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Indonesian immigration deports US activist Jim Keady for visa violation
Jakarta Globe - May 8, 2014
Jim Keady, an international labor activist, was sent back to his home country, the United States, after being questioned by officers on Thursday for his participation at a workers' demonstration outside Nike's offices in Jakarta on May 1.
"He was using the visa on arrival to conduct activities that are not permitted under his visa," spokesman of the immigration office, Heriyanto, said on Thursday.
Heriyanto said immigration personnel had been monitoring closely all visa-on-arrival holders to ensure that they did not misuse their permit. He said the office was considering whether Keady should be banned from entering Indonesia. "We recommend that he be refused from entering the country, but we haven't banned him," Heriyanto said.
Keady, a 40-year-old activist, had said on Tuesday that he was picked up by officers while he was participating in the May Day celebration after being followed by some intelligence officers.
"I was brought in for hours of questioning on Thursday. My passport was confiscated, and I had to report back to the immigration office for additional questioning on Friday morning," Keady said.
After the investigation, he said he was told that would be deported, that he could not travel to Indonesia for six months, and that the period of the travel ban could be extended indefinitely. The activist claims to have made frequent trips do Indonesia for 14 years.
"I don't think it is any coincidence I was picked up a day after I stood in solidarity with hundreds of workers at a demonstration at Nike's Indonesian headquarters in Jakarta," says Keady, who is also the director of Educating for Justice, a US-based group that focuses on Nike workers' rights.
Keady has been actively involved in uncovering salary wrongdoing at Nike's Pratama factory in Sukabumi, which is 80 kilometers south of Jakarta. Local management there had allegedly engaged in fraud to secure an exemption from paying the West Java city's new monthly minimum wage of Rp 2.2 million ($228), matching that of Jakarta's.
"The powers that be may think that by taking this action they are going to silence my voice and activism on this issue," said Keady. "To the contrary, I am as committed now as I have ever been to telling the world about Nike's labor abuses in Indonesia. The truth does not need passport or a visa to be heard."
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