Jayapura – West Papua National Committee (KNPB) international spokesperson Victor Yeimo says that the Jayapura immigration office has banned him from overseas travel (dicekal) and refuses to issue him a passport.

Yeimo conveyed this to Suara Papua after receiving an online travel ban notification from the Immigration Intelligence and Enforcement (Inteldakim) Section on Thursday December 8 at 9.49 am.

According to Yeimo, this is because of a travel ban that had been issued by the national police (Polri) on December 25, 2021.

He says that the ban is a violation of his human rights because he has been released from prison and is no longer linked to any criminal cases.

"I think that the immigration department should not restrict my rights as a citizen to have a passport as an overseas travel document", said Yeimo.

Yeimo said that when he was at the immigration office he explained that he was no longer linked to any cases, however immigration officials suggested that he first ask the police to revoke his travel ban on the Cekal Online website.

Thus as a follow up, he said, he will ask for legal assistance to write to the Papua regional police chief and the Papua Justice and Human Rights regional office to ask that the overseas travel ban be revoked immediately because it has the potential to restrict his rights as a citizen.

Yeimo is a KNPB activist and political prisoner who was convicted of makar (treason, rebellion, subversion) and was only released from the Abepura Correctional Institution in Jayapura on Saturday September 23.

He was charged with makar because he was deemed to have organised demonstrations that took place in Jayapura city in 2019 on August 19 and 29 protesting racist slurs directed against Papuan students at the Kemasan III Papua student dormitory in Surabaya, East Java, on August 16, 2019.

On November 10 Yeimo was given the Voltaire Empty Chair Award by the Australian organisation Liberty Victoria for his perseverance in defending human rights in Papua.

• See Papuan rights activist Victor Yeimo wins 2023 Voltaire Empty Chair Award. Suara Papua – November 10, 2023

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Victor Yeimo Dicekal dan Paspornya Tidak Diterbitkan".]

Source: https://suarapapua.com/2023/12/10/victor-yeimo-dicekal-dan-paspornya-tidak-diterbitkan/