Immigration viewed from the perspective of the Defense and Security
By David Raja Marpaung
By David Raja Marpaung
Immigration basically have strategic value to the defense and national security. This is because the major function of immigration as a state institution responsible for the administration and control of traffic flow of people between countries. Here it is understood that immigration is directly located on the first layer of the leading countries in the region (read: the border) that serves to counter external threats. As we know that the immigration work in the region 'modern borders' such as airports, seaports and border crossing / onshore terminal.
Regarding the issue of Immigration
There are several problems in the field of immigration that has real implications for the issues of defense and national security should receive more attention, namely,
1.Monitoring against foreigners inflows to Indonesia along with the validity of their residence permit
This is a fundamental function of the primary responsibilities of the immigration authorities. They must conduct periodic administrative supervision of the foreign national to visit Indonesia. It is inevitable that many foreigners who come to Indonesia, and not a few of them have the potential to provide defense and security threats in Indonesia, for example, conducts intelligence operations by foreign countries.
2. Counter-terrorism
Immigration into the first door to the possibility of entry filtration to people suspected of having ties / capabilities by radical groups in Indonesia. Therefore, the immigration should be strengthened to support information technology and networks internationally with immigration in other countries.
3. Illegal immigrants
Illegal immigration problem is a ticking time bomb for Indonesia and should be treated early. As you know, Indonesia is one of the countries 'transit' favorite for some asylum seekers / illegal immigrants before they reach the destination country. The problem is, the current government seemed to turn a blind eye to the fact that Indonesia is slowly used as the 'reservoir' by the destination country. This can be seen from the weak to the immigration counter to the current in the conduct of illegal immigrants from the countries 'transit' before (Malaysia / Thailand) is mostly done through the territorial sea.
4. Illegal migrants issue
TKI problem is a classic problem that until now there has never been a positive solution. For those who keep the 'exit' of this country, the immigration should be more pro-active action to address the problem of illegal migrant workers.
National Strategic Issues
Besides some of the problems above, the main problem is still a part of immigration is the fact that until recently the government has yet to optimize the strategic value of immigration for defense and security of Indonesia. Is something ironic when geographically Indonesia has thousands of islands and hundreds of kilometers of sea and land area, but the government has not been able to control the flow of traffic through the cracks.
Is greater, must be noted that the government still sees the modern border management such as airports, seaports or land terminal as something that is handled separately by various agencies such as immigration, customs, police, quarantine, etc.. In fact, in some developed countries like in Europe, modern border region has been integrated in one system that includes CIQS (Custom, Immigration, and Security Quarantinne).
The fourth element is then used in an integrated way to ensure both the security of the state (state security) example of the threat of terrorism and human security (human security) example of the threat of endemic diseases such as bird flu. Thus, issues such as terrorism, illegal immigration, the threat of endemic and other diseases can be detected and prevented
