Indonesian authorities are issuing shipowners with large immigration fines if procedures for off-signing crew are not followed fully.
There have been many occasions where owner-appointed agents did not fully comply with the Indonesian Customs requirements, such as taking the disembarking crew to the immigration check points (TPI/Tempat Pemeriksaan Imigrasi). Instead of that, the disembarking seafarers were taken directly to the airport, where they were detained by the authorities for illegal entry into the country.
North Club informs that this is a violation of immigration law and there is also the potential sanction of 1 year imprisonment and/or a fine of IDR 100,000,000 (approx. USD 7,000) per person, local correspondents confirmed. Additionally to that, criminal sanctions can be also applied to the ship owner.
It should be noted that members should conduct full due diligence prior to appointing any agent in Indonesia.
