JAKARTA - The Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkum HAM) has tightened supervision over immigration checks for hajj candidates to prevent misuse of these visas.
"This is a follow-up to the refusal of 46 Indonesian citizens to perform hajj by the Saudi Arabian authorities," said Head of the Soekarno-Hatta Immigration Office Muhammad Tito Andrianto in a written statement quoted by Antara, Tuesday, July 5.
The tightening of supervision was carried out directly by the Class I Immigration Office (Kanim) for TPI Soekarno-Hatta after coordinating with the Sub-Directorate for Monitoring and Supervision of Umrah and Special Hajj Services at the Ministry of Religion.
With the tightening, he said, the Immigration Kanim Soekarno-Hatta succeeded in thwarting the departure of 14 Indonesian citizens who were going to perform the Hajj without a valid visa, Monday (4/7).
It was recorded that six people were using Qatar Airways (QR 957) aircraft, seven people were using Saudi Arabian Airways (SV 819) aircraft, and one was using Thai Airways (TG 433) aircraft.
After further investigation, the candidate for Hajj does not have a valid Hajj visa, but has an Amil visa and a tourist visa. The fourteen hajj candidates were prevented from leaving after immigration checked their visas and printed boarding passes.
"Visual abuse can be identified when using a sticky visa that says tourist or amil," he explained.
Recognition of passengers becomes difficult when passengers use online Hajj visas. Because, until now, Indonesian immigration did not have access to check the validity of the Hajj visa online.
To minimize the risk of departing for hajj without a valid visa, the Soekarno-Hatta Kanim and the Sub-directorate of Monitoring and Supervision of Umrah and Special Hajj Services of the Ministry of Religion carried out supervision, including coordinating with all airlines at Soekarno-Hatta Airport.
"We ask the airlines not to print boarding passes for prospective hajj pilgrims which are found to be indications of visa abuse," he said.
Finally, he mentioned that there were 17 hajj candidates with cancellation status by Qatar Airways, with details of five passengers on QR 959 plane, 11 passengers on QR 957 plane, and one passenger on QR 955.
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