At least four Swedish citizens have been stopped from entering Indonesia the past week because they did not have a visa.
“No Swedes have contacted us about this yet but I know that two of our citizens were sent back from Bali this week because they lacked visas,” says Ms Viveca Löfberg at the consular section of Sweden’s embassy in Jakarta. “What surprises me is that the airlines do not check passenger’s passports and visas.”
Other known cases so far include a Swedish couple in Singapore that were turned back from the Indonesian island Bintan and a businessman traveling from Bangkok to Jakarta.
The new visa regulations cut through the EU. Citizens from EU member nations Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Luxemburg, Spain, Portugal and Ireland need visas before arrival while all other EU citizens, plus them from non EU-member Norway, can obtain a visa on arrival.
The EU Mission in Jakarta has asked Indonesia to adjust the regulations to affect all EU nations in a similar fashion, i.e. that citizens from all EU nations are eligible to get a visa on arrival.
