February 10, 2025
JAKARTA – A complaint from the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia over extortion cases at the main Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has led to the removal of 30 immigration officials from airport duty, and raised anew a debate over shakedowns involving tourists.
The Chinese mission in a Jan 21 letter, which was posted on X by anti-corruption activists and widely circulated since, conveyed a formal complaint regarding at least 44 instances of extortion against more than 60 Chinese nationals at Indonesia’s busiest airport, which welcomed 54.8 million passengers in 2024.
The Straits Times has reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta for confirmation of the letter.
The Immigration and Corrections Ministry on Feb 2 announced the removal of the 30 immigration officers, and minister Agus Andrianto said the number of airport auto-gates for arrivals is being increased to reduce encounters between international passengers and immigration officials. He did not give details of the plan, or the methods of extortion. Visitors from China must each pay 500,000 rupiah (S$42) for a visa on arrival.
As a preventive measure, the government has also put up new signs in Chinese, Arabic and English at the airport’s immigration checkpoints, warning against tipping, he added.
“I will ensure that if they are not dedicated to performing their duties and embarrass Indonesia, I will investigate and take action against them in compliance with prevailing regulations,” Mr Agus told The Straits Times, referring to errant officers.
Mr Hery Sudiarto, chairman of the Asia-Pacific and Middle East committee at the Indonesian Tour and Travel Agency Association, representing agencies, called for tighter supervision at immigration checkpoints through CCTV cameras to deter potential extortion.
“Officers who are proven to have committed wrongdoing through extortion must be prosecuted and face punishments in line with Indonesian laws,” he told ST.
“We don’t want the hard work by tourism stakeholders to promote Indonesia and attract foreigners through sales missions to be ruined by a few irresponsible officers, who should ideally offer their best services to visitors not only during arrivals, but also departures.”
Indonesia has been trying to increase foreign arrivals from China. It welcomed 1.2 million Chinese visitors in 2024, up 52 per cent from a year earlier.
Anti-corruption activists have also urged that culprits be prosecuted, instead of just removed from their posts.
The Chinese Embassy letter said cash totalling 32.8 million rupiah had been returned, with the help of the Indonesian government, to Chinese nationals who paid the illegal fees between February 2024 and January 2025.
The embassy added in the letter: “It is just the tip of the iceberg, since many more Chinese nationals who were extorted did not file complaints due to tight schedules or fear of reprisals on future entries.”
The revelation of the embassy’s complaint followed a high-profile extortion scandal in December 2024, when rogue policemen targeted foreign concertgoers. The scandal came to light following complaints from at least 45 Malaysians, who travelled to Jakarta for the Djakarta Warehouse Project concert between Dec 13 and 15.
A number of foreign nationals at the shows, including reportedly some 400 Malaysians, were forced to take drug tests and threatened with criminal charges unless they paid up to ensure their test results were negative. The complaints led to an internal ethics tribunal of the 34 police officers involved, and led to their dismissals and demotions.
Dr Laode Muhammad Syarif, former deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission, said the cases of extortion must be prosecuted even if the funds involved were small. “The Attorney-General must tackle them because if these continue to be ignored, they will damage Indonesia’s reputation,” he told ST.
Researcher Alvin Nicola from Transparency International Indonesia, an anti-corruption group, told ST: “The latest cases should be used as a turning point to introduce reforms in the immigration office wholeheartedly. The reforms can start with firing officers involved and imposing criminal charges against them in line with the Criminal Code.”
Both Dr Syarif and Mr Alvin alleged that extortion practices at the immigration office have existed for a long time, and reflected the corruption endemic in Indonesia.
Indonesia fares poorly in corruption rankings, and slid five spots to 115th position out of 180 countries surveyed by Transparency International in 2023. Neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia ranked fifth and 57th least corrupt, respectively, in the same survey.
- Linda Yulisman is Indonesia correspondent at The Straits Times. She covers business, politics, social affairs and the environment.