2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

has the region’s largest trafficking problem, with
hundreds of thousands of trafficking victims, and it
has a huge and largely unchecked problem of
trafficking-related complicity by public officials.
Law enforcement efforts improved over the last
year, but remain insufficient, and there has been
scant political will shown to provide greater protection
to migrant workers at risk of trafficking.
A memorandum of understanding with Malaysia
signed in May 2006 ceded basic worker rights to
employers making it easier for Indonesians to be
trapped in slave-like conditions. The agreement
allows Malaysian employers to hold workers’ passports,
restrict their freedom to return home, deduct
up to 50 percent of their negotiated monthly wages
to repay loans, and provide no time off. While the
Ministry of Manpower conducted crackdowns on
illegal activities of migrant manpower agencies,
there was no official recognition that Indonesia’s
migrant worker system lacks measures to protect
workers from exploitation or debt bondage. The
government should make greater efforts to prosecute
and convict public officials who profit from
or are involved in trafficking. It is essential that
the government implement a migrant manpower
recruitment and placement system that incorporates
measures to protect workers, rather than benefiting
exploitative manpower agencies and employers. The
government should also greatly increase its budget
for the prevention of trafficking as well as the repatriation,
treatment and rehabilitation of victims,
relying less on international donors.
Prosecution
The Indonesian government demonstrated
improved efforts to combat trafficking in persons
in 2006, although the lack of a comprehensive
law stymied the effectiveness of these efforts. With
the passage and enactment in April 2007 of a
comprehensive anti-trafficking law, Indonesia now
prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons; the
law prescribes penalties of 3 to 15 years’ imprisonment.
These penalties are sufficiently stringent and
commensurate with those for other grave crimes.
The new anti-trafficking law contains provisions for
the prosecution of corporate entities which could
be applied to job placement agencies involved in
trafficking. Another provision specifically criminalizes
trafficking by government officials. The new law
will also facilitate anti-trafficking data collection, a
chronic problem in Indonesia.
Law enforcement against traffickers increased in
2006 over 2005, with arrests up 29 percent, from
110 to 142; prosecutions up 87 percent, from 30 to
56; and convictions up 112 percent, from 17 to 36.
The average sentence in these cases was 54 months.
The longest trafficking sentence in 2006 was 15
years, imposed pursuant to the Child Protection
Act. The number of women’s police desks helping
victims increased to 280 in 2006, while national
trafficking police investigators nearly doubled to
20, still an inadequate number given the huge size
of Indonesia’s trafficking problem. Prosecutors with
the Transnational Crime Center, which was established
in July 2006 to handle high-priority cases of
trafficking and terrorism, prosecuted 10 trafficking
cases in its first six months of operation. A number
of provincial and local laws were also passed to
protect women and children against trafficking.
Indonesia posted police liaison officers in
Indonesian embassies in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia,
Australia, and Thailand to aid in trafficking
investigations. Complicity in trafficking of individual
security force members and corrupt officials
involved in prostitution and sex trafficking
remained unchecked. Individual members of the
security forces were complicit in trafficking, providing
protection to brothels and prostitution fronts or
by receiving bribes. The former Indonesian Consul
General in Penang, Malaysia, was sentenced to 20
months’ imprisonment and fined 100 million rupiah
for collecting illegal charges from Indonesian
laborers in Malaysia. A former Consul General in
Johor Bahru, Malaysia, was arrested for inflating
fees for services and abusing authority.
Protection
The Indonesian government increased efforts, at the
national and local levels, to protect victims of trafficking
in Indonesia and abroad; however, available
victim services are overwhelmed by the large number
of trafficking victims. The government’s policy is
to encourage victim participation in investigations
against traffickers and not to detain or imprison
trafficking victims; however, local government and
police practices varied. In some cases police officers
treated victims as criminals, subjected them to detention,
and demanded bribes from them. Authorities
continued to round up and deport a small number
of foreign women and girls in prostitution without
attempting to identify trafficking victims among
them. The government operates four medical centers
that treat trafficking victims. The Foreign Ministry
operated shelters for trafficking victims and migrant
workers at its embassies and consulates in Malaysia,
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Singapore. The Indonesian
Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, established a
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