Local woman duped into prostitution
Local woman duped into prostitution
JAKARTA (JP): Lured by promises of high paying jobs, 19-year
old Misrina (not her real name) left Jakarta for Riau in
September. Today, she is back, penniless, six-months pregnant,
scared and almost alone.
The high paying job in Riau turned out to be working as a
prostitute. Even then, she saw very little of the money she had
earned, with most of it kept by the syndicate.
Misrina recounted her story, not atypical of young rural and
urban girls searching for better living, to the Central Jakarta
Police Precinct on Saturday.
She said in September she was at a bus stop in Pulogadung,
East Jakarta when a man approached and offered her a waitress job
in Riau which he said would pay Rp 1 million a month.
"I was desperate for a job to support my family then," the
divorced mother of an 18-month old daughter said.
The man insisted that she make a quick decision, not giving
her a chance to even tell her family in Manggarai, South Jakarta,
or to pack her belongings.
As soon as she gave her consent, the man took her to a house
on Jl. Swadaya III, in Sumur Batu, Kemayoran, where she was to be
given a one-week training, along with eight other girls.
"I was kept in the house for a week, doing nothing but
watching porno movies," Misrina said, recalling that the place
was run by a certain Ibu Gultom.
The place, or "institution" as the people there called it, was
tightly guarded and there was no way the girls could escape.
In Riau, they were sent to Karimun and were accommodated in a
house in Tanjung Balai. "Later we found out that it was a
brothel, but by then, it was too late."
She said she and the other girls were forced to serve two
guests every night in the brothel.
The woman who ran the brothel charged her and the girls Rp
400,000 monthly for food and lodging although she charges each
guest between Rp 150,000 to Rp 200,000 for the service.
"We cried every night. I asked Dany to let me return to
Jakarta but she wouldn't even let me leave the house," she said.
When she learned of her pregnancy, Dany still forced her to
work. "Another lady advised Dany to let me go because my womb was
getting bigger and that it was a bad luck for a brothel to have a
pregnant woman working in it," she said.
Misrina said Dany gave her Rp 150,000 to return to Jakarta.
"When the girls learned that I was leaving, one of them asked
me to contact her relative who works at the Cempaka Putih Police
(Central Jakarta)," she said.
That inspired her to report her own case to the police.
"Police are my only hope. I have nowhere else to go to. If my
parents know I'm pregnant or that I worked as a prostitute, they
will be so ashamed and sad," Misrina said as she wept. (06)