Refusal Of Foreigners Who Wish To Enter Indonesia To Prevent The Spread Of The COVID-19 Virus

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Directorate General of Immigration has refused to enter as many as 118 foreigners into Indonesia. This refusal was carried out as an effort to prevent the spread of the Corona Virus (Covid-19). This amount is calculated starting from February 5-23, obtained from all Immigration Checkpoints in Indonesia.

From the official statement received by VOI, Sunday, February 23, the highest number of refusals by foreigners was found at the Bali Ngurah Rai Immigration Checkpoint, as many as 89 people. Foreigners who are refused entry into Indonesian territory are not only from China, but from various countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, and several European and African countries.

The reason for the rejection, among others, was that the foreigner had lived or stopped in mainland China for 14 days before entering Indonesian territory. This is the basis for the Immigration Officer at the Immigration Checkpoint to reject them as referred to in the Regulation of the Minister of Law and Human Rights number 3 of 2020 which regulates the temporary suspension of Free Visit Visas, Visas on Arrival, and granting forced residency permits for Chinese citizens.

In addition to refusing the arrival of foreigners, the Directorate General of Immigration has also granted Forced Stay Permits to 1,247 Chinese citizens in Indonesia.

The Head of Public Relations and General Affairs of the Directorate General of Immigration Arvin Gumilang said that forced stay permits were given only to Chinese citizens who were already in Indonesia but their residence permits had expired and could not return to their country due to the Corona Virus outbreak and the absence of transportation means to bring them back to their country. .

Previously, the Japanese news agency NHK reported yesterday, Saturday, February 23 that a citizen of their country was reported to have contracted COVID-19 after traveling to Indonesia.

In the news, a man aged 60 years who contracted COVID-19 was written after visiting Indonesia on February 15 for a vacation with his family. However, there was no mention of where the Japanese were in Indonesia or their identity. The news only said the man worked for a geriatric health facility in Tokyo.

This information was denied by the Secretary of the Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Achmad Yurianto. He said the Ministry of Health could not further investigate the news. This is because the information is not clear, even though the information is already known to the Ministry of Health.

"What is the name of the person and where is the Indonesian, where to date there has been no answer. Then what do I have to respond to? Well, I have also asked the Indonesian Embassy in Japan, they also don't know that," said Yuri when contacted by VOI via telephone, Sunday, 23 February.