Human trafficking in Indonesia
Overview
The government stopped permitting Indonesian women to travel to
A significant number of Indonesian men and women who migrate overseas each year to work in the
Some labor recruitment companies, known as PJTKIs, operated similarly to trafficking rings, luring both male and female workers into debt bondage, involuntary servitude, and other trafficking situations. Some workers, often women intending to migrate, entered trafficking and trafficking-like situations during their attempt to find work abroad through licensed and unlicensed PJTKIs. These labor recruiters charged workers high commission fees—up to $3,000—which are not regulated under Indonesian law and often require workers to incur debt to pay, leaving them vulnerable in some instances to situations of debt bondage. PJTKIs also reportedly withheld the documents of some workers, and confined them in holding centers, sometimes for periods of many months. Some PJTKIs also used threats of violence to maintain control over prospective migrant workers. Recruitment agencies routinely falsified birth dates, including for children, in order to apply for passports and migrant worker documents.
Internal trafficking is a significant problem in Indonesia with women and children exploited in domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation, rural agriculture, mining, fishing, and cottage industries. Women and girls are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation in Malaysia, Singapore, and throughout Indonesia. Indonesians are recruited with offers of jobs in restaurants, factories, or as domestics and then forced into the sex trade. Young women and girls are trafficked throughout Indonesia and via the
A 2006 bilateral MOU between the
The Government of Indonesia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. While the government made clear progress in bringing sex trafficking offenders to justice, in part through use of its new anti-trafficking law, a pronounced weakness shown was the failure to curb the large-scale trafficking practices of licensed and unlicensed Indonesian labor agencies. Indonesia has the region’s largest trafficking problem, with hundreds of thousands of trafficking victims, and has a largely unchecked problem of trafficking-related complicity by public officials.[1]
U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017.[2]
Sex trafficking
Sex trafficking in Indonesia is a common problem. Indonesian and foreign women and girls have been forced into prostitution in brothels and homes and been physically and psychologically abused..[3][4][5]
Prosecution
The Indonesian government demonstrated increased efforts to combat
Police in late 2007 cooperated with the Manpower Ministry to shut down a manpower company that was trafficking workers, rescuing over a hundred persons, including children, and arresting staff on charges of document falsification. The 21-man national police anti-trafficking task force worked with local police, the Ministry of Manpower, the Migrant Workers Protection Agency, Immigration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and
In 2007, several senior law enforcement officials complicit in trafficking were investigated for corruption, reprimanded, or transferred to less sensitive positions. There were no reports of Indonesian security forces prosecuting or disciplining their own members for involvement in prostitution or other activities related to trafficking. National Police reported arresting and prosecuting at least three immigration officials at key transit points. In May 2007, a former consul general in
Protection
Indonesia demonstrated measured improvement at national and local levels to protect victims of trafficking in Indonesia and abroad; however, available victim services remain overwhelmed by the large number of victims. Indonesia’s policy is not to detain or imprison trafficking victims. Police implementation of this policy varies in practice. Local police often arrested women and children in prostitution, including trafficking victims, who operated outside recognized prostitution zones on charges of violating public order. The Government encourages victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases. Authorities continued to round up and deport a small number of foreign women in prostitution without determining whether they were victims of trafficking. The Foreign Ministry operated shelters for trafficking victims and migrant workers at its embassies and consulates abroad. In 2007, these diplomatic establishments sheltered thousands of Indonesian citizens, including trafficking victims. The Social Affairs Ministry Directorate of Social Assistance for Victims of Violence and Migrant Workers assisted victims returning from overseas by providing medical care, return and rehabilitation services. The Government provides some assistance, including limited medical aid, shelter, and financial help to its repatriated nationals who were trafficking victims. The Indonesian government provided some funding to domestic NGOs and civil society groups that supported services for trafficking victims. Work on finishing national guidelines for services to trafficked persons, through another revision of the Standard Operating Procedures for Return, Recovery and Reintegration of Trafficking Victims and a new regulation on standard minimum services met with little progress following passage of the anti-trafficking law.[1]
Prevention
The Indonesian government continued efforts to promote awareness and prevent trafficking in persons. The government continued collaboration with numerous NGO and international organization efforts to raise awareness and prevent trafficking in persons. In 2007, the
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs (2008-06-10). "Country Narratives -- Countries H through R". US Department of State. Retrieved 2023-01-01. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "Trafficking in Persons Report 2017: Tier Placements". www.state.gov. Archived from the original on 2017-06-28. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
- ^ "Indonesia's child prostitution problem". The ASEAN Post. February 9, 2020.
- ^ "Human Trafficking In Indonesia: The Difficult Road Home". Nexus Institute. June 16, 2017.
- ^ "Facebook used to kidnap girls for sex slaves". Standard-Examiner. October 29, 2012. Archived from the original on July 29, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2020.