Indonesia Blacklists Two Dutch Nationals Over Bali Run Club Accused of Excluding Locals

Indonesia has blacklisted two Dutch nationals from re-entering the country over their involvement in Entourage Bali, a digital nomad community whose running events in Canggu were accused of excluding Indonesian participants. The Directorate General of Immigration identified the pair as Joost Storms, 35, and Hidde van Vliet, 37, and said they had left Bali for Singapore before officers could act on an arrest warrant.

The case moved from a social media complaint to a national enforcement action within days, and has become the latest flashpoint in the long-running debate over foreigners on the island.

How the dispute started

The controversy began when an Indonesian woman, Annisa Rahmadani Maclean, posted screenshots showing that her application to join Entourage Bali's WhatsApp community had been placed under review, while her husband's application, submitted with a Western name and phone number, was approved at once. Further screenshots circulated online showing automated messages indicating the community was intended for foreign digital nomads.

The posts drew rapid and heated backlash. The anger fed into existing frustration in Canggu, where residents said the running events had repeatedly disrupted road access in recent months. The Indonesian National Police reported that immigration moved to impose travel bans on the two organizers within days.

What the event was

Entourage Bali describes itself as a community for digital nomads living on the island. The event at the center of the case was a "silent disco run," in which participants run through the streets wearing headphones. According to the Badung Police, the run used an early registration or RSVP system, drew around 200 participants, and took place between 5:30 and 6:30 in the morning.

Acting head of the Badung Police public relations sub-division, Aiptu Ni Nyoman Ayu, told reporters there was no prohibition on Indonesian citizens taking part, that the majority of participants were foreign nationals, and that running communities including Entourage Bali had never banned participants from particular countries.

The immigration action

The Directorate General of Immigration placed both men on an entry ban list and blacklisted them from returning to Indonesia. The action was announced by Director General of Immigration Hendarsam Marantoko at a press conference in Jakarta on Friday, 25 July.

The stated legal basis was a permit violation rather than a visa-status problem. Both men held limited stay permits (KITAS): according to immigration officials, JAS, 35, held a work-based permit and HQV, 37, held an investor permit, so both were legally resident in Indonesia. What they lacked, Marantoko said, was authorization for the event itself. He said the two had violated immigration law by organizing an event without the required permits. A stay permit does not carry the right to run a public or commercial event, which requires separate authorization.

Immigration framed the case as part of a wider enforcement campaign against foreign nationals accused of organizing commercial events or operating businesses without the correct permits.

Marantoko described the event as a "state within a state." "There should not be a state within a state. We consider this running club to be functioning as a 'state within a state,'" he said. "Currently, the foreign nationals involved are known to be outside of Indonesia, and Immigration has imposed bans on them." He said he had ordered Bali Immigration officials to investigate the event organizers further and act against any other foreign nationals found to have violated immigration rules.

Marantoko also said the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office was summoning the guarantor or sponsor of the two men, an unusual step that signals enforcement reaching beyond the individuals to those who sponsor their stay. "If the guarantor or sponsor violates immigration regulations, we will process them according to the provisions," he said.

The organizers' response

Entourage Bali apologized on its social media channels and said it had suspended all upcoming activities, including its silent disco runs.

In a statement on 24 July, the organizers denied discriminating against Indonesians on purpose and attributed the rejections to a fault in their automated approval system. "We have made errors in the automated approval process for our WhatsApp groups and non-running events," the statement read. "While we were trying to create a place where digital nomads could meet, a bias was created that some (and not all) +62 (phone) numbers / Indonesians were incorrectly rejected." The +62 code is Indonesia's international dialing code. They said the community was created to help digital nomads, Indonesians included, connect with one another, and that Indonesians made up close to a quarter of ticket holders.

Officials differ on the discrimination claim

The two most senior officials to comment framed the discrimination question differently. Marantoko, in announcing the bans, described the event as fraught with discrimination against local residents.

Bali Governor I Wayan Koster, speaking to reporters on 28 July after a meeting of the province's Regional Leadership Coordination Forum, dismissed reports that the silent disco event had discriminated against Indonesians. He said there were no longer any foreigners-only clubs on the island following the action against Entourage, and compared the case to an exclusive residential community, the so-called "Russian village," that he said had already ceased to exist. Koster also encouraged other running communities in Bali to continue operating, provided they remained open to all.

Earlier, Koster had vowed to take strict action to prevent similar incidents.

The wider enforcement context

The Entourage case follows a series of high-profile incidents involving foreigners in Bali, an island that welcomed close to 7 million international visitors in 2025 against a population of around 4.5 million. Authorities have stepped up immigration enforcement over the past year. Bali immigration deported 342 foreign nationals between January and June 2026, compared with 378 in the first nine months of 2024 and 335 across all of 2023.

Earlier in 2026, Koster introduced new rules for foreign tourists and urged the public to report suspected violations through an official hotline. Other recent cases include the deportation of an Italian man after a video of an altercation with a traffic officer circulated online.

Several of Bali's community running events were paused in the days after the Entourage bans as organizers reviewed how they operate. Run clubs have grown quickly on the island over the past two years, and had at times been used by the provincial government and tourism board as a promotional draw.

Sources: ANTARA News on the immigration action and the governor's remarks; the Indonesian National Police statement; Asia News Network; NL Times; IBTimes UK; and The Bali Sun.