A Canadian citizen with the initials AO has been deported by the Denpasar Immigration Detention centre for forgetting to extend his visit visa, causing him to overstay for 776 days.
According to the Head of the Regional Office of the Law and Human Rights Ministry Bali, Anggiat Napitupulu, the Canadian citizen arrived in Bali at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport using a visa-free visit for a vacation.
“The visa-free visit itself is valid for 30 days, and from the arrival of AO until the expiration of the validity period of the residence permit, which is 15th April 2020, the person concerned has not left the territory of Indonesia,” he said.
When examined by immigration officers, AO admitted that he did not extend his residence permit because he did not know the information that during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the height of the pandemic, visa-free visit holders had to do an onshore extension, where the visa extension had to be done at the local immigration office to get an extension of the stay permit.
For his negligence, he was declared to have violated article 78 paragraph (3) of law number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration, meaning he was to be deported.
“Even though he argues that this is due to his negligence, immigration can still carry out immigration administrative actions that are in line with the principle of ignorantia legis neminem excusat (ignorance of the law excuses not),” said Napitupulu on Friday 8th July 2022.
The Immigration Office Class I Ngurah Rai handed AO to the Denpasar Immigration Detention Centre on 3rd June to be detained for 35 days and complete administration before finally being deported On 8th July, at 8:40pm local Bali time.
AO’s deportation was carried out using Royal Dutch Airlines which flew through I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport Bali with flight number KL 836 for Denpasar to Amsterdam and KL 671 for the Amsterdam-Montreal route.
Napitupulu said two Denpasar immigration detention centre officers closely guarded the Canadian in Bali until he was deported. After being deported, he will then be put on a banned list by the Directorate General of Immigration at the Indonesian Law and Human Rights Ministry.