Man arrested for trafficking girls

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

West Java Police officers arrested on Tuesday Surwa, 40, for alleged human trafficking, involving women from Subang regency in West Java and sending them illegally to Malaysia.

A senior officer said on Wednesday that the suspect was arrested in Subang regency after the police learned that he had sold many Subang women, who eventually ended up in Malaysia as prostitutes.

"He was arrested after a report from three Subang women, who told us they had been sold as prostitutes in Malaysia," said Adj. Comr. Fatmah Noor.

Surwa reportedly offered jobs in Singapore to the three women. Surwa apparently convinced them last year that he could provide them an opportunity to work in Singapore as shopkeepers. But, in the end, the three women were taken to Malaysia and were forced to work as sex workers in a night club in Malaysia. The three women were sent home on Dec. 14 and reported the case to the police, said Fatmah on Wednesday.

Fatmah added that investigators would also look into dealings Surwa had with agents in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, which was apparently used as an embarkation point for the women. Surwa had earlier confessed that he and two other recruiters, identified as Sally and Ida, had earlier sent at least 200 female migrant workers to Malaysia.

Surwa said that he had received a commission from Sally and Ida amounting to between Rp 800,000 (US$88.8) to Rp 1 million per woman recruited.

Chief of the Subang police Adj. Sr. Comr. Agnes Supraptiningsih confirmed that Surwa had sent at least 200 women from Subang to a recruitment agency run by Ida and Sally in West Kalimantan, which later sent them to Malaysia as illegal migrant workers. "Some were maids, but others were sex workers," explained Agnes.