Australia Gives “Travel Warning” to Indonesia, Why?

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The Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday (8/12/2022) updated its travel advice to “warning” for its citizens going to Indonesia.

This is due to the impact of the ratification of the Draft Criminal Code into the Criminal Code earlier this week. New rules prohibiting sex outside of marriage for residents and travelers are to blame.

“The Indonesian parliament has passed a revision of the penal code, which includes penalties for cohabitation and sex outside of marriage,” said an update posted on the Smart Traveler website,

“Travellers beware… because otherwise, we could see some very unfortunate situations where we have to provide consular assistance to people who unknowingly or unknowingly do the wrong thing,” the announcement added.

However, it noted the revisions would not come into force for three years.

The travel update comes after the Coalition’s immigration spokesman called for the travel advice to be changed to avoid Australians falling into “very unfortunate situations”.

More than 1 million Australians visit Indonesia every year With Bali as the destination.

Besides Australia, Previously the United States (US) also gave a warning to Indonesia. The country mentioned the possibility of investors from RI ‘running away.

This is related to the ratification of the Draft Criminal Code (RKUHP) to become a law that contains points prohibiting sex outside of marriage. An official statement was even provided by a spokesperson for the State Department, Ned Price.

He said that Washington was worried about how this change could impact the implementation of human rights (HAM) and fundamental freedoms in Indonesia. This, according to him, will certainly have a negative impact on US citizens in Indonesia.

“We are also concerned about how the law may impact US citizens visiting and living in Indonesia, as well as the investment climate for US companies,” he said at a press briefing quoted by AFP on Wednesday.