Moroccan Sisters Deported From Bali After 866-Day Overstay

Share The Article

Two sisters, originally from Morocco have been deported from Bali this week. The sisters, known only by their initials ZO, 37 and MO, 41, were deported to Casablanca after overstaying their visas by 866 days.

The sisters entered Indonesia on a 30-day visitor visa on the 27th of November 2019. This meant they had to leave the country on or before the 26th of December 2019. They claim that they were unable to leave due to flight cancellations due to Covid-19. 

In a written press release the Head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Bali, Anggiat Napitupulu, confirmed that case and explained how the sisters have now been added to Indonesia’s blacklist and will not be permitted to return.

Napitupulu explained how the sisters admitted that they did know the procedures for doing an on-shore visa extension. Little more about the sisters has been made public. It is not known how they were able to support themselves while in Bali, nor where they were staying. Reports suggest that they did initially arrive in Bali with the intention of having a vacation.

The sisters not only overstayed their 30-day visas, but their passports expired during their time in Bali too. This added extra headache for the Immigration Authorities who had to wait for new passports to be issued before the pair could be deported.

The duo were flown on a Saudi Airlines flight from Bali to Jakarta and onward to Casablanca in Morocco. Immigration teams in Bali have signed off on a series of deportations in recent weeks. As backlogs caused by international lockdowns have started to ease, the paperwork required to deport a foreign national all falls into place. 

This week Bali authorities also deported a Nigerian man after an overstay of over 900-days. The man known as EEA claimed to have arrived in Indonesia in 2019 to buy textiles for export to Nigeria as a part of his children’s clothing business. EEA claimed that his business took a turn for the worse and that he was unable to fund a flight back to Nigeria.

Whatsmore, he was also found to have been scamming local women into giving him money. It is not known how many women he scammed but the Head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Bali, Anggiat Napitupulu explained how EEA masqueraded as a love interest to the women and asked them to transfer money to his account as a declaration of their love. He was deported to the Nigerian capital city Abuja.

In late July Bali Immigration deported an Egyptian man who had overstayed his visa by more than 2-years. KMHHM is believed to have arrived in Bali and married an Indonesian woman. However, it seemed he too ran out of money and did not transfer onto the correct social or temporary resident visa.

He handed himself into the Bali Immigration Office in Denpasar in December 2021 and was held at the Immigration Detention Centre until his deportation flight on the 18th of July 2022.

Indonesia takes visa overstays very seriously. While any overstay is illegal, it is the overstays of 60-days or more that are of primary concern for the Immigration Department. Foreigners are deported for overstaying their visas if they do not have the means to pay the overstay fine which sits at IDR 1,000,000 a day, or fund their flight home. Even if funds are available, Immigration retains the right to deport an individual through lengthy formal processes if they see fit.

It is suspected that there are dozens more people in Bali who have overstayed their visas. The emergency automatic extension period finished in 2021 and anyone who suspects they have overstayed their visa or is unsure about their visa conditions is urged to contact the Bali authorities as soon as possible.