Indonesia's COVID-19 Cases Are Still High, DPD RI Chairman Reveals These 6 Countries Refuse Indonesian Citizens To Enter

JAKARTA - At least 6 countries have closed their doors to the arrival of Indonesian citizens (WNI) following the high number of COVID-19 cases in the country. This condition makes the Chairman of the DPD RI, AA La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti, concerned. He asked the government to immediately improve the handling of the Corona virus.

Countries that refuse the presence of travelers from Indonesia are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. They are worried that they will be exposed to a new variant of the Corona virus that has spread in Indonesia.

"I think this situation is quite serious. The government should take this issue more seriously. The refusal from other countries for migrants in Indonesia shows how serious the pandemic problem we are facing," said La Nyalla, Thursday, July 15.

As a precautionary measure, the Senator from East Java assessed that the Indonesian government could follow the example of countries that dared to close their doors to the arrival of foreign nationals.

"The government should also consider not giving permission for foreigners who want to enter Indonesia for the time being, at least during the implementation of the Emergency PPKM. Maybe with this policy, the increase in Corona cases in Indonesia can be suppressed because we know that the increase in cases is also due to the contribution of imported cases, " he said in a written statement to the editor.

In addition to the ban, La Nyalla assessed that the government could also limit the granting of entry permits for foreign nationals as did Singapore. Singapore is known to have restricted permits for travelers from Indonesia who are not Singaporeans, or have permanent resident status, during the coronavirus pandemic.

"This policy was taken because the COVID-19 situation in Indonesia is considered to be deteriorating. This shows the urgency of the corona problem in Indonesia. So the government must immediately take important steps in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic so that other countries do not worry about the arrival of our citizens," said La Nyalla.

For this reason, the former chairman of PSSI hopes that the government will move quickly to overcome the surge in COVID-19 cases. Moreover, until now there has been no sign of a decrease in cases even though the Emergency PPKM has been carried out for almost 2 weeks.

"Until now there has been no downward trend in cases. Even the data from the COVID-19 Task Force on Wednesday (14/7/2021), showed an increase in cases, reaching more than 54 thousand in a day. The government has indeed initiated various prevention efforts, but I ask The government has prepared a scenario if the Emergency PPKM does not succeed in suppressing the rate of increase in Covid cases," he explained.

La Nyalla hopes that there will be improvements in the handling of Covid in Indonesia. Moreover, Emergency PPKM also raises various problems, including making the economy of small communities decline further due to additional restrictions. "Improvements in the handling of COVID-19 will also be a factor for other countries to consider in accepting new arrivals from Indonesia," concluded La Nyalla.