Australia Published Travel Commemoration To The Republic Of Indonesia, What Is Travel Warning?

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA Travel warning is a term that is familiarly heard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the term travel warning broke out again after Australia gave a travel warning to its citizens who wanted to travel to Indonesia on Thursday, November 8, 2022. So, what is travel warning?

Quoted by VOI from the journal of Law Research written by Arsika et al, what is meant by travel warning is a term to mention a country's policies in providing information that contains considerations and warnings to its citizens who are leaving or are abroad.

There are several terms whose use is almost similar to travel warning, namely travel advisory, travel advisory, and travel alert. The difference in the use of these terms depends on the level of warning to be conveyed. However, there is no international law that becomes the benchmark.

In Indonesia, travel warning is usually published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu). On several occasions, the term used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a "trial appeal" or travel advisory.

The issuance of travel warnings is based on Article 6 paragraph 3 of Law Number 37 of 1999 concerning Foreign Relations.

The article states that the Minister of Foreign Affairs can issue a statement not to visit a country as a preventive measure.

A travel warning to a country does not have to be conveyed directly by the Foreign Minister. However, it can also be informed through the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ambassador who is accredited in a certain country.

In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can also coordinate with other ministries to issue travel warning.

For example, in August 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a travel warning to Hong Kong which was hit by a massive demonstration that is often interspersed with anarchic actions. The demonstration was triggered by the Hong Kong government's plan to impose a Draft Law (RUU) to extract criminals from China.

The latest example of the travel warning released by the state is the travel warning issued by the Australian government to its citizens who want to travel to Indonesia.

The travel warning was issued on Thursday, December 8, 2022. The travel warning is in the aftermath of the ratification of the Draft Criminal Code (RKUHP) into the Criminal Code Law (UU KUHP). In the new Criminal Code Law, there is an article of adultery that prohibits sex outside of marriage.

When the new Criminal Code Law was passed, many Australian media gave negative attention. The reason is, one of the regions of Indonesia, Bali, is the goal of the arrival of many Australian tourists.

More than 1 million Australians go to Indonesia every year. With Bali as the main goal, quoted from CNBC Indonesia, Friday, December 9, 2022.

"In addition to banning sex outside of marriage, the new law will also prohibit living together between unmarried couples," wrote the Special Broadcasting Service.

"It was passed with the support of all political parties and despite warnings from business groups that it could scare tourists and damage investment."

After the news was released, Australia's State Department and Trade finally updated travel advice for its citizens who wish to visit Indonesia. Travelers from Australia were asked to be 'be careful' after the RKUHP was passed into law.

"Indonesian parliament has passed the revision of criminal law, which includes penalties for cohabitation and sex outside of marriage," reads an announcement published on the Smart Traveller website.

"Tourists be careful... because if they don't, we can see some very unfavorable situations where we have to provide consular assistance to people who unconsciously or unintentionally do the wrong thing," he added.

That's the information about what travel warning is. Hopefully it will be useful!