Indonesian Immigration Reviewing ‘Visa Free’ Travel due to Rising Crime by Foreigners TOPICS:immigration Indonesiaretire in indonesiaTravel to IndonesiaVisa Indonesia Posted By: Timothy Walker August 26, 2016 Indonesian Immigration Reviewing ‘Visa Free’ Travel due to Rising Crime by Foreigners – www.philippineslifestyle.com JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Indonesian government is attempting to review its visa free travel policy to the Asian country due to rising crime involving foreigners. Spokesperson for the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s Immigration Directorate General, Heru Santoso, said the government is considering limiting visa free travel due to the recent crime wave being committed by foreigners. Currently 169 countries can travel to Indonesia without paying for a visa. “In terms of percentages, the violations are small, but they’re still violations, said Santoso. Officials say that the Immigration Directorate General is currently reviewing whether the open visa process is doing more harm than good. Sources say there is a good chance that Indonesia will reduce the visa free privilege for many countries. Santoso touched on the two fake Buddhist monks from China as an example of foreigners causing trouble in the country – he also spoke about the recent killing of a police officer in Bali as a good reason to review the current immigration policy.
I'd be willing to bet that "foreigners" account for less than 1% of crime in Indo. I wonder what percentage of the GDP they account for?
"I'd be willing to bet that "foreigners" account for less than 1% of crime in Indo. I wonder what percentage of the GDP they account for?" So that's the new criterium nowadays? As long as you bring in sufficient cash, you're good to go, irrespective...??? So that's the new criterium nowadays?: If you bring enough money in, you're excused from all wrongdoings? Sick!
Just a guess, but this probably appeals to the "something must be done about this" brigade....if there is such an entity in Indonesia. Nonsensical, not properly thought out and ultimately ineffectual.
I doubt the comment was made with the mind that having enough money should exempt one from laws. More so that foreigners make up an extremely small portion of the crime yet actually also contribute positively as well for the most part to the country while many local criminals offer nothing good while making up the vast majority of the crime. It sounds as if they don't know how to lessen crime so they are looking for a scapegoat and as no one wants to anger those who keep them in power its best to blame someone else in their mind. No different then if a foreigner in the Philippines gets caught with a 16 year old GF even if he's helping the family and sending her to college he's looked at as a heinous criminal while plenty of mid 20's and 30 year old Filipino's tap these same girls and get them pregnant while never helping them at all. Now admittedly I don't know much at all on Indonesia so I really don't know if there are certain nationalities who come for the purpose of crime for the most part. Maybe there is a country or two who's citizens abuse the country a fair bit and if so that should be looked at of course.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that a person should be excused from punishment because they have a fat wallet. I was just trying to point out that countries might want to take a serious look at the positives tourists/expats bring to the country before imposing harsher visa restrictions to appease the perceptions of bigots, nationalists and xenophobes. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
