Arrested boys, girls jailed in filthy 'rehabilitation center'
Arrested boys, girls jailed in filthy 'rehabilitation center'
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
On that morning, as was her custom, Ella walked toward the
Teluk Gong traditional market in North Jakarta, she never reached
her destination after several public order officers stopped her
to check her ID card.
Ella told them that she was only 16 - which means that she
would have to wait for another year to be eligible for an ID
card. Yet, they arrested the girl, who was working as a housemaid
for a family in nearby Muara Kapuk area.
The controversial ID card raids commenced on Jan. 22 to
discourage unskilled outsiders from inundating Jakarta.
Ella is now at the Kedoya rehabilitation center, in West
Jakarta, locked up in a six by three meter "cell" which she
shares with three other housemaids.
As of Friday, the center had 118 inhabitants labeled by the
government as, "people with community and social problems".
While Ella and several others were detained because they did
not have Jakarta ID cards, the rest, including beggars and sex
workers, were arrested in operations against public order.
The center comprises five blocks, one each for men, women,
children, psychotics and beggars/homeless people.
Each block has three cells, with a maximum capacity of 15
people. Each cell is equipped with a toilet but lacks a proper
bed. On part of the floor, a 15-cm high wooden "mattress" was
erected, and covered with a plastic sheet, on which the
"detainees" sleep.
Syafrizal, a former inhabitant of the center, said it was more
like jail.
"I had to spend my days and nights in the cell. I ate there,
urinated there and bathed there. They just let me out once in a
while when they had briefings with us," he said.
Syafrizal, a street singer from Pekalongan, Central Java, had
been in the center for almost one month before he, along with 50
other people, were sent home last week.
The rehabilitation center was built in 1983 by the city
administration but from 1984 to 1994 it was used as a
penitentiary for women. In 1994, it regained its function as a
rehabilitation center.
It is managed by the city social agency with a monthly
operational budget of Rp 70 million. The center can accommodate
up to 300 people.
According to the warden of the facility, Untung Surardjo, it
functioned only as a transit place before the people were sent to
another specific rehab center. The "illegal migrants" - those who
are not Jakarta residents - would be sent to their home villages.
Sex workers are sent to the women's rehab center in Pasar
Rebo, East Jakarta.
Transvestites are transferred to the rehab center for mentally
disabled people in Pondok Bambu, East Jakarta.
"They are classified (in Indonesia) as mentally disabled,"
Untung said.
He said that the people were housed at the center for at least
15 days and as long as one month.
Theoretically, the center should provide special vocational
training for people. But it is only given occasionally, due to
the lack of skilled trainers.
Untung complained that the city manpower agency and the
education agency that were also supposed to handle the people had
shucked their responsibility. "We can not afford to put children
in school or to find appropriate jobs for beggars and street
singers."
Despite all of its weaknesses, the center does manage to
provide nutritious meals.
Last Friday, for example, lunch consisted of rice, chicken,
vegetables and tofu. There was even watermelon for dessert.
"Despite the (unpleasant) environment, the rehab guards were
fairly kind, but there are several public order officers who come
here to beat the boys and grope me," said Dewi, a sex worker.