JAKARTA: An Indonesian district chief got revenge on an airline that refused to let him board a full flight by sending officials to block the runway and stop the plane landing, authorities said Monday.
Marianus Sae, head of Ngada district in the eastern island of Flores, wanted to get home quickly to Ngada from the city of Kupang on Timor island so that he could attend a meeting.
But state-owned Merpati Nusantara airlines refused to sell him a ticket for a flight to Turelelo Soa airport early on Saturday because it was full.
“It is outrageous,” Sae was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Globe newspaper.
“I begged for a ticket for five hours to fly to Ngada and their answer was: ‘The flight is full’.”
The infuriated district chief ordered public order officers — who have more limited powers than police and come under the authority of local governments — to drive cars onto the runway and stop the plane landing, media reports said.
The handful of staff at the airport could not stop the blockade and the airport remained shut for several hours, officials said.
Merpati spokesman Riswanto Chendra Putra confirmed the plane was forced to turn back due to the blockade.
However he added that two of the plane’s 56 seats had become available at the last minute — but by then Sae had already bought a ticket to travel with another airline.
Transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said the district chief had “tarnished the reputation of the aviation industry.”
But he said the ministry had no plans to take legal action, adding such matters were the responsibility of the police.
Indonesian official blocks runway in air rage outburst
Indonesian official blocks runway in air rage outburst
UN experts condemn US move to strip migrant children of legal aid
- Trump’s immigration crackdown, including an effort to deport hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the US without their parents
WASHINGTON: UN human rights experts on Tuesday denounced the Trump administration’s decision last year to cut legal aid for unaccompanied children in US immigration proceedings. The condemnation came days after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged the Trump administration to ensure that its migration policies respect individual rights and international law.
“Denying children their rights to legal representation and forcing them to navigate complex immigration proceedings without legal counsel is a serious violation of the rights of children,” said the independent experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.
The White House dismissed the experts and said it had made attempts to locate children it says were smuggled into the United States under the previous administration, without elaborating with specific examples.
“No one takes the UN seriously because of their extreme bias and selective outrage – they should be praising the Administration for protecting children, not lying about our policies,” Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House, said.
In February, the US Department of the Interior ordered legal service providers working with the children to stop work and cut their funding. The providers sued over the move and a federal judge later temporarily restored the funding for the program. The cuts came amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, including an effort to deport hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the US without their parents.
The UN experts called the deportations unlawful and said they breached international human rights law prohibiting the removal of vulnerable groups, including children at risk of human trafficking. They also condemned the administration’s $2,500 offer to get the unaccompanied children to voluntarily leave the US
“Child-sensitive justice procedures should be guaranteed in all immigration and asylum proceedings affecting children,” said the experts, who have been in contact with the US government on the issue.
More than 600,000 migrant children have crossed the US-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, according to government data.
