The Government of Indonesia clarifies that free visa policy will continue

The free visa policy of Indonesia will continue in order to promote tourism in the nation in spite of the reports that some overseas tourists are misusing this to work without the legal approval. This was clarified by Yasonna Laoly the Law and Human Rights Minister.

The Minister also denied that the free visa policy was resulting in the overseas immigrants to misuse the policy for working illegally in the nation, as they had arrived in Indonesia on tourist visas.

Yasonna Laoly also shielded the decision of the President Joko Widodo and said that this would promote the growth of tourism industry in Indonesia. The visa-free policy is estimated to bring more than 20 million overseas tourists every year by the time it is 2019.

The Law and Human Rights Minister said that it was important to supervise the inflow of tourist with respect to the visa-free policy. He explained that if nine million tourists arrive in Indonesia through the visa-free policy, it has to be ensured that the same number also exit from the nation, as quoted by the Jakarta Post.

The statistics from Ministry of Tourism has revealed that there was an increase of 9.4 percent in the number of tourists who arrived in Indonesia in the period of January to October 2016. Around 9.4 million tourists visited Indonesia in this period. In the year 2015 10.4 million tourists arrived at the nation which was an increase of 10.2 percent when compared to the previous year.

The free visa policy was launched in June 2015 and permitted tourists from 30 nations to stay in Indonesia for 30 days for vacation purpose via the free visa. By the completion off 2015, the privilege was extended to 90 nations. In March 2016, 84 nations were added to the list and the total number of nations who enjoyed the free visa privilege rose to 174.

The tourists from China are the largest number of travelers who arrive in Indonesia and 121, 880 travelers had arrived to Indonesia from China in the month of October alone. The Chinese travelers accounted for 12.34 percent of the overall visitors to Indonesia.

As a result of the increased number of Chinese tourists, the Department of Tourism plans to attract more than 2.4 million travelers from greater China that includes Hong Kong and Taiwan for 2017. This is higher than the target of 2.1 million tourists for the year 2017.

The Government of Indonesia is quite sure that it can control the number of tourists who stay beyond the legal permit.

The Ministry of Law and Human Rights is coming up with an app to keep a track of the overseas tourist who stays beyond the approved 30 days period on the free visa. The travelers who arrive in Indonesia will be allotted barcodes for their passports and this should be used at every instance when they purchase tickets for transportation.

Yasonna said that the government has a record of the tourists who stay beyond the 30 day period and it will be quite easy for them to keep a track of their movement. The ministry has also increased the scrutiny amidst reports of an increase in illegal workers in Indonesia. It has also been reported that some of the workers are engaged in occupations different from those approved in their visa permits.