Opening The Jodoh Search Bureau, Five Foreigners From China Arrested By West Jakarta Immigration Officers

JAKARTA - The West Jakarta Special Class I Immigration Office for Non-TPI arrested five foreigners from China who operated a matchmaking bureau in the Jakarta area.

According to the Head of the Regional Office (Kakanwil) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) DKI Jakarta Pamuji Raharja, the perpetrators pretended to be looking for Indonesian women to convince their prospective customers in China who used the services of the bureau to find a mate.

"We have succeeded in uncovering fraudulent practices with the mode of order brides involving five Chinese citizens, during immigration surveillance activities in the Tamansari area, West Jakarta," he said in Jakarta, Monday.

The disclosure of this case, said Pamuji, began with routine supervision by the Immigration Intelligence and Enforcement Division on Tuesday (6/5) at a hotel in the Tamansari area.

Officers found two suspicious foreign men from China.

"When asked to show a passport, one of the foreigners could not show it," said Pamuji.

Then the officer accompanied the foreigner to his residence to take a passport and at that time found another foreigner.

"The three Chinese citizens with the initials ZL, WW and LF were then taken to the immigration office for inspection," said Pamuji.

Furthermore, said Pamuji, from the statements of the three Chinese citizens, officers obtained information on the whereabouts of the two persons in charge of the match bureau agent who are also in Indonesia.

"Based on this information, in (8/5), officers came to an apartment in the Tamansari area and secured two Chinese WN men with the initials LW and SH," said Pamuji.

Based on the results of the examination, it turned out that LW came to Indonesia with a residence permit for several trips (D2), while SH used a residence permit for one visit.

LW plays a role in finding male Chinese citizen customers who want to find a future wife from Indonesia, in exchange for some money from the matchmaking bureau. Meanwhile, SH is tasked with attracting customers at a rate, depending on the age of the man.

Customers in China provide 200 thousand yuan or the equivalent of 451 million rupiah to the bureau.

Until now, there has been no information regarding the number of Indonesian women involved in the practice. "So far no one has reported to us," said Pamuji.

Head of the Class I Immigration Office for Non-TPI West Jakarta, Nur Raisha Pujiastuti, said that LW, SH, ZL, WW and LF were suspected of being a gang of fraudsters who offered Chinese WN men to be married by Indonesian women.

"It's a mode of attracting men from Chinese citizens because the cost of getting married in China is quite large, so many men in China are consumed by a lot by the perpetrators of matchmaking bureau agents," he said.

The five perpetrators are subject to immigration administrative actions in the form of deportation and deterrence as regulated in Article 75 paragraph (1) of Law Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration.

"We will implement the deportation immediately. This is our commitment in carrying out comprehensive supervision and action against the existence and activities of foreigners, in order to maintain the order and sovereignty of the state," he said.