Immigration secures 129 scattered passport covers in BSD

Indonesian immigration officials in Tangerang have secured 129 used passport covers and one expired passport that were found scattered in the Halte BSD area of Tangerang Selatan. The discovery went viral on social media, prompting an immediate investigation.

Hasanin, Head of the Special Class I Immigration Office Non TPI Tangerang, confirmed that the recovered items included 129 used passport covers and one expired passport. Initial checks revealed that the passport covers were missing their biodata pages and content pages. The immigration office coordinated with the Serpong Police, who had initially secured the documents before handing them over to immigration for further action.

Further investigation, in coordination with the Ministry of Hajj's Tangerang Selatan regional office, confirmed that the documents were old and invalid passports belonging to Hajj pilgrims who had already departed. These documents were reportedly under the responsibility of the Ministry of Hajj.

The Ministry of Hajj's Tangerang Selatan office is currently conducting an internal review to determine how these old documents were lost from their supervision and ended up scattered on the street. The immigration office has advised the Ministry of Hajj to evaluate its procedures for returning old passports to Hajj pilgrims to prevent similar incidents. They also reminded the public to safeguard their passports, even after expiration, as they are official state documents.