Program Coordinator of the Timor-Leste Coalition for Education (TLCE) Matias dos Santos said many Timorese students are studying illegally in Indonesia.

He said there are currently about 5,000 Timorese students in Indonesia, and many of them study illegally or don't have a passport.

"From this number, most of the illegal students are those who pay their own school fees, rather than the government scholarship holders," said the TLCE Program Coordinator in a press conference in Dili.

He said some students could not finish their studies because of language and health problems, while some were deported because they didn't pay taxes or did not follow immigration procedures.

"The RDTL Consulate in Indonesia has created the Timor-Leste Students Association to assist Timorese students in Indonesia, but as this is a new mechanism and it exists in only some provinces, we can't fulfil all the needs of students," said the TLCE Coordinator.

He said they recommended the Ministry of Education should organize student visas through a selective and secure process. "There should be rigorous regulation to enable students to study abroad," he said.

The TLCE also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education to cooperate to make sure citizens living abroad, especially students, set a good example of Timorese values and principals.

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Constancio da Conceicao Pinto acknowledged that students did study illegally and this was a serious problem.

"Currently there is a team there from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education looking into how to resolve this situation," Vice Pinto affirmed. He also said parents should know where their children go to school so there is more control and they are taken care of.

"They go there without following the normal processes, our embassy doesn't know, they go to universities the state doesn't know about, so when problems happen we don't know about the problems," he said.

TDW confirmed the issue on the phone with Vice Minister of Higher Education Marcal Avelino Ximenes, who is currently in Indonesia to resolve the issue of the murder of a student. "He came to study using his own money," said the Vice Minister.