TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Directorate General of Immigration in Indonesia has prevented the departure of 1,243 individuals intending to perform the Hajj through nonprocedural routes from April 23 to June 1, 2025. "Their departure was postponed because they were suspected of not following the proper Hajj procedures," said the Director of Immigration Checkpoints, Suhendra, in a written statement on Monday, June 2, 2025.
Suhendra mentioned that the 1,243 illegal Hajj pilgrims intended to depart from various regions in Indonesia. He detailed that pilgrims intended to fly to the Hajj, while the rest planned to travel by sea.
"The main reason for postponing their departure is that these Indonesian citizens do not have the required Hajj visas or other documents for the pilgrimage," Suhendra stated.
According to Suhendra, this postponement does not mean that these individuals cannot travel to Saudi Arabia at all, as they already have Saudi visas, which means they can enter the country.
However, he added that immigration officials are pressing to prevent the misuse of visas during the Hajj pilgrimage. "Even after the Hajj season ends, these individuals can still travel to Saudi Arabia for the intended purpose of their visas," he said.
Of the total number, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport recorded the highest number of departure postponements with 719 individuals. This was followed by Juanda International Airport in Surabaya with 187 individuals, and Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar with 52 individuals.
Sultan Hasanudin Airport in Makassar with 46 individuals, Yogyakarta International Airport with 42 individuals, Kualanamu Airport in Medan with 18 individuals, Minangkabau Airport in West Sumatra with 12 individuals, and Sultan Haji Sulaiman International Airport with 4 individuals whose departures were postponed.
In addition, the departure of nonprocedural Hajj pilgrims was also postponed at several international ports in Batam, in the Riau Islands. At Citra Tri Tunas Port, 82 individuals had their departures postponed, followed by 54 individuals at Batam Center Port and 27 individuals at Bengkong Port.
In Yogyakarta, Suhendra stated that officials found irregularities in the information from six Indonesian citizens with the initials HBS, DDA, K, MS, M, and ER who intended to depart to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, using AirAsia flight AK349.
During initial inspections, four individuals claimed they were going on vacation to Kuala Lumpur and planned to return on May 27, 2025. Meanwhile, the other two showed Saudi work visas. Officials then conducted further investigations and interviews, which resulted in the confession from the six individuals that Kuala Lumpur was only a transit destination before continuing their journey to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj.
Meanwhile, in Surabaya, 171 pilgrims whose departures were postponed were found not to have Hajj visas. They intended to travel to Saudi Arabia using visit visas with the assistance of a travel agency. "One pilgrim admitted that they had to spend hundreds of millions of rupiah in order to leave," Suhendra said.
Suhendra regretted that the good intentions of people performing a religious pilgrimage were exploited by irresponsible individuals or parties who made them depart through nonprocedural routes.
At the embarkation point in Makassar, immigration officials postponed the departures of 46 Indonesian citizens from April 23 to May 23, 2025, due to inconsistent statements during inspections.
Eleven of them claimed they planned to go to Medan to attend a family engagement event, but after thorough inspections by the officials, it was proven that they and their entourage were going to perform nonprocedural Hajj.
"We postponed their departures to prevent them from potential problems in the future, both domestically and internationally. We don't want their pilgrimage to become a problem due to improper methods," Suhendra said.
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