Corruption and degradation

Cruelty and abuse continue to be a part of life for countless men, women and children who suffer at the hands of people whom they thought they could trust to help them to a better future. One particular case in point is human trafficking, which conjures up images of, for instance, the piles of human bodies that were found in airtight containers in Dover, England in 2000.

But trafficking -- involving among other things the recruitment, transfer, placement and exploitation of people through intimidation, violence, or deceit -- does not only occur across borders. And victims are not only adult sex workers or children entrapped by paedophile rings, or the infants recently rescued from a smuggling attempt in Malaysia; they are also found in comfortable homes, working as domestic workers. In many homes in Jakarta, children under 18 have been found doing the work of adults for up to 17 hours a day with no protection or access to education. This was among the findings of a study by researchers from Atma Jaya University, presented Monday at a seminar also sponsored by the Geneva-based International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC).

A report by the International Labor Organization estimated in 2001 that some 1.4 million Indonesians were employed as domestic workers in this country, 23 percent of them under 15. A representative of ICMC, Ruth Rosenberg, editor of the newly released report, Trafficking of Women and Children in Indonesia, has suggested that this country would need harsher laws to combat the trafficking of children, given that the existing laws do not even have a definition of trafficking -- a relatively new term in Indonesia -- that would enable law enforcers to recognize and act on the crime.

Indeed, police have said that in a number of cases involving child victims, the few legal instruments that are at their disposal to charge suspects include little more than the Criminal Code articles on the deprivation of freedom of persons, and the law on child protection.

State Minister for Women's Empowerment Sri Redjeki Sumaryoto has said that the government will soon submit a bill to eradicate women and children trafficking to the legislature. Special attention will be given to women and children, given the specific patterns of abuse that have emerged through the investigation of cases. Rape, for instance, has been a frequently occurring form of abuse against women and street children.

The trouble in these times of inadequate law enforcement, however, is the extent to which new laws would help to address the problem. The seminar also revealed how only a few cases of trafficking have made it to the courts. One reason that was mentioned was that the judiciary and police officers have yet to understand the scope of trafficking and the resulting consequences which victims must endure. For instance, women who are enticed to become sex workers or "mail-order brides" are often perceived as having made a voluntary choice.

The need for specific laws on trafficking are real. Recognition of the crime, which is made possible by the power which the perpetrators hold over women and children in need, would at least reduce the tendency to stigmatize or even criminalize the victims.

However another crucial issue that we fear might be neglected, given that various reports of diverse forms of trafficking involving Indonesians as both victims and perpetrators, continue to emerge across the country, point to that one persistent problem: Corruption. Just like the people's complaints about police having trouble dealing with terrorist suspects, officers have told of difficulties in locating victims because of manipulated IDs. Rampant bribery has also smoothed the way for trafficking across borders, including across the waters that separate this country from its neighbors.

Wiping out corruption and making a real effort towards better law enforcement are therefore among the urgent steps that must be taken to reduce trafficking. Otherwise, the good work that many parties are currently doing to assist the victims will be like firefighters fighting a raging blaze without water.

There is nothing to be proud of in the announcement made by the United States' standards of countries' actions against trafficking that we have climbed up from the "third tier" to the "second tier" category. That only means we now have an awareness of the crime, but that we still have barely done anything to overcome it, let alone prevent further exploitation of women and children.