RI workers employed as prostitutes

SURABAYA: Some 5,000 Indonesian women migrant workers in Malaysia need immediate help as they have been entrapped by a syndicate to work as prostitutes, a government official working in Malaysia said here on Friday.

Makdum Tahir, the Indonesian consul general in Tawao, a city in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, said the women had been forced to work as prostitutes for almost one year.

Makdum, who came to Surabaya to accompany 16 migrant workers who managed to escape the syndicate, said the network was operating behind labor import companies.

The Indonesian government's efforts to uncover women trafficking had not yielded significant results, he said.

For some inexplicable reason, the Malaysian Police had failed to provide sufficient assistance to expose the syndicate, he said.

"We tried to approach the Malaysian police but received no response. It was very disappointing," he said.

He estimated that 90 percent of female Indonesian migrant workers forced into prostitution by the syndicate were from various towns in Java. -- Antara