Immigration officials snared in passport scam

Four allegedly corrupt Indonesian immigration officials have been detained as the full extent of a forged passport scam emerges.

The Herald on Sunday, which revealed the people-trafficking scam in May, has now learned of 13 Indonesians who managed to enter New Zealand with the allegedly forged documents.

Four have now been convicted and sentenced at Napier District Court, seven are facing charges, and two have been sent back to Indonesia, according to the Department of Labour.

In Indonesia, police say another four people have been arrested, while four officials are understood to have been detained.

East Java Police Commissary Yayuk Kusmintarti said she had no information about the detention of the officials or their ranks, but did confirm that another forger had been arrested in Jakarta. That signalled the fraud ring was more sophisticated and connected than first believed.

She confirmed that a husband and wife who owned the Bukit Sion travel agency in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, had made brief appearances in a local court charged with document forgery.

No names have been released but it is understood the wife, Erni Pailina Tuerah, 37, ran the business, while the husband is a lecturer at a university in Manado in the north of Sulawesi Island. The travel agency office manager has also been arrested.

Scammers had taken the passports of Indonesians with legitimate visitor permits for New Zealand, and swapped their passport photos with those of illegal migrants.

New Zealand border control staff did not detect the forged passports.

Other countries targeted in the scam included Australia, Canada and the United States.

It is understood that at least four Indonesian immigration officials have been detained on suspicion of involvement: the first major bust involving information sharing between Indonesian and New Zealand authorities under a new memorandum of understanding.

New Zealand's Department of Labour and police are coy in providing concrete information, saying the matter remains an internal Indonesian affair; a stance likely to be received more favourably in a nation where many accuse Western nations of meddling.

Department of Labour deputy secretary Mary Anne Thompson said investigations were continuing and more charges could be laid.

People who obtained their New Zealand visas legitimately became victims of a scam that involved doctoring the photos on their passports, which were then used to enter New Zealand. "Other arrests in Indonesia in relation to the investigation are being handled by Indonesian authorities," she said. 

The New Zealand police counsellor in Indonesia, Athol Soper, said it was inappropriate to comment on the ongoing, complicated matter. "We have been working with Indonesian police to get a satisfactory outcome and I am not able to comment on immigration officials being involved because it is a complex matter."

The woman and three men who were sentenced in Napier to 13 months' jail had paid up to NZ$8000 for each passport, a massive sum for many Indonesians. They will be deported when their sentences expire.

The sentencing noted that with concerns about terrorism, it was a bad time to be involved in such a fraud, although there was no suggestion they had entered New Zealand for any other reason than to work.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY