If you’ve ever been travelling, you’ll probably know that visas are not indefinite. They have a time limit on them, and if you go over that time limit you could face a fine.
When you go over that time limit by 160 days, you could face a very hefty fine.
British tourist Auj-e Taqaddas was hit with just such a fine, so she ‘hit back’ after being told she must pay $4,000 – $25 for each day since her visa expired – she slapped an immigration officer.
Taqaddas, 42, had arrived at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday, July 28, to catch a flight to Singapore.
You can watch it here:
However, after receiving her boarding pass, she went through immigration checks where officers noticed her month-long visa expired back in February.
Airport staff informed the tourist she must pay $25 for each day since her visa expired, amounting to $4,000.
The bill sent Taqaddas into a foul-mouthed rage and she was caught on camera branding immigration officer Ardyansyah, 28, a ‘f*cking b*stard’.
The guy’s just doing his job. And as Taqaddas tries to snatch back her passport, Ardyansyah pulls it away, which is when she delivers the blow to his face.
Immigration Chief Ngurah Rai Aris Amran said:
She slapped the officer, who is a respected guard. She touched immigration, which means touching representatives of the nation. So we reported it to the police.
In the outburst, Taqaddas can be heard blaming ‘f*cking immigration’ for making her miss her flight, and telling them to ‘take the f*cking money and get lost’.
She then says:
You aren’t paying for this f*cking flight. You b*stards told me to bring the money, why didn’t you b*stards tell me anything else.
And shut up your f*cking camera and show your ugly face in that camera.
Taqaddas missed her flight to Singapore and was instead taken to an immigration holding cell where she was kept while officers process her documents and wait for payment.
Immigration Chief Ngurah Rai Aris Amran said:
Based on the results of immigration checks, Taqaddas arrived in Indonesia with a visit visa free facility on January 19, 2018. That is, the owner of the passport has exceeded overstay in Indonesia for more than 60 days.
She pretended not know that she had overstayed. But people who visit a country to travel know they have a period of stay. She had overstayed since February.
Public Relations Division Head Agung Sampurno said that after being taken into the office, Taqaddas had become ’emotional’ and slapped the officer.
He added:
As soon as we detected that she had overstayed at the counter, she was already emotional with him.
Now the woman concerned cannot be dispatched, cannot go home, because the violation must be processed first, in the form of payment of fines.
By law, every overstayed tourist must pay a fine and if they are unwilling to they will be arrested.
Seems like quite a few of us might have to check our visas a lot more in future, unfortunately.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.