Senator Made Pastika Struggles With Bali Seafarers Forum Getting Visa To Work In Germany

Member of the Regional Representatives Council (senator) Made Mangku Pastika (right) while absorbing aspirations with the Bali Seafarers Forum in Denpasar, Friday (1/4/2022). ANTARA/Ni Luh Rhismawati.

DENPASAR - Member of the Regional Representatives Council (senator) Made Mangku Pastika will fight for and find solutions to the obstacles faced by members of the Bali Seafarers Forum to obtain work visas in Germany.

"I am optimistic that this can be done, please attach evidence and never be afraid to fight for the fate of many people," said Pastika during a meeting with the Bali Seafarers Forum in Denpasar, reported by Antara, Friday, April 1.

The former governor of Bali for two terms admitted that he would immediately write to the German Honorary Consul in Bali and send his expert staff to meet with the consul to find a way out of the difficulty and length of time for seafarers or migrant workers to obtain visas.

According to Pastika, in the current digital era, the visa issuance process should not take up to four months.

With the delay in obtaining a visa, said Pastika, the opportunity for Balinese citizens to work on cruise ships can be seized by other people. He suspected that there was a "smell" of business competition that caused the problem.

"In fact, if you want to talk about poverty, working on a cruise ship or being a sailor, this is one solution. When I visited villages, I had time to ask, it turns out that the majority of people in beautiful houses work on cruise ships," he said.

Therefore, while serving as the Governor of Bali, Pastika had time to make a program by facilitating a fee of up to Rp. 20 million for young Balinese who want to work on cruise ships.

The chairman of the Bali Seafarers Forum I Dewa Gede Indra Yuda on that occasion conveyed his complaint of the difficulty of hundreds of seafarers who are members of the Bali Seafarers Forum to obtain work visas in Germany.

"We saw that there was a game, it seemed that it was deliberately complicated. We hope that we can get visas soon, lest our positions be replaced by workers from other countries, so that we lose our livelihoods," he said.

Bali Seafarers Forum Advisor Alit Budi Sastrawan said difficulties in obtaining the visa had occurred since the end of November 2021.

According to him, when Balinese seafarers try to process the visa slot application online, it always says not available (non-available).

In fact, several times his party took turns for 24 hours non-stop trying to register slots, but they were declared unavailable.

"However, it turns out that there are those who sell slots for an additional fee of up to Rp. 5.5 million and this continues until now," he said.

Meanwhile, Daniel, who is also an Advisor to the Bali Seafarers Forum, hopes that the submission of these aspirations can get a bright spot because there should be a number of workers who have been scheduled to work in March 2022.

He has some evidence of alleged "gaming" in the issuance of the visa. "We monitored 24 hours the slot was never opened, but apparently someone got an appointment at the same hour," he said.

His party has also spoken with the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency (BP2MI) and the Ministry of Manpower regarding this issue, but it is said that it is not under their authority.

Daniel said that in previous years there had never been a problem in obtaining a visa, but a problem arose when it was transferred through the Visa Application Center mechanism.

He said that about 250 Balinese have been accepted to work on River Cruise, Germany, from LPK Royal Bali Internusa and 400 from LPK ISS Management. "However, about 30 percent of those who get an appointment for an appointment for visa processing are only around 30 percent," he said.