JAKARTA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Three Indonesia-Timor-Leste border gates in Indonesian East Nusa Tenggara province's districts of Timor Tengah Utara, Malacca and Belu, reopened with strict health protocol procedures, a local official said.
"This policy also applies to the five cross-border gates in the districts of Wini, Motamasin, Napan, Turiskain and Haumeni Ana with strict security procedures from the Indonesian military and the country's customs task force," head of the province's Border Management Agency Linus Lusi told Indonesia's Antara news agency on Friday.
Lusi pointed out that according to East Nusa Tenggara governor's instruction, the gates were opened on Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. local time or depending on the dynamic condition in Timor-Leste, as there are also Indonesian citizens in the neighboring country who want to return to their homeland.
And vice versa, he added, Indonesia also hoped that residents of Timor-Leste, especially those from the red zones, should not stay longer in Indonesia.
"So we open the gates as needed. If there are East Timorese who come from Java or Bali, via the El Tari Airport in Kupang, the Consulate General of East Timor picks them up and bring them directly to the gates," he said, adding that the policy has been coordinated with the Consulate General of East Timor in East Nusa Tenggara's capital of Kupang.
The East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration officially closed down the border gates between Indonesia and Timor-Leste on April 20, in an effort to cut the transmission chains of the COVID-19 in the province. Enditem
