Indonesian Children Trafficked Overseas

· 5 minutes read

Many Indonesian children have been trafficked both at home and overseas with the lure of decent jobs and high pay. Their ordeal is heartbreaking.

KUPANG, KOMPAS —Investigative reportage by Kompas daily has uncovered a number of cases involving child trafficking. Conducted between July 3 and 27, 2019, the daily’s investigative team visited a number of areas in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), West Java and as far as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to meet victims and their families.

A search for number of children who went missing after being recruited to work and were found to have been forced to work at places of prostitution was also conducted. From the search, the team found that the perpetrators of child trafficking involved residents from where the victims came.
In a village in Timor Tengah Selatan regency, NTT, a young woman was reunited with her family after she escaped from her "place of work" in Malaysia about a year ago.
AM, 18, said she was offered in 2018 by a friend, RT, 16, to work in Surabaya with the help of a man identified only as AH, 25. However, AM and RT were smuggled into Malaysia using falsified immigration documents. The two were put to work in a place of prostitution in Malaysia.
According to AM, five other people besides AH were involved in smuggling her and RT to Malaysia. They each acted as assistants and providers of temporary shelter. The five waited at each transit point at airports in Kupang, Surabaya and Batam on their way to the village port in Tanjung Pinang, Riau islands.
Afraid
AM was afraid to report the case to the police because AH, who recruited her as a migrant worker, lived in the same village. One of the assistants, JA, is also still in Kupang. "I am afraid the boss in Kupang [JA] will ask his men to take me again," said AM.
RT’s whereabouts remain unknown. AM said after escaping that she and RT had been incarcerated at a large prison in Kajang, Malaysia. Her prisoner number was 192, while RT\'s was 013.
A search for RT was conducted, using her prisoner number, but she was not found.
The first secretary at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Yulisdiyah Nuswapadi, said the embassy had contacted a number of prisons and immigration offices but she had not been found.
"There is no such name as RT," he said. A search in Meusin village, Boking district, Timor Tengah Selatan regency, found that another young woman , DP, had also been a victim of human trafficking. She too is still missing.
DP was sent as an illegal migrant worker to Malaysia a year ago. Melianus Payon, DP\'s father, said his daughter was only 16 when she went to Malaysia.
Separate cases were found in Indramayu, West Java. Child victims of trafficking were allegedly employed as escorts in other areas.
IN, 13, one of the victims, said she was initially offered work as a waitress in Bekasi with a salary that, according to her, was enough to enable her to pay off her motorbike loan. After being hired, IN found out that her job was to accompany guests at the cafe.
KOMPAS/RYAN RINALDY
Four people walk home after attending church services in Meusin village, Boking district, Timor Tengah Selatan regency, East Nusa Tenggara, on Sunday (7/7/2019). The lack of economic activity has encourage villagers to work abroad.
Two days after starting work, IN ran away. Thanks to IN, the café case was uncovered. In June 2019, the Indramayu police rescued 18 girls below the age of 18 who were employed as escorts. The promise of large salaries also lured two children from Jakarta to work in Ruteng, Manggarai, NTT. SR, 13, and S., 16, two children from Kemayoran, Jakarta, were initially offered work as waitresses with big salaries.
In fact, they were forced to serve adult men. SR escaped and was given shelter at the St. Theresia Women\'s and Child Halfway House, Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai.
The coordinator of Justice, Peace and Integration of Creation (JPIC), Sister Maria Yosephina, said that SR and S. initially became acquainted with YG through social media. YG offered both of them jobs as waitress with a salary of Rp 8 million.
Assisted by Sister Maria, SR reported her case to the police and informed them that S. was being held captive at the cafe. The later police rescued S. The head of the Natural Disaster and Humanitarian Response Unit, the Evangelical Christian Church in Timor, Rev. Ina Barapa, revealed that many cases of child trafficking in NTT were discovered after the victims had died.
Over the past four years, the number of migrant workers from NTT who died has increased. The majority of them were illegal migrant workers. In 2015, 28 bodies of migrant workers were flown home. The number increased to 46 in 2016, to 62 in 2017 and to 105 in 2018.
KOMPAS/RYAN RINALDY
Three girls, who failed to be recruited as migrant workers, gather when Kompas visits their village in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Tuesday (9/7/2019). They were among seven migrant worker candidates found at the Kupang branch of PT Bukit Mayak Asri, after their personal data in immigration documents were found not to match with their population documents.
Since January 2019, 61 migrant workers have died. Among them, according to Ina, were those who went abroad when they were below 18 years old, such as Adelina Jemirah Sau, who was allegedly abused and killed by her employer in 2018.
NTT Governor Viktor Laiskodat said the NTT provincial government had a program to protect children in rural areas. "We continue to coordinate with the districts/cities to the village level so that if they [labor middlemen] come, they should invite them to speak to the RT, the RW (neighborhood leaders) or the village head," he said. (MDN/ADY/SPW/AND)

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