Director General Of Immigration: Uninvolved Foreigner Visit Visa Free Revocation

DENPASAR - Director General of Immigration of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Sylmy Karim, said that foreign national visits to Indonesia were not affected by the temporary revocation of visit visa-free facilities for foreigners from 159 countries.

"The most important thing here is the indicator that foreign public interest in Indonesia has not decreased and has even increased. This is what we must deal with," said Silmy Karim as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, July 18.

Silmy in his remarks at the event conveyed that the number of foreign visits to Bali in recent times has averaged 19,000 people per day, while in the pre-pandemic period there were an average of around 17,000 people per day.

"This means that in terms of quantity this is already good," he said.

The visit of foreigners to Bali is of concern because the Island of the Gods is a barometer compared to other regions in Indonesia.

"We are evaluating the visit visa-free policy and in fact the evaluation does not affect the visit of foreign nationals to Indonesia, to Bali in particular," said Silmy Karim.

Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly in early June 2023 imposed a temporary revocation of visit visa-free facilities for foreigners from 159 countries. This step is to evaluate previous policies that made it easier for foreigners to visit Indonesian territory.

"We used to open it completely, did the evaluation benefit the state or not? Oh, this is not. This country needs to be opened or closed? It must be evaluated," said President Joko Widodo in Bogor, West Java (21/6).

Regarding this evaluation, Silmy explained that there are three factors that are considered, namely the principle of reciprocity (resiprocal), the principle of benefit, and security factors.

"The first is reciprocal. So, both parties, both countries must also provide visa-free. Then the second is beneficial for Indonesia so that this of course provides benefits. Third, security factors because we have to protect Indonesia from influence, for example terrorism or things that are criminal in nature," said the Director General of Immigration.

Silmy also said that Australia is one of the countries that imposes a 100 percent visa policy on all foreign passers. This policy is the Australian Government's strategy to screen foreigners entering their country.

"Australia has set a 100 percent visa policy for anyone passing through to visit Australia, whether it's from Germany, England, entering Australia must use visas. This visa is then a selection process for the entry of quality foreign countries," he said.