JAKARTA: The Soekarno-Hatta immigration office in Tangerang, Banten, has arrested a couple allegedly behind the smuggling of Indonesians to the United Arab Emirates.
Head of the Soekarno-Hatta immigration office, Sutrisno, said here the other day that the suspects had been identified as Jamal al-Khadafi, 40, a resident of Syria, and Laila Yunita, 40, an Indonesian.
The couple allegedly smuggled a number of women from across the country to the United Arab Emirates via Malaysia.
He said the perpetrators attempted to fool immigration officers by using other people’s passports.
The office’s surveillance head, Ahmad Husny, said the case came to light on Jan.
Laila, along with three women, had booked flights to Kuala Lumpur through Garuda Indonesia.
“The officer noticed that the passport photos of the three women looked different to their actual faces,” Husny said on Tuesday as quoted by tempo.co.
After arresting Laila, the immigration officers apprehended her husband, Jamal, at his rented house in Karet Pedurenan in South Jakarta a week later.