Laws on human trafficking

Laws on human trafficking
urgently needed in RI

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.