The police caught ten in a hotel on Kuta road at 11.30 am and later 12 others in a rented house on the same road, a spokesman of the Bali provincial police, Senior Commissioner Gde Sugianyar, said.
"Detectives from the anti-people smuggling task force had been monitoring their hideouts in Bali," he said.
The police suspected that they were facilitated by someone who was allegedly involved in the people-smuggling rings, Sugianyar said.
The 22 suspected illegal immigrants had been sent to the Denpasar detention house while their cases were handled by International Organization of Migration and UNHCR, he said.
In the Central Sulawesi city of Palu, the police had also arrested four Afghans on Sunday.
They were then sent to Palu city's detention center after being handed over by the police to Palu immigration authorities.
"They had been handed over to us on Sunday evening," Chief of Palu Immigration Office Syamsul Alam said.
The immigrants were identified by their names as Babai Ali (48), Azer Husain Mohebbi (45), Ali Reza (18), and Wali Khan Khan (28), he said.
Over the past decade, Indonesia has frequently been used as a transit point by foreign asylum seekers on their way to Australia.
In their efforts to go to Australia, they pay people smugglers who then ask locals to transport them by wooden boats.
The Australian government has consistently categorized the people smuggling activities as a global and regional problem.
The UNHCR 2008 Global Trends report said that there were 42 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide at the end of 2008, including 15.2 million refugees.
For both passengers and crew members of the captured boats, they are transported to the Australian Immigration's detention center on Christmas Island to undergo security, identity and health checks as well as their reasons for travel established.
The Indonesian Consulate in Perth noted that there were a number of Indonesians among the captains and crew members of the boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia.(*)
: Masuki
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