Recruiters Have Close Ties with Victims

KOMPAS/SATRIO PANGARSO WISANGGENI

Metusalak Selan (left), the father of the late Yufrinda Selan, speaks on his phone on 7 July 2019 in his living room under a banner for Kabar Bumi (Earth News), which groups families of Indonesian migrant workers, in Tuppan village, Batu Putih, Timor Tengah Selatan regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Since his daughter\'s death, Metusalak has developed weavers and peasant farmers groups of former migrant workers in his village to reduce the number of young people seeking work abroad.

KUPANG, KOMPAS — Children who have become victims of smuggling and human trafficking are often recruited as migrant workers by neighbors or relatives. Because of these close ties, the families of victims are often reluctant to report the recruiters to police, despite the disappearance of underage children.

During its investigation in Meusin village of Boking district, South Central Timor regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Kompas discovered that one recruiter of illegal migrant workers, Arimatia Tahe, is a teacher. Among the children Arimatia has “recruited” from the village is O.K., who was only 14 when she was smuggled to Malaysia in 2012. O.K.’s family still has no clue as to her whereabouts.

Alfiana Taniu, a cousin, said that O.K. was recruited by a neighbor who was a teacher. “In 2012, Pak Arimatia persuaded O.K. to leave for Malaysia. He is a teacher. We once asked him where O.K. was, but he said ‘O.K. never calls’,” Alfiana explained.

When asked, Arimatia denied that he recruited O.K. as a migrant worker in Malaysia. He said that he merely gave O.K. and her mother a ride from the village to Camplong, near Kupang.

KOMPAS/RYAN RINALDY

Three teenaged girls who were not recruited as migrant workers gather on 9 July 2019 during Kompas’ visit to their village in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. The young women were among seven migrant worker applicants who were discovered with immigration documents that did not match their civil registration documents at the Kupang branch of PT Bukit Mayak Asri.

“At the time, I was traveling to Kupang so I offered them to ride with me,” he said.

Local recruiters are known to have networks to Malaysia. They are in direct contact with middlemen who transport migrant workers to Malaysia, who pay them up to Rp 1 million (US$71.27) per child.

Funding

Recruiters also get money to be handed to the families of children who are smuggled to Malaysia. It is said to be up to Rp 2.5 million per child. However, several parents said that the amount of money they received was not that big.

Meusin villager Yuliana Baunsele, 60, said that a recruiter gave her Rp 260,000 when her daughter Yohana Kamlasi departed the village in 2013 to become a migrant worker. Yuliana has no idea where Yohana is today.

Lawyer and anti-human trafficking activist Yunus Benu said that the recruitment of potential migrant workers in Meusin and other villages in East Nusa Tenggara often involved human trafficking. Yunus said that families of victims of the scheme were often reluctant to report the disappearances, as the recruiters had close ties with them.

KOMPAS/RYAN RINALDY

Four villagers walk home after attending church services on 7 July 2019 in Meusin village of Boking district, Timor Tengah Selatan regency, East Nusa Tenggara. The lack of economic activity in the village has prompted many local residents to seek work abroad as migrant workers.

Identity document forgery is also typically involved when trafficking children as illegal migrant workers. The East Nusa Tenggara Police once raided a trafficking halfway house in Kupang, after one migrant worker escaped when she discovered that she would be given a new identity.

False identities

Labse Dorita Maramba, 19, of East Sumba regency said that she decided to escape the halfway house when she discovered that her birthdate had been changed on her travel document, and she became worried for her own safety if she left for Malaysia. “My identity was changed. If something bad happened, the government would not be able to find us,” Labse said at a safe house in East Nusa Tenggara.

Forging identity documents for human trafficking is also common in Indramayu, West Java. Kenidah, a former migrant worker from Indramayu, said that a middleman falsified her personal data so she could get to Taiwan. Her birth year was changed from 1999 to 1995, making her 23 to match the requirement to work in Taiwan.

KOMPAS/SATRIO PANGARSO WISANGGENI

AM (right), 18, holds a bowl of freshly picked tangerines to a relative on 12 July 2019 in her hometown in Timor Tengah Selatan regency, East Nusa Tenggara. A.M. claims that she was a victim of sexual trafficking and was smuggled to work in forced prostitution at a brothel in Malaysia when she was 17 years old.

The head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), Nusron Wahid, said that the Migrant Workers Computerized System was integrated with the Home Ministry’s civil registration system, to prevent children from being registered as migrant workers. However, Nusron said that the system could not detect falsified personal data, such as changes to an individual’s birth year. (MDN/ADY/SPW)