Indonesia Confirms Number Of Foreigners Deported In 2024 So Far

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The Directorate General of Immigration for Indonesia has released new figures for the number of immigration violations and deportations the country has carried out so far this year.

The figures make for interesting reading. Despite the reported rise in the number of foreigners behaving badly in Bali, the province has not deported the most foreigners. 

The Directorate General of Immigration, known in Indonesia as Ditjen, deported 1,503 foreign nationals during the first half of 2024.

Nationwide, in the first half of 2023, only 639 foreigners were recorded by Ditjen as being deported, meaning that this year there has been an increase of 135.21%.

In a press statement issued this week the Director General of Immigration, Silmy Karim, said that deportation is the most common immigration sanction given to foreigners who violate the rules. He wrote, “There are 2,041 foreigners who we have given immigration administrative action [known as TAK] sanctions. Of this number, 1,503 of them or around 73.64 percent were deportation sanctions.”

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Karim explained in his statement that the immigration sanctions were issued to foreigners based on the crimes or violations that they had committed.

Sanctions have included “inclusion in the prevention or deterrence list, restrictions, changes or cancellation of residence permits, prohibitions on being in one or several certain places in Indonesian territory, the requirement to reside in one place, certain conditions in Indonesian territory, imposition of burden fees, and/or deportation from Indonesian territory.”

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What makes for the most interesting reading, perhaps, is that Bali Province did not deport or issue sanctions to most foreigners in the country in the first half of the year.

With so much dialogue focusing on the culturally insensitive and illegal behavior of a small minority of the millions of foreigners who visit Bali every year, if asked, most people would hazard a guess that one of the immigration offices in Bali had sanctioned the most number of people. But that isn’t the case.

In the first six months of 2024, the Bogor Immigration Office recorded the highest number of sanctions issued with 136 TAK, followed by the Soekarno-Hatta Immigration Office with 124 TAK and the Batam Immigration Office with 118 TAK. 

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Bali’s TPI Ngurah Rai Special Class I Immigration Office has deported 66 people so far this year. This number is, of course, set to rise in the second half of the year.

Bali Immigration teams are working on deporting the 103 foreigners who were recently appended at a villa in Tabanan Regency and believed to be part of a cybercrime operation.

Some of the individuals have already been deported, while many remain in detention pending further reinvestigation and deportation arrangements. 

The Directorate General of Immigration has confirmed its commitment to continuing to increase the supervision of foreigners in the country and taking the necessary steps to maintain security and order in Indonesian territory.

Karim wrote, “We are intensifying operations, both on a local and national scale. “This is our effort to contribute to national security as well as provide a preventive effect so that immigration violations can be minimized.”

Speaking separately, the Head of the Information and Communication Section of the Special Class I Immigration Office of TPI Ngurah Rai Nyoman Asta confirmed deportation figures for Bali tourists in 2024 so far.

Atsa said, “Most of the deportations were due to cases of overstaying or exceeding the time limit for residence permits.”

He noted that in January 2024, Ngurah Rai Immigration conducted six deportations in January, 12 in February, 19 in March, 8 in April, and that 13 people were deported from Bali in June.

The nationalities of those deported include passport holders from Saudi Arabia, England, Germany, the Republic of South Africa, Russia, Singapore, the United States, and Belgium.

Speaking in April the Head of the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, Suhendra outlined the numb of forgienrs who had been denied entry to Bali.

He said, “There were 318 foreigners denied arrival, including 132 people who did not have an Indonesian visa, 32 people whose passport was valid for less than six months, 16 people were banned, 11 people were hit by Interpol, one person was [a convicted criminal], and 126 people were banned for other reasons.”