German blogger was called to leave Indonesia for an article about a queue at the airport

Citizen of Germany Sebastian Powel, who is now in Bali, criticized the slow work of the border control service at the international airport I Gusti Ngurah Rai in Denpasar in his blog. The video blogger, who is also engaged in tourist business, negatively spoke about the five-hour queue allegedly arising at the visa on arrival (VOA) counters. Sebastian arrived in Bali from Bangkok on July 29.

Фото: CNNIndonesia/Adi Ibrahim

The head of the regional office of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in Bali, Angiat Napitupulu, stated that as a punishment for Powel, he will have to leave Indonesia within 30 days - before the expiration of his visa. According to him, the article written by the foreigner does not correspond to reality. According to the surveillance camera data, Powel passed the border control in 53 minutes.

When Powel was contacted by the Ministry representative, the German citizen stated that the information he had published was based not on personal experience but on the experience of other people. However, he could not explain exactly when the long queue had formed.

Angiat said that Ngurah Rai Airport serves an average of 47 flights from 22 countries per day. The longest queue arises when several planes arrive simultaneously. And even in such cases, he said, immigration control at the airport does not take more than two hours. Currently, there are 16 immigration counters at the airport, 13 of which are in use.

Meanwhile, the capacity of the international terminal of Ngurah Rai Airport has already reached its maximum. Regular international flights land too close together in time. This can lead to a congestion of passengers in the arrival zone.

According to the central statistical agency (BPS), the number of foreign tourists arriving in Indonesia in June 2022 reached 345,440. In total, from January to June, 743,210 people came from abroad.