RI to continue with battle against people trafficking

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Encouraged by having made some progress, Indonesia will continue with its battle against people trafficking to repair its poor record as well as to avoid sanctions from the international community, says a government official.

In its third annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" released on Wednesday at www.state.gov, the U.S. Department of State moved Indonesia out of the so-called "Tier 3" group of countries, inclusion in which can lead to sanctions, into the "Tier 2" group. The report said that Indonesia had made, to some extent, improvements and progress in its battle against people trafficking.

The report, however, also said that the Indonesian government had not fully complied with the minimum standards for the elimination of people trafficking.

"We are happy with the U.S. report as it reflects what we have already done to correct our poor record on people trafficking. But we still have a lot to do to eliminate rampant people trafficking," Ratna Tjaja, the deputy in charge of the quality of women's lives at the Office of the State Minister for Women's Empowerment, told The Jakarta Post here on Thursday

According to the U.S. report, Indonesia has adopted a national plan to combat the trafficking of women and children, but its implementation is hindered by an overall lack of capacity and resources.

Public campaigns had been conducted, but overall public awareness of trafficking remained inadequate.

Regarding the prosecution of offenders, the report said that Indonesia had not yet passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, but a bill was currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives.

The House, however, had already amended the Criminal Code to provide for tougher penalties against traffickers, and had passed a law on child protection.

Officials had made a number of arrests, but nationwide data on convictions was not available and corruption remained a major obstacle.

As for protection measures, the report said that the Indonesian government had drawn up a national plan to ensure proper treatment for the victims of trafficking, but implementation varied widely. Some local officials continued to treat victims as criminals and further abuse them.

Ratna said that the government and the House must now speed up the deliberation of the bill on the trafficking of women and children to provide a legal basis for the ongoing fight against trafficking.

An estimated 230,000 Indonesian women and children have been trafficked from their home villages in Java, Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi to be employed as sex workers and cheap labor in urban areas at home and the sex trade overseas.

The government has recently brought home more than 300 women who were employed as sex workers in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

Ratna said that besides, the immigration office should also strictly screen the documents of women and children departing for overseas, especially for the well-known destination countries of the traffickers.

"We know that the traffickers and their syndicates can manipulate the personal identities of women and children. But this manipulation could be detected if we wanted to," she said.

She warned that many women and children have been traded because of economic problems. "Nobody would want to work as a sex worker if poverty was eradicated: They are given jobs," she said

Meanwhile, International Labor Organization representative in Jakarta Alan Boulton said that thousands of children were being trafficked for prostitution in Indonesia, and parents and other family members were often to blame.

More than 10,000 children aged under 18 work as prostitutes in major cities in Indonesia, he said as quoted by AFP.

The real figure may be even higher considering that many prostitutes work in concealed and unregistered places, he said.