Medan teenagers trapped to work in Riau towns as prostitutes
Medan teenagers trapped to work in Riau towns as prostitutes
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Yu, as friends call her, is 15, nearing 16. However, unlike
her teenage peers at Kampung Baru, Medan, North Sumatra, she now
has a new label: ex-sex worker.
It began one afternoon in September. After arriving home from
school, her neighbor at Kampung Baru lured her to work at a
company in Tanjung Balai Karimun in Riau province.
Attracted by a promised monthly salary of Rp 5 million
(US$475), she agreed and left for Tanjung Balai Karimun that same
day.
Upon arrival there, the neighbor delivered her to a man named
Martin.
"From that moment, my fate turned ugly. The big pay deal was
just a lie. I was forced into prostitution," she told The Jakarta
Post last Saturday.
That began a classic story of a teenage prostitute in
Indonesia, entering the lucrative business of prostitution by
force, not by her own conscious intention.
Yu, nevertheless, considered herself lucky as she was
eventually rescued by Ediyawarman, chairman of North Sumatra
Children Care Group.
Ediyawarman, 49, also a volunteer for the Indonesian Child
Protection Association (PPAI), said he discovered Yu's case after
getting a report from another victim who had fled the district.
After ascertaining Yu's presence, Ediyawarman went to Tanjung
Balai Karimun with her parents to take Yu back to Medan from
Martin. Yu arrived at her home in Tanjung Baru late last month.
In the same week, Ediyawarman's group rescued three other
teenagers, also forced into prostitution, from Tanjung Balai
Karimun and Dumai, also in Riau.
Not all forced child prostitution victims helped by
Ediyawarman have returned home for free.
Some of them, particularly those in Dumai, could leave only
after paying "compensation" ranging from Rp 200,000 (USS$19) to
Rp 600,000 per person.
The parents of one victim called Ip, told the Post last week
that they had to pay Rp 200,000 for their daughter's release from
a pimp in Dumai.
The parents said that Ip disappeared in the beginning of
February 2000. They searched for her in every corner of the city
but to no avail.
About two weeks later, nevertheless, the parents received a
letter from Ip, telling them that she along with her two other
female friends, Wa and An, were confined in one house at the
Dumai "garbage disposal" prostitution site.
In response to the letter, the parents together with relatives
of the other two girls went to Dumai with Ediyawarman on Feb. 24,
2000 to save them.
After tough bargaining, Ip's parents managed to free her after
paying her pimp Rp 200,000, but Wa's relatives had to pay Rp
525,000 to get her out. Worse, however, is that An's parents did
not have enough money to bail her out.
An is still in Dumai.
According to Ediyawarman, An's parents, and many other
parents, suffer a great deal of stress after failing to get their
abused children out of the flesh business.
The father of another victim Si, 18, for example, stayed in
the Wisma Ria Bagan Besar complex, Bukit Kapur district, Dumai,
for a year until his death due to his failure to take her home.
The problem began with Si's sealed statement in 1999 declaring
her agreement to work as a waitress. Therefore, if she wishes to
quit the job she is required to reimburse her employer for all
costs.
According to PPAI's investigation, Dumai has 95 premises used
for prostitution purposes, of which 65 are labeled as
entertainment centers while the rest disguise themselves as
business and housing units.
Each of the 65 entertainment premises employs around 20
commercial sex workers, with 15 rooms for visitors.
Ediyawarman said his group had tried hard to find and get all
forced prostitutes back to their homes, nevertheless, the efforts
many times could not be pursued smoothly.
During the past two years, the Children Care Group has brought
a total of 14 victims of forced teenage prostitution back to
Medan from red-light districts in Dumai and Tanjung Balai
Karimun.
"Five more couples have reported the loss of their children.
We haven't been informed of their whereabouts so far," added
Ediyawarman.
Provincial police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Amrin Karim, when
asked to confirm the presence of under-age child trafficking for
prostitution in Medan-Dumai-Batam areas, said there was no such
child trading.
What happens, according to Amrin Karim, is that some children
get into the sex business after losing decent jobs. "They
prostitute themselves willingly instead of being forced, and none
of them has any complaint," he told the Post.
According to the country's Criminal Code, anybody providing
sex service facilities is liable to 16 months imprisonment or a
maximum fine of only Rp 15,000, and anybody employing under-age
children in such facilities is subject to a maximum prison term
of six years.
Ade Akhmad Ilyasak, PPAI's communications manager, described
the penalties imposed on culprits of this business and its
networks as no longer compatible with the sense of justice
developing in society.
"Six years' imprisonment is too lenient in comparison with the
victims' life-long physical and psychological sufferings,
affecting also their families and social environments," Ade
added.