Bali deports 101 foreigners in four months

A view of the Sanur beach, in Bali, on April 30. - JP

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): The Bali immigration authorities have deported a total of 101 foreigners from 31 countries in the last four months.

The largest number are Russian nationals with 27 people deported, followed by eight British nationals, seven Americans, seven Nigerians and six Australians.

“Most overstayed their visa or abused the visa or stay permit,” Bali Law and Human Rights office chief Anggiat Napitupulu said on Thursday (May 4).

All the foreigners were deported in the period of Jan 2 to April 30. Anggiat also said there had been several foreigners deported for violating Balinese community norms.

“In the Indonesian legal concept, customary law is still applied in the form of the norms. And in our criminal code, it is known as a living law,” Anggiat said.

He said the number of foreigners caught for violating the immigration law increased this year.

Last year, Bali deported a total of 194 people. More violations are made known to the authorities due to being circulated via social media this year. However, Anggiat emphasised the immigration authorities had not only been working based on viral social media contents.

“We are not working only based on them, but we thank [the public] for the viral news,” he said.

The immigration team has intensified its supervision of foreigners across Bali amid a flurry of complaints about bad behaviour from tourists, including by targeting places across Bali with typically high concentrations of Russian tourists based on an unsubstantiated perception that Russians contributed disproportionately to tourist misbehaviour on the island.

In March, local authorities conducted a series of special operations targeting offences by foreign nationals.

More than 475 police personnel were deployed in the operation, working alongside representatives of the immigration office, the tourism agency, the tax office, the transportation agency, the labour agency, the public-order police, the tourism association and traditional Balinese security guards or pecalang, among other groups.

Last month, Russian national Luiza Kosykh was deported for posting a nude photo of herself in front of a sacred tree in a temple in Tabanan, Bali. Also in April, Russian Yuri Chilikin was deported from Bali after posting a photograph of himself half-naked on Mount Agung, which is considered sacred by the predominantly Hindu population of the island.

Bali authorities will deport a Russian couple after a video of them performing an erotic dance at the Pengubengan Besakih temple in Karangasem went viral.

“We arrested three Russians in our investigation, but we will only deport two related to the case,” Anggiat said.

Separately, the chairman of Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Bali chapter I Made Ariandi lauded the authorities’ actions against delinquent visitors.

“That’s good action, we really appreciate it,” he said. Ariandi called on the government to continue firm law enforcement against foreigners violating public order.

“They should know that we have rules, we have laws,” he said.