PPM helps human trafficking victims

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jana, not her real name, put her trust in the man. He offered her paid work and she went with him, all the way from Tanjung Pinang, near Batam Island, from Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara. That was three years ago.

"I was intending to work in Tanjung Pinang but in the days after my arrival I fell ill and fainted on several occasions because I had to work until 11.30 p.m.," she recalled.

During her two-week training period, Jana had to wake up by 5 a.m. every day.

Exhausted, she decided to run away because nobody could quit during training.

She found a mosque where she met a Muslim cleric who asked her to stay with his family.

After five days, her energy returned and she set off to find another job. Only she was cheated for a second time, this time by a middleman who promised to find her a job, but sent her to a brothel instead.

The woman, now 26, was a sex worker for a month, before a non- governmental organization stepped in, taking her to the Rumah Kita shelter in Jakarta.

Asked if she had ever reported her case to the police, she said: "I hate the sight of police officers, I would never trust them because they are not cooperative."

Even so, Jana was recently admitted to Kramat Jati Police Hospital in Central Jakarta, the first free medical recovery center (PPM) in the country, which opened on June 10.

Fifteen other women had already arrived at the center, which was jointly established by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the National Police.

IOM medical worker Lanny Harijanti said more victims of human trafficking would undergo treatment at the hospital, which also receives babies.

"So far, the hospital has not needed to heal (physical) wounds, because the women received treatment at shelters before their arrival here," Lanny said.

A psychologist who works at the center, Suryantini, said most of the women had been so desperate to work they made easy prey for human traffickers.

The women at the center come from villages where success is measured by the value of one's house, Suryantini said.

Some of the human trafficking victims said they had been prepared to work 20 hours a day abroad just so they could buy building materials for their village homes, leaving their children behind.

"Perhaps, village chiefs have not educated villagers on the perils of working overseas, in order to protect them from middlemen," she said.

IOM program assistance officer Anna Sakreti said her institution had faced many barriers in bringing the victims home.

Prolonged investigations and court trials stopped them from providing immediate assistance, she said.

Anna said NGO activists had often received threats from certain people involved in human trafficking.

National Police data shows there were 650 cases of human trafficking between 1999 and 2003, 430 of which were settled.

However, a study carried out in 2003 by the Women's Journal Foundation (YJP) found that as many as 5,000 women and children were trafficked to Batam island that year.

The IOM estimates between 800,000 and four million cases of human trafficking occur worldwide every year. (004)