Durian. At least 118 foreign nationals from various countries were rejected to enter Indonesia through immigration offices across the country since Feb.5-23 as an effort to prevent the spreading of coronavirus from outside sources, a spokesman said on Feb.23.
Arvin Gumilang, the spokesman of Indonesia’s Directorate General of Immigration at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry said 89 of those foreign nationals were rejected from Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali.
Those foreign nationals were from countries such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States and from European as well as African countries.
“Reasons of rejection are including they who once stayed or transited in mainland China within 14 days before entering Indonesia,” Gumilang said in a statement.
The government of Indonesia decided to stop direct flight from and to China since Feb. 5 until further notification.
Indonesia has temporarily revoked free and visa on arrival facilities to Chinese citizen due to the outbreak of coronavirus, or covid19 in China, starting in Hubei province last December.
For Chinese citizens who have arrived in Indonesia before Feb.5 and decided to prolong their stay until the situation in their home country returns to normal, Indonesian immigration department has granted visa extension for emergency circumstances.
As of Feb.23, there are 1,247 Chinese nationals have been granted visa extension from immigration offices all over the archipelago country.
As of Feb. 7, Chinese government has sent an airplane to carry its citizen back to Wuhan in Hubei province, but only about 61 people have left Indonesia from Bali’s airport on Feb.8 with the special air carrier.
