Three Chinese men dressed as monks were arrested after allegedly getting caught violating their visa on arrivals whilst begging in Bali’s touristy Kuta and Legian areas.
Even though the three were wearing Buddhist monk style clothing, it apparently turns out that they were just playing dress-up to earn some cash on the street, Ngurah Rai International Airport immigration office chief Yosep HA Renung Widodo said in a press conference on Friday.
This is just so wrong, on so many levels.
“Apparently, they have wives. We know that monks would not have wives. So, it means that they are only acting,” the Jakarta Post quoted Widodo as saying.
He added that one of the faux monks’ wives was also arrested.
The three men have been identified in reports as Chen Kexin, 59, Xuanhai, 54, and Huang Jingzhong, 55.
Despite the fact that the three men were arrested separately, they are understood to have known each other and worked together on their profit-earning monk impersonation ploy.
Because they entered Indonesia using tourist visas, the begging they were doing goes against immigration regulations. Officials said the Chinese men arrived in the country via Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport in July.
“They entered Indonesia using tourist visas that were issued upon their arrival. So they have violated the Immigration Law,” Widodo explained.
To make the whole affair even more scandalous, counterfeit Chinese currency was also found with Huang.
The counterfeit money is being investigated further, while immigration is working to deport the other two men and blacklist them from entering Indonesia again.
