Women trafficking rampant, law enforcement weak

JAKARTA (JP): Trafficking in women is rampant here due to inadequate legal instruments and weak law enforcement, a researcher said on Thursday.

Johnna Debora Imelda, a University of Indonesia scholar who has carried out research related to this issue, said that many criminals involved in the offense were untouched by the law, despite what they had done.

"Instead, the police usually charged the victims with engaging in prostitution," Johanna, who is a lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences, told The Jakarta Post over the telephone.

Johanna pointed to a number of raids by the police related to trafficking in women, but the masterminds were never sent to court.

The latest case occurred here on Tuesday night, when the police arrested three suspects for allegedly trafficking in women.

A total of 17 victims had been deployed as prostitutes in Cempaka Bar, which belonged to one of the suspects.

The police found out about the case after one of the victims escaped from the bar and filed a report on Sunday.

Johanna said that her research on human trafficking in Jakarta, Medan, Batam, and Bali last year showed that most victims had been sold as prostitutes and domestic workers, while the rest had been used to distribute drugs. Most of the victims were women under 18 years old.

"The practice of trafficking in women has continued as it is highly profitable. The organizers do not have to provide any capital but they reap large profits," she remarked.

There is no precise data on when it started. However, human trafficking has been going on for years, according to Johanna.

Poverty, low levels of education and early marriage were identified as some of the major factors behind trafficking in women. Most victims usually came from poor villages around the country, particularly in Java, and migrated to large urban areas like Jakarta in search of a better life.

According to Johanna, most victims were ensnared by criminals who offered them jobs as laborers. However, there was also the possibility that their parents, driven by poverty, might have sold them to the culprits.

Marriage

She also suspected that in some cases, the criminals tricked young women from remote villages into marriage in order to sell them subsequently.

Most of their buyers were pimps who needed sex workers for their brothels. Once the victims had entered the brothels, it would have been difficult for them to run away, as the pimps guarded them closely, she said.

Johanna also said that in several cases, the buyers were pedophiles, as has occurred in many examples in Bali.

Many of the victims often continued to work as sex workers, even if they had been released by their pimps, as they felt that they did not deserve a better job.

Ironically, people here do not consider trafficking in women to be a big problem.

"People are not responsive to the problem," Johanna said.

Only a few non-governmental organizations are concerned with the issue, she said, adding that they have called upon the government to provide legal protection for the victims by proposing legislation on the matter.(04)