FORTY ILLEGAL AFGHAN IMMIGRANTS TO BE REPATRIATED

Pekanbaru, Riau Province, July 7 (ANTARA) - Some 40 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan who are currently being detained at the Pekanbaru immigration office will be returned to their country in stages starting in July.

"The process of returning them to Afghanistan will be carried out in four stages. This week, in the first stage, five of the immigrants are to be returned," Yanizur, head of the Pekanbaru immigration's detention center, said here on Tuesday.

The planned return of the 40 immigrants has been approved by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and all costs for their return will be borne by the UN agency.

The Pekanbaru immigration's detention center is currently accommodating 101 immigrants, while its accommodation capacity is actually just for 60 people.

Seventeen of the 40 Afghan immigrants are actually still at large after escaping from the detention center with 18 others. Thirty-five foreign immigrants escaped from the center last June 28 and have not been found yet up to now.

"I hope the names of the 17 escaped immigrants can be changed with some other immigrants to enable them return to Afghanistan," Yanizur said.

Meanwhile, the immigration office in Medan, North Sumatra, is still conducting a search for 13 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan who escaped from quarantine on Sunday, June 28.

The head of the office, Langkarnana, told newsmen here on Tuesday an immigration team was cooperating with the regional police in an effort to recapture the immigrants.

The search was being done in hotels, the airport, bus terminals and the seaport but so far they had not been located, he said.

He said the office believed a third party was involved in their escape because all the escapees had left behind all their belongings, including their clothes.

He said they probably had escaped because they had lost their patience in waiting for the result of the immigration office's efforts to send them to a third country, namely Australia.

***4***