Tangerang. Indonesian police have thwarted an attempt to smuggle 127 illegal migrant workers disguised as Umrah pilgrims at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, officials announced on Thursday.

During the operation, authorities arrested seven suspects -- four men and three women, aged between 19 and 53 -- on human trafficking charges.

“The suspects lured these individuals with promises of domestic work abroad, offering salaries ranging from Rp 16 million ($980) to Rp 30 million ($1,838),” said Airport Police Chief Ronald Sipayung during a press conference.

The scheme involved dressing the workers in pilgrimage attire and providing forged documents to make it appear as though they were traveling for Umrah in Saudi Arabia, Ronald explained.

“The flight manifest listed them as Umrah pilgrims, but their actual purpose was to work in a foreign country,” he said, without disclosing the intended destination.

Acting on a community tip-off, police dispatched a team to the airport’s international departure terminal, where they intercepted the suspects and uncovered the scheme.

Officers confiscated travel documents, boarding passes, and falsified recommendation letters from the Religious Affairs Ministry.

Authorities noted that smuggling migrant workers under the guise of Umrah pilgrims has been a recurring issue for years.

Indonesia has maintained a moratorium on sending domestic workers to Saudi Arabia for the past decade, significantly reducing the number of Indonesian workers in the country from over 2 million at its peak to around 100,000 today.

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