Forgery gangs serving migrant workers busted
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police investigators have announced the break-up of a crime syndicate that sold forged documents to migrant workers seeking to travel abroad. The fraud also implicated Jakarta city immigration officials.
"We have managed to arrest members of three organized-crime syndicates which have been sending the migrant workers abroad with illegal documents," City Police's Detective Chief, Sr. Comr. Bambang Hendarso Danuri, said at a press conference on Friday.
Bambang said that the first group was led by Benny Siregar, 45. The seven-member group was experienced in counterfeiting documents.
Benny was taken into custody after police received reports from Arsinna Adiandi Utama, a licensed company which assists people interested in getting documents for the purpose of becoming migrant workers.
The company's allegations were based on its own investigation of a faked immigration document at the behest of a migrant worker.
In its investigation, police found that Benny, a resident of Condet, East Jakarta, had made the fake documents in cooperation with Syahrul, an official at the Central Jakarta Immigration Office.
The illegal documents, investigators said, had caused difficulties for many migrant workers, leaving them prone to exploitation and unfair treatment, as they had no legal protection from the companies which employed them.
The latest incident occurred early this year in Malaysia, when more than 300 Indonesian workers rioted in anger against unfair treatment by their employers.
The migrant workers who returned to Indonesia were also reportedly exposed to extortions on the way home.
According to information from the Coordinating Body for Indonesian Workers Placement, Indonesian migrant workers mostly travel to 25 nations, including Britain and United States. Many others have gone to their destinations illegally.
Bambang added that police have arrested Kulwant Singh, a 40- year-old Indonesian of Indian descent, who leads a group which counterfeited visa permits and other travel documents.
Officials also thwarted another group, led by Gunawan, 39, which faked financial documents.
In addition, police also confiscated evidence including some of the faked documents, along with printers and rubber stamps.
Another detective, Adj. Sr. Comr. Ike Edwin, blamed the lack of coordination between the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration and the Immigration Office for putting the migrant workers in a difficult position.
Ike Edwin said that, when the workers encountered trouble in the countries where they worked, they often had no rights, or protection from the Indonesian government.
Bambang said that police were also tracking down similar syndicates which sent the migrant workers to South Korea.
Bambang said that they would be charged mainly with the Criminal Code No. 263 on document forgery, which carries a maximum punishment of six years in jail.