Indonesia deports 26 Iraqis

Some 26 Iraqi citizens have been deported from the Indonesian Riau province in Sumatra island for illegal entry, Indonesian news agency ANTARA reported, quoting an official at the Ministry for Law and Legal Affairs on Monday.

A spokesman of the Directorate General for Immigration, Mursanudhi Ghani, said the 26 Iraqis were deported by the Immigration Office of Bagansiapi-api, a district located north of the provincial capital of Pekanbaru.

They entered Indonesia without reporting to official immigration checkpoints. After arriving on Indonesian territory from Malaysia on February 26, they trekked along the Sialang river which leads to Bangko subdistrict in Rokan Hilir district.

The expelled Iraqis --11 men, 8 women, and seven children-- were sent back to Malaka, Malaysia.

The ministry's Riau office had noted a rising tendency in the number of Iraqi people entering Indonesia through Riau. The number of them had reached 100 people.