DETAINED ABROAD

Who qualifies as a foreign national under Indonesian law?

Under Article 1 of Law No. 6 of 2011 on Immigration, a foreign national (orang asing) is any person who is not an Indonesian citizen. This is a citizenship-based definition that does not depend on residency status or immigration category.

Indonesian citizenship is governed by Law No. 12 of 2006 on Citizenship of the Republic of Indonesia. Citizens include persons born to an Indonesian parent, persons naturalised under Indonesian law, and certain children born in Indonesia who would otherwise be stateless. Anyone not falling within these categories is legally a foreign national.

Indonesia does not generally recognise dual citizenship for adults. An Indonesian national who voluntarily acquires foreign nationality loses Indonesian citizenship by operation of law and is thereafter treated as a foreign national.

All immigration statuses (holders of visit visas, limited stay permits (KITAS), permanent stay permits (KITAP), visa-free entrants, and undocumented migrants) remain legally classified as foreign nationals for these purposes.^{[11]Law No. 6 of 2011 on Immigration (Indonesia) https://rimap.unhcr.org/node/42238; Law No. 12 of 2006 on Citizenship of the Republic of Indonesia https://bphn.go.id/data/documents/lawoncitizenship.pdf.}

What are the basic rights of a foreign national upon arrest or detention

Foreign nationals are entitled to the same fundamental procedural rights as Indonesian citizens. These rights were established in the 1945 Constitution and 1981 Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) and are preserved and modernised in the New Criminal Procedure Code (Law No. 20 of 2025), which entered into force on 2 January 2026:

• Right to be informed of the grounds for arrest: A suspect must be told clearly, and in a language they understand, the reasons for their detention and the specific charges against them
• Right to make a statement freely: No statement or confession may be obtained through coercion, intimidation, or force. Statements obtained via torture are inadmissible under the exclusionary rules of the new code
• Right to legal counsel: A suspect has the right to be assisted by one or more lawyers at every stage of examination. Where the potential penalty is death or fifteen years or more, or where the suspect is indigent and faces a sentence of five years or more, state-appointed counsel is mandatory and free of charge
• Right to an interpreter: A suspect who does not understand or speak Bahasa Indonesia is entitled to the assistance of a competent interpreter at every stage of the proceedings.
• Right to freedom from torture: This is a non-derogable right guaranteed under the 1945 Constitution, applying to all persons within Indonesian jurisdiction regardless of nationality.

In practice: While the 2025 New KUHAP introduces modern “special track” (plea bargaining) procedures to increase efficiency, civil society organisations have criticised provisions that may allow for the implied waiver of counsel during early interrogations. This creates significant enforcement gaps, particularly for foreign nationals in remote regions where access to qualified legal aid and independent interpreters remains severely limited.^{[12]Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia 1945 https://jdih.bapeten.go.id/unggah/dokumen/peraturan/116-full.pdf; Law No. 8 of 1981 on the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Indonesia-Code-of-Criminal-Procedure-1981-eng.pdf; Law No. 20 of 2025 on the Criminal Procedure Code https://bphn.go.id/data/documents/vcv.pdf; US Department of State, ‘Indonesia 2024 Human Rights Report’ (2024) https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/indonesia/; Maidina Rahmawati, ‘Draconian and Illiberal: Indonesia’s New KUHAP Is Worse than the Old One’ (Indonesia at Melbourne, 10 December 2025) https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/draconian-and-illiberal-indonesias-new-kuhap-is-worse-than-the-old-one/.}

What right does a foreign national have to contact their embassy or consulate?

Indonesia is a party to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), and this international obligation is integrated into the domestic legal system through several key instruments:

• Mandatory Notification upon Arrest: Under Law No. 1 of 1983, which formally ratified the VCCR into Indonesian law, authorities are required to inform the relevant consular post of the arrest or detention of one of its nationals “without delay.”
• Procedural Requirements (KUHAP): While the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) focuses primarily on the rights of the accused generally, it mandates that any person subjected to arrest or detention be given the opportunity to communicate with the outside world, which includes diplomatic representatives for foreign nationals (Article 57).

In practice: Despite the clarity of Law No. 1 of 1982, international observers and best practices manuals for lawyers note that “without delay” is frequently misinterpreted by local law enforcement. In many cases, embassies are not notified until several days or even weeks after the initial arrest, which can severely prejudice the suspect’s ability to secure competent legal counsel during the critical early stages of an investigation.^{[13]Law No. 37 of 1999 on Foreign Relations (Indonesia) https://www.refworld.org/legal/legislation/natlegbod/1999/en/147504; Law No. 8 of 1981 on the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Indonesia-Code-of-Criminal-Procedure-1981-eng.pdf; ECPM and Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Representing Individuals Facing the Death Penalty in Indonesia: A Best Practices Manual (2023) https://www.ecpm.org/app/uploads/2023/06/Guide-Avocat-indone%CC%81sie-GB-130623-bdCouv.pdf; UN Human Rights Committee, ‘Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Indonesia’ (3 May 2024) UN Doc CCPR/C/IDN/CO/2 https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/concluding-observations/ccprcidnco2-concluding-observations-second-periodic-report.}

What protections exist for foreign nationals who have no embassy, or who are stateless or a refugee?

Indonesia is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and has no comprehensive domestic refugee or asylum law. Protection operates through two main frameworks:

• Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 on the Handling of Foreign Refugees establishes administrative procedures for identifying, sheltering, and managing refugees and asylum seekers, and formally recognises UNHCR’s role in conducting refugee status determination.
• Law No. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights applies to all persons regardless of nationality, guaranteeing equal treatment before the law and access to legal remedies.

Where a detained foreign national has no consular representation (because they are stateless, their country has no embassy in Indonesia, or they hold refugee status) UNHCR serves as the primary point of contact in practice. Its involvement in such cases is recognised under the 2016 regulation but is not guaranteed.^{[14]Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 on the Handling of Foreign Refugees (Indonesia, 31 December 2016) https://www.unhcr.org/id/sites/id/files/legacy-pdf/Presidential-Regulation-on-the-Handling-of-Foreign-Refugees-English.pdf; Law No. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights (Indonesia, 23 September 1999) https://www.justice.gov/file/291456/dl?inline=.}