Two Swiss nationals and one Turkish national have been summoned by the Immigration Office after being suspected of illegally converting a rented villa into an early childhood education school.
Another incident involving foreigners in Bali has been reported. The Head of the Class I Immigration Office for the Ngurah Rai Immigration Checkpoint (TPI), Suhendra, revealed that his office received a report regarding the actions of foreigners in the North Kuta area who had turned a rented villa into a school.
According to the results of the investigation, the villa was rented by a Swiss couple, while the operational manager of the school was a Turkish national. The three foreigners were summoned by the authorities on Friday, 23rd August, and are currently under investigation by the Immigration Office. All of the villa’s facilities are suspected to have been used for teaching and learning activities for an early childhood education school, playgroup, and kindergarten.
“It has been discovered that the villa was being used as a school for the children of fellow foreigners to learn writing, mathematics, science, and Indonesian,” Suhendra explained to the press on Monday, 26th August.
The Immigration Office has yet to provide details about when the alleged practice of operating a school for foreign children at the villa began. However, according to Ngurah Rai Immigration crossing data, the two Swiss nationals arrived in Bali via I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on the 19th of July 2024 and had obtained limited investor stay permits. Meanwhile, the Turkish national arrived in Bali on the 25th of June 2024 on a visitor visa.
Separately, from 21st to 22nd August, the Singaraja Immigration Intelligence and Enforcement Team (Intelijen dan Penindakan Keimigrasian, or Inteldakim) conducted inspections of several inns and villas in areas including Buleleng, Karangasem, and Jembrana. During this operation, Inteldakim detained several foreigners suspected of engaging in activities not in accordance with their residence permits.
“There was also a German couple with the initials MAK [68] and BK [69] who were apprehended in Tejakula [a subdistrict in Buleleng], as well as a Chinese couple with the initials MT [36] and JM [26] who were arrested in Pekutatan [a subdistrict in Jembrana]. They are suspected of carrying out activities that were not in line with their residence permits and are currently under further investigation,” added the Head of the Singaraja Immigration Office, Hendra Setiawan.