The immigration authorities in Bali deported a 29-year-old Ukrainian man who goes by the initials VB after they found out he was a masseuse. The Ukrainian reportedly possessed a “foreign investment visa” which forbade him from generating any actual income in Bali.
During a press conference held on Monday, the 17th of April 2023, Sugito, the director of the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, stated, “He had massage clients from different countries. He moved around, stopping at his client’s place. He had a stay permit for an investment visa but worked as a masseuse or spa therapist.”
The Ukrainian was detained due to public claims and social media videos showing VB giving massages to tourists in Bali. An immigration enforcement squad arrested the Ukrainian after collecting evidence.
According to the police, the Ukrainian man entered Bali on the 4th of February 2023, using an investment visa designed to provide potential investors with the chance to open a spa business in Indonesia and not to be the actual spa therapist.
Immigration officials in Bali have deported 93 foreigners in the last four months for violating immigration regulations and engaging in activities that were considered insulting to Indonesian culture, posing a threat to the safety of Indonesian citizens, or constituting a hazard to the public order.
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An official has released a statistic that suggests authorities are becoming harsher on tourists who flout the law on the Island of Gods, even as a controversy involving foreigners has recently dominated headlines in Bali. Anggiat Napitupulu, the director of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Bali Office, disclosed that 93 foreigners who had resided in Bali between the 1st of January and the 17th of April of this year had been deported from Indonesia.
Russia had the most deportees, with 24, followed by Nigeria with seven and the United States and Australia with six each. Anggiat pointed out that the majority of the 93 deportees had their visas and permits revoked, as well as other legal infractions, leading to their deportation from Indonesia, which in this case, it would be this Ukrainian spa therapist.
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