Anti-human trafficking law urgent, experts say

Anti-human trafficking law urgent, experts say

Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia needs to carve out an anti-human trafficking bill,
considering that it has no law against all forms of human
trafficking, experts say.

The United Nations regards Indonesia as a supplier of victims
and one of the worst countries in handling the heinous phenomena.

Lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said on Thursday that
Indonesia should set penalties equivalent to those set for other
grave crimes.

"The bill should be drafted out in clear detail, since
trafficking could be done for sexual purposes, could involve rape
or kidnapping, and could also cause death," Nursyahbani told The
Jakarta Post.

She added that discussions over drafting the bill had earlier
been debated by the government but nothing had come out of it.

Nursyahbani was responding to accusations made by the United
States on Wednesday that 19 countries, including Indonesia, had
made no real efforts to stop the trading of humans.

The accusations were made in the United States's second annual
report on human trafficking, which was mandated by the Congress
and carries the risk of sanctions being imposed on Indonesia.

Nursyahbani said aside from an the dismal existing laws in
Indonesia that did nothing to stop trafficking of women and
children into the sex or forced labor industries, human
trafficking here received financial backing from police and
border officers.

She pointed out that severe loopholes in Article 297 of the
Indonesian Criminal Code were constantly being exploited by
organized human traffickers and law enforcers like the local
police, to facilitate their dehumanizing business.

The Article states that anybody found guilty of "trafficking
women and underaged boys" could receive a maximum sentence of
just six years in jail.

"There are no paragraphs to that article or any other article
explaining whether there is additional punishment if the victim
is found dead, severely tortured or sexually abused," Nursyahbani
said.

"No explanation either on (what happens to) people who are not
directly involved in the trafficking, but who financially support
the traffickers."

Separately, criminologist Harkristuti Harkrisnowo said that
being among the worst of the 19 countries should push Indonesia
to provide a system to investigate, prosecute and adequately
punish acts of trafficking.

According to the U.S. report, at least 700,000, and possibly
as many as four million men, women and children worldwide over
the past year, were bought, sold, transported and held against
their will in slave-like conditions.

The second annual report places Indonesia in Tier 3, its worst
category, stating that it was a source country for trafficked
persons, primarily young women and girls.

"Trafficking also occurs within Indonesia's borders. Victims
are trafficked primarily for purposes of labor and sexual
exploitation," the report states.

Harkristuti slammed the government for failing to ratify the
1949 United Nations convention on anti-trafficking of women,
demanding that the government should speed up ratification of the
convention.