JAKARTA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia will deploy hundreds of thousands of police and military personnel to prevent regular mass departures of people to hometowns ahead of the Islamic festivity, a police officer said on Wednesday.
President Joko Widodo has officially banned citizens from the exodus following the issuance of several rules to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, violations frequently occurred against previous policies such as those on the obligation to wear face masks and physical distancing, suggesting how urgent a supervision is to ensure the policies to be well implemented.
A total of 171,000 policemen and military personnel will be engaged in a mission called "the COVID-19 Operation", starting on April 24 when the exodus prohibition takes effect, the National Police's Spokesman Brigadier General Argo Yuwono said.
According to the spokesman, the personnel will suggest that citizens, who are found to be on their ways to hometowns or villages, abort their plans.
The operation will be carried out until seven days after the Muslims' post-fasting festivity Eid al-Fitr which falls on May 24, Yuwono remarked.
The return to hometowns or villages is a tradition in Indonesia with over 18 million people regularly having journeys that trigger over crowded situation at railway stations, airports, seaports and bus stations.
Such a circumstance has the potential to make the recurrent physical distancing collapse, while travelers may also transmit infections during trips to their destinations.
The government's spokesman of the COVID-19 Related Matters Achmad Yurianto warned travelers that their journeys to hometowns are dangerous, and encouraged them to keep staying in cities during the virus outbreak that has killed 635 people and infected 7,418 others across the archipelagic country.
Also aiming at preventing the exodus, the government has removed the holidays from days ahead of the Islamic festivity in May to the end of this year.
