Indonesian Illegal Immigration Scam Uncovered

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: 5 linked to illegal entry scam - Japanese Embassy staffer in Jakarta among Indonesians involved
Five Indonesians working at the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta, an immigration office, an airline and an airport had links to an illegal immigration scam uncovered at Narita Airport in September last year, according to the Chiba prefectural police and the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. Two of them, a 50-year-old female receptionist at the embassy and a 39-year-old male cabin attendant of Garuda Indonesia Airline, have been arrested and indicted on suspicion of helping large-scale illegal entry into the nation in violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. The police and the immigration bureau are assuming the case has links to organized crime and have raised the level of alert for similar illegal entry attempts in the future. The investigators said that in September, the embassy receptionist and the cabin attendant handed fake passports to three Indonesians who wanted to work in Japan and accompanied them from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta to Narita Airport pretending to be part of a group of tourists...The embassy receptionist helped the three obtain visas and pretended to be the mother of two of the three would-be entrants at Narita Airport...An official at the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo said the country was taking the case very seriously and would make efforts to improve overseas travel procedures so that friendly ties with Japan would not be damaged...more...