VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Establishment of the special sea and air surveillance team for foreigners (Timpora) in Labuan Bajo. (ANTARA/HO-Labuan Bajo Immigration Office/rst) - 

Labuan Bajo Immigration Office in West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, formed a special sea and air surveillance team for foreigners (Timpora) there since domestic and foreign visitors frequent the Labuan Bajo tourism area.

Sub-section Head for Information Technology, Intelligence, and Immigration Enforcement at Labuan Bajo immigration office Christian Prantigo stated that his side needed to form a team to monitor foreigners in the area that came to travel, invest, and also set up various businesses in the tourist area.

"The West Manggarai area, especially Labuan Bajo, is a very strategic place since it has vast tourism potential," Prantigo noted in a statement here on Saturday.

The surveillance team was formed with the objective of preventing illegal acts that could endanger security and order, especially owing to the wide area of the Labuan Bajo waters that had to be supervised, Prantigo added.

Meanwhile, immigration analyst at the Labuan Bajo Immigration Office Seto Sumirat stated that the team was formed based on Article 69 of Law Number 6 of 2011 on Immigration.

"To conduct immigration supervision of foreigners' activities in the Indonesian territory, it is necessary to form a foreigner surveillance team. This effort aims to facilitate coordination and cooperation for the air and land supervision of foreigners," he explained.

The team was also established to discuss steps for collaboration to deal with major activities, such as the G20 event and the MotoGP event, which will bring in several foreign tourists to Labuan Bajo.

Meanwhile, Head of the Immigration Office of Labuan Bajo Jaya Mahendra when contacted via telephone expressed optimism that this cooperation would continue to run, so that synergies between agencies in monitoring foreigners' activities in West Manggarai can be managed, especially for foreigners' movement on land and in water//ANT