Australian Caucasians Expelled From Bali For Climbing Sacred Trees In Tabanan, Ministry Of Law And Human Rights Affirms According To Law

Australian Caucasian, Samuel Lockton'DOK Tabanan Police

DENPASAR - The Bali Regional Office (Kanwil) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) issued an order to leave Indonesian territory for Australian Caucasians who went viral for climbing trees in the temple complex in accordance with statutory provisions.

Head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Bali Anggiat Napitupulu said the order to leave Indonesian territory was part of the administrative sanctions regulated in Article 75 of Law Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration.

"That Immigration officials are authorized to take immigration administrative action against foreigners who commit acts, among others, violating public order, not respecting applicable regulations, and so on," said Anggiat, Friday, June 17.

The Regional Head's statement referred to the order to leave Indonesia given by the Class I Immigration Office for TPI Denpasar to an Australian citizen with the initials SCL or Samuel Lockton.

Immigration ordered Samuel out of Indonesian territory after his action of climbing a tree at a temple complex disrupted order.

"We were ordered to leave Indonesia. So, the residence permit is still valid. Why don't we carry out the deportation? Because indeed, the foreign national has no demands from the traditional village," said Head of the Immigration Office Class I Special for TPI Denpasar, Tedy Riyandi.

He explained that Samuel's stay permit was still valid. However, because of his actions he was subject to administrative sanctions in the form of orders to leave Indonesian territory.

“(SCL lives in Indonesia, ed.) using a visa on arrival and it is still valid. If he wants to stay, he can still do it, we just ordered him to leave the territory of Indonesia," said Tedy.

SCL left the territory of Indonesia on Wednesday (15/6) using an aircraft with flight number JQ82 to Darwin, Australia.

Regarding the Immigration order, the Head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Bali, said that immigration officials in accordance with the provisions of the law can cancel the residence permit of foreigners.

"If the residence permit is canceled, the foreigner in question must be ordered to leave the territory of Indonesia. In this case, the sanctions against foreigners (given by Immigration Denpasar, ed.) are in line with what is meant in the law," said Anggiat.

Cases of Caucasians in Bali misbehaving in a number of holy places in Bali have often occurred in recent months. Not only Samuel Lockton, a foreigner from Russia with the initials AF last month also went viral because he posed naked on a tree that was still in the temple complex.

Regarding such incidents, Tedy hopes that in the future there will be education for foreign nationals who come to Bali.

The education includes information about the sacred places of the Balinese people that need to be respected by tourists.

"To Bali, foreigners are welcome to take a vacation. However, in Bali there are customs that deserve respect," said Tedy.

He mentioned that several places in Bali are sacred areas that are places of worship, so tourists need to be careful.

"In Bali there are sacred trees, there are sacred places, there are mountains and hills that are indeed places of prayer," said Tedy.