travel preparations were already done; Tinda said her husband had already received his two COVID-19 vaccine jabs and had even renewed his passport.
“We can book a hotel room any time,” she added.
Tinda and Shahrin married in 2019, and the last time the couple met in person was in March 2020. Later that month, Singapore would go on to close its borders to international travelers for the first time, a policy it still upholds – at least for tourists.
By the time COVID-19 swept through the region, Tinda was already approaching her third trimester. On July 10, the couple’s daughter was born. She is now one-and-a-half years old.
But Shahrin could not afford to leave Singapore, even if he wanted to. Besides having to care for his youngest sibling, who is ill, work was also piling up.
“My husband has been super busy. He hasn’t even taken any of his leave days. The plan was to take some time off for the trip to Batam, under the travel bubble,” Tinda said.
“In addition to work and family engagements, he was also unwilling to quarantine upon his return.”
The couple’s experience is not an isolated one.
Many Indonesians who are wedded to Singaporeans have had to make tough decisions over the course of the pandemic, and not all have been able to bear the high cost of travel, even under the limited bubble arrangement.
Thirty-four-year-old Rini, an Indramayu, West Java native who asked to keep her family name discreet, said she has had to shell out a considerable amount of money to be able to pick up the remains of her husband, who died aged 65 during a lockdown in Singapore.
“I had to fly in with the children because there was a lot to be taken care of, such as handling his assets and money in the bank in Singapore,” she told the Post.
Rini was married to a Singaporean citizen named Tjong, and the two have a daughter and a son together, who are now both in college. At the end of 2020, just as the pandemic was peaking, Tjong died from critical illness. Rini and her children had to meet strict requirements to retrieve his remains.
“We last met up before COVID-19 hit, but since the lockdown, he was unable to visit us in Batam,” said Rini, who lives in an apartment complex in the Nagoya area.
Head of the Batam Tourism Agency, Ardiwinata, told the Post that the travel bubble arrangement was still a unilateral decision by Indonesia at this point, whereas Singapore was continued to mull over the decision to reciprocate.
“We have reopened, so everyone is welcome to come to Nongsa. However, the Singaporean government seems to have a mandatory quarantine order in place for returning citizens, which has become something of consideration for [travelers wanting] to come here to Batam,” Ardi said on Thursday.
Many Singaporean tourists have reservations about going into quarantine upon their return from Batam, he acknowledged, which has a lot to do with cost-efficiency.
The first flight under the travel bubble arrangement was supposed to commence on Jan. 24, when Indonesia made the public announcement. But it was postponed to Jan. 28 and later, indefinitely.
“There hasn’t been any further discussions [on a reciprocal arrangement by Singapore]. It’s something we still need to talk about at the technical level,” the official said.
Beyond the planned travel bubble arrangement, Singaporean citizens are able to use the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) to reenter from Indonesia, although conditions apply, including stay-at-home orders or mandatory regular testing.
Spouses or immediate family members of Singaporean citizens may enter the country on “urgent compassionate grounds”, according to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, which includes death and critical illness.
