Chinese Visitors‘ Stay Permits Extended

The Indonesian government is allowing Chinese visitors with expired visas to prolong their stay after all flights to and from China were temporarily halted.

AP PHOTO/VINCENT YU

Residents lined up to buy masks in Hong Kong, Wednesday (05/02/2020). Hospital workers in Hong Kong demanded that the territory\'s border with China be closed in order to tackle the spread of the coronavirus.

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – The Indonesian government has announced that Chinese travelers with expired tourist and business visas will be allowed to prolong their stay in the country.

Manado Class I Immigration Office head Arthur Mawikere said that Law and Human Rights Ministerial Regulation No. 3/2020 extended the 30-day visa-free policy by an additional 30 for all Chinese visitors in Indonesia. The step was taken after the government temporarily grounded all flights to and from China on Wednesday (5/2/2020).

“The regulation was signed by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly. For now, Chinese visitors can stay until their visas expire. Afterwards, they will be given a 30-day extension on their stay permits,” Arthus said on Wednesday.

Fifteen Chinese visitors in Manado had applied for stay permits since Tuesday, as they were unable to buy tickets home. Arthur said that the majority were the wives and children of men working in Indonesia who had entered the country under the visa-free tourism policy.

Manado has been a top destination for Chinese visitors to Indonesia since 2016, with Chinese nationals accounting for around 89 percent of the 120,000 foreign arrivals in Manado.

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

A man carries his masked son while shopping on Wednesday (5/2/2020) at the Ranai Market in Natuna Island, Riau Islands province. Activity at the market returned to normal after fear spread among local residents about the plan to use facilities on the island to quarantine Indonesian evacuees from Wuhan, China.

The government has also provided a 30-day extension for Chinese workers with limited stay permits that were expiring. However, the government would not prevent any Chinese national from repatriating if they so desired. “Indonesia currently has 40,000 workers from China,” said Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah.

Law ministry spokesperson Fitriadi Agung Prabowo said that, as of Wednesday at midnight, Indonesia had officially banned all flights to and from China in an effort to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in keeping with the instruction of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. “[Yasonna] signed the Law and Human Rights Ministerial Regulation on the flight ban and came into effect on 5 Feb.,” he said in Jakarta.

According to Fitriadi, other countries like Singapore had also placed temporary bans on all direct and transit flights to and from China. “The step is not permanent. We will monitor developments in the spread of the virus and the global response. Please note that China remains Indonesia’s strategic economic partner,” he said.

The last direct flight to China departed from I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali before the ban came into effect early on Wednesday. The China Southern Airlines flight carried 127 passengers bound for Guangzhou in Guangdong province, China.

KOMPAS/COKORDA YUDISTIRA

Travelers prepare to enter the departure hall of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on Tuesday (4/2/2020) in Badung, Bali. The government temporarily stopped all direct flights to and from China starting Wednesday (5/2/2020) to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

More cases

According to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the United States, confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus had reached 24,607 and 494 fatalities by 9 p.m. on Wednesday, with 479 of the fatal cases in Hubei province, China. Meanwhile, 990 patients had recovered.

The city of Wuhan in Hubei province is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. The pneumonia-like illness caused by the virus was first reported in Wuhan in December 2019. The Chinese government has imposed a lockdown on Hubei.

Authorities in Wuhan have also established local quarantine centers at hotels, schools and private hospitals, totaling 132 quarantine centers with 12,571 beds.

Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun said that other, non-isolated Chinese provinces had enough supplies of food and water, but were seeing a shortage of face masks. Airports remained open and the local people could still travel in and out of China.

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto (left) arrives at Raden Sadjad Air Base on Natuna Island, Riau Islands province, on Wednesday (5/2/2020), along with Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto (second left) and Natuna Regent Abdul Hamid Rizal (right), to check the condition of Indonesian evacuees from Wuhan, China.

Natuna quarantine

Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto visited the quarantine facilities in Natuna, Riau Islands province, where Indonesian evacuees from Wuhan are under observation. The two called on the people of Natuna to trust the government.

“We are here to persuade the people not to panic. If the people and the government work together, all [will work out well],” Prabowo said at Raden Sadjad Air Base on Natuna.

Kogabwilhan I (Joint Defense Area I) commander Vice Adm. Yudo Margono and Natuna Regent Abdul hamid Rizal accompanied Prabowo and Terawan during their visit to the quarantine facility set up in a hangar at the air base, which currently holds 238 Indonesian evacuees. The delegation observed the condition of the facility from inside a car parked about 100 meters from the hangar.

Meanwhile, in a statement provided to Kompas, Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) chair Jusuf Kalla said that all parties must work together to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, and cautioned against overreacting. What was important was in maintaining proper and clear communication with the public.

We are here to persuade the people not to panic. If the people and the government work together.

Kalla, who was vice president in 2004-2009 and 2014-2019, said that the PMI had 170,000 boxes of masks. The organization had sent 50,000 boxes to Hong Kong and 20,000 boxes to Natuna, and that the distribution to Hong Kong showed that Indonesia was helping China tackle the outbreak.

President Jokowi said on Wednesday at the State Palace in Jakarta that the global economy would slow as a result of the outbreak. The slowdown would affect not just China, the epicenter of the outbreak, but also other countries.

The government does not have plans at present to review its 5.7 percent growth target for 2020. The President said the government was still calculating the impacts of the outbreak on Indonesia’s economic growth.

Nevertheless, the government remained optimistic that Indonesia’s economy would grow more than 5 percent. Past experience showed that the national economy would remain strong amid the global economic turmoil.

(OKA/COK/MED/ADH/REK/NTA/NDU)