Indonesia must address low rating for trafficking of women, children

Bayu Wicaksono, Journalist, Jakarta

In October 2001, the United Nations (UN) evaluated Indonesia as Standard 3 -- the lowest in the context of human trafficking. This means that Indonesia is not serious in eradicating human trafficking and has no legal instruments to clamp down on it, compared, for instance, to standard 2 countries which already have the legal instruments. Although Indonesia has ratified the convention on the right of the child, it is no longer considered a transit country for human trafficking, but a supply center.

Last month's international conference on illegal migrants and related transnational crime in Bali can be seen as Indonesia's effort to at least step up to standard 2.

Until now, Article 297 of the Criminal Code still applies in Indonesia, although this provision does not clearly define human trafficking, as it does not encompass the reality, starting from the process and ending with the crime.

This article only mentions the trading of women to be made prostitutes. In fact, the reality shows that women are traded today for labor and sexual exploitation, adoption, the trading of human organs and contractual marriages.

Meanwhile, the Transnational Organized Crime Convention has been reached and one of its protocols specifically mentions human trafficking, in particular the trading of women and children.

This convention defines the trading of human beings, as every mobilization, transportation, removal from one place to another, delivery of people under threat or with coercion or other forms of compulsion leading to fear, coercion, deceit, including payment in the form of human labor and/or forced labor.

Included in the act of human trafficking is also the mobilization, transportation, removal from one place to another, delivery of people and children (under the age of 18) despite their own agreement as a result of false promises. They often give their approval without fully understanding that they themselves are involved in the trading of people and children.

In Indonesia, women are traded as domestic maids, prostitutes, or employed at offshore houses built on bamboo platforms in the waters off Sumatra and Java. They are then sold to become beggars, street singers and other street-related jobs.

In areas of conflict, these women will be involved in false adoption cases. In Singkawang and Pontianak, West Kalimanta, many of them are sold as mailorder brides. There are also women who are traded into the drugs trade. Meanwhile, children are traded to work in estates and factories. They may also be exploited by pedophiles.

There are many ways that syndicates involved in women-and- children-trafficking employ to net their victims, even in the remotest parts of the country. Generally, they give false promises of better jobs in other regions. They often pretend to be labor recruiters, make use of people trapped by debt and target such families so they surrender their children or their wives.

Victims often become trapped by means of addictive substances so that they will be willing to do anything.

Meanwhile, in conflict-ridden areas, displaced people with uncertain futures are usually deceived with empty promises of employment. A trap placed for those in isolation also serves as an effective weapon, particularly with respect to migrant workers who are abroad. These migrant workers generally have no other choice but to let themselves fall into this trap.

Those involved in human trafficking are difficult to detect because of several factors. In many cases, the families of the victims have been involved, knowingly or otherwise. They may reason that they are not financially capable of raising the children or that they do not want the children at all.

In some cases, the children have got job offers from their friends, who make personal gains from this activity. In the third category are middlemen, who arrange the recruitment, placement or the processing of false residential identity cards.

These people may operate under the official name of a company or they may carry out their activities individually at bus terminals, railway stations, shopping centers and other public places. Then there are government agents involved in the making of residential identity cards, forging passports. Also included are officials of the Ministry of Manpower who fail to exercise control over this matter or officials of regional administrations who fail to protect migrant workers. The last category includes syndicates for commercial sex, pedophiles and drug traffickers. In their operations they often collect street urchins or kidnap children from decent families.

As a result of this trade, victims suffer from major physical and mental violence, and in some cases this violence leads to lifelong trauma. Already marginalized members of society, women are made to feel even more abandoned.

Given the UN's low evaluation of Indonesia, it is urgent that protection is incorporated in a law and regional bylaws. The law must contain firm and clear sanctions to be imposed on human trafficking, particularly regarding women and children. It is the task of the manpower and transmigration ministry to inform the public of this information so that when people seek employment they can minimize the risks of exposure to syndicates involved in human trafficking.

The government must also strive toward allowing women higher chances of gaining employment, given their vulnerability. Regional administrations should play an active role, along with regional legislative councils, to prevent and abolish human trafficking. Regional administrations should also control and be alert to any indication of human trafficking.

The community must play an active role to report to the police if they know that human trafficking is practiced in their areas.