Bali deports foreigners for working on tourist visas

Immigration officers deported three foreigners from Bali this month after finding two teaching yoga at a villa and a third installing factory machinery, all on permits that allow only tourism. The Class II Singaraja Immigration Office identified the three by their initials, in line with Indonesian practice: AKG, 48, an Indian citizen; RN, 44, a Singaporean; and ST, 34, a Chinese national, Bali daily NusaBali reported.AKG and RN were found running yoga sessions at a villa in Buleleng Regency, on Bali's northern coast, New York Post reported. Officers concluded the two were not only organizing the classes but teaching them.ST was found at a factory in Karangasem Regency, in the east, installing production machinery and training the company's staff to operate it.All three had entered on visitor permits. AKG and ST used visas on arrival. RN entered under the visa-free facility Indonesia extends to citizens of fellow ASEAN member states, Singapore among them.Anak Agung Gde Kusuma Putra, who heads the Singaraja office, said neither permit covers work or any activity outside the purpose stated on entry."Every foreign national in Indonesia must comply with applicable immigration regulations," Kusuma Putra said in a written statement on July 15. Oversight of foreigners would keep tightening as a matter of law enforcement, he added.The office deported the men under the 2011 Immigration Law. The law also recommended all three for Indonesia's re-entry deterrence list for a set period.The list is not a lifetime ban. Under the law as amended in 2024, a bar on re-entry runs for a maximum of 10 years and can be extended once by the same term. Permanent exclusion is reserved for foreigners the state judges a threat to security and public order.When Singaraja immigration reported its 2024 deportations, 30 in all, it listed teaching yoga alongside running spas, managing accommodation and guiding dives among the activities foreigners had carried out on visitor permits, Jakarta Globe reported.The office's jurisdiction covers Buleleng, Jembrana and Karangasem, well outside the tourist belt of Kuta, Seminyak and Canggu.Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Directorate General of Immigration's Bali regional office, said on July 3 that 342 foreign nationals had been deported from the province in the first six months of 2026, most of them for stay-permit misuse and overstaying.The directorate set up a dedicated patrol unit in April, Dharma Dewata, with about 100 officers assigned to the island. Government immigration data cited by Business Standard recorded 165 deportations and 62 detentions in Bali between Jan. 1 and April 12.