Siem Reap, Cambodia — Indonesia’s Director General of Immigration, Hendarsam Marantoko, outlined three pillars of the national immigration strategy during the 29th Meeting of the ASEAN Directors-General of Immigration Departments and Heads of Consular Affairs Divisions of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (DGICM), held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from June 23 to 25, 2026. The strategy focuses on strengthening border inspections, monitoring foreign nationals, and integrating digital services.
“Strengthened border inspections, the monitoring of foreign nationals, and the integration of digital services form the three pillars supporting Indonesia’s immigration system. Backed by inter-agency collaboration, we have been able to detect immigration violations and transnational crimes at an early stage—whether before, during, or after the inspection process,” stated Hendarsam in his opening remarks.
Hendarsam further explained that regarding border security, the Directorate General of Immigration (Ditjenim) is optimizing risk-based analysis through the Passenger Analysis Unit (PAU) at Immigration Checkpoints (TPI) and the Immigration Traffic Monitoring Center (ITMC) at the central level.
The Foreigner Reporting Application (APOA) has proven effective through its integration with the Indonesian National Police (Polri). This integration contributed to the arrest of 210 foreign nationals involved in an online investment fraud case in Batam in early May 2026, as part of efforts to prevent the misuse of residence permits. On the same day, the Director General of Immigration also attended a bilateral meeting with Australia’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA).
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“Today, I had the opportunity to hold discussions with DHA Australia. The timing was opportune for us to propose that the procedure for issuing Working Holiday Visas to Indonesian citizens be managed proportionally by the Australian government. We proposed a ‘Ballot System,’ as it is better suited to ensuring fairness, transparency, and efficiency in managing the high volume of applicants from Indonesia,” explained Hendarsam.
At the regional level, Indonesia has been designated as the Voluntary Lead Shepherd (VLS) for the issue of people smuggling within the implementation of the DGICM Plan of Action (PoA). Meanwhile, other areas of regional cooperation are led by Cambodia (Intelligence Data Sharing Protocol), Malaysia (Foreign Terrorist Fighters Movement), Singapore (Fraudulent Travel Documents), and Brunei Darussalam (Consular Matters).
“The challenge of transnational crime requires an integrated solution. Through Indonesia’s mandate as the Lead Shepherd for addressing human smuggling, we urge all ASEAN members to demonstrate a concrete commitment to strengthening intelligence information exchange and technological alignment for the sake of a safer and more resilient region,” concluded Hendarsam.
