The Directorate General of Protocol and Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has signed a cooperation agreement with the Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights regarding notification of and access in handling foreigners in Indonesia.
Director-General of Protocol and Consular Affairs Andy Rachmianto said this cooperation agreement was undertaken in line with the increasing problems and complexity of general and civil criminal cases involving foreign nationals in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Jhoni Ginting, said that this cooperation agreement was necessary to strengthen coordination between ministries and institutions in order to provide more accurate data in the decision-making process.
“Of course we will continue to strive to build solid coordination and cooperation so that the speed of data acquisition to make the right policies through information exchange with stakeholders is very important,” said Jhoni.
The scope of cooperation between these two institutions, among others, is to exchange information quickly about actual cases of foreign nationals in an accurate and effective manner and the use of data on immigration crimes and immigration administrative measures to enforce the reciprocity principle for friendly countries.
This agreement was followed up through an effective communication mechanism by forming a Joint Working Team from the two parties chaired by the Director of Consular Affairs and the Director of Immigration Cooperation. The collaboration will also be used to disseminate information and conduct outreach to related agencies.
“With this agreement, it will make it easier for the Foreign Ministry to monitor the movements of foreign citizens in Indonesia,” said Andy.
Andy said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a database creation mechanism for foreigners who entered and left during the COVID-19 period. Until 18th September, the number of foreigners in Indonesia and recorded in the JWNA database dashboard reached 189,257.
“This figure has decreased compared to June 2020 which reached around 192,000 foreigners,” Andy concluded.
Source: Liputan 6