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Tourists take note. Watch your behaviour when clearing the immigration at Batam Centre International Ferry Terminal. You may be deported home for being too noisy.
Image credits: Batamfast
A travel advisory has been issued by Batamfast, one of the three HarbourFront ferry operators, recommending their passengers to refrain from unnecessary interactions with others while queueing for immigration clearance at Batam.
Recently, immigration officers at the ferry terminal in Batam, Indonesia are refusing entry to visitors for talking too loudly. Reporters who visited the ferry terminal also found signs pasted on the pillars showing a picture of a finger over a pair of lips.
The silence that immigration officers demand from visitors appears to have been strictly enforced.
According to reports, about 50 Singaporeans are turned back every week. Ferry operators based in Singapore with services to the Batam Centre also revealed that they send back at least five people weekly.
Singaporeans caught for being too noisy were told to get on the next boat back to Singapore without recourse. Families were reportedly split up under the ferry terminal’s strict enforcement of such a rule.
Batam Centre Immigration Office’s chief Irwanto Suhaili has also commented that his officers need the silence to maintain order. In his own defense, tourists would otherwise not hear the officers when their names are being called and asked to step forward. Tourists who were sent back had only themselves to blame.
For your next weekend getaway at Batam, do heed our advice: shut up. Or you will have no holiday photos to post on your Instagram account. Or maybe just a picture of the Batam ferry terminal as you speed back home. Prematurely.
Image credits: http://bit.ly/1oUx0s9
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