"Some 700 thousand Indonesian people, who work as crew abroad, are prone to becoming victims of human trafficking," the minister pointed out.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has urged ASEAN member countries to foster political will to combat human trafficking activities in the waters of Southeast Asia.
"We need to establish cooperation with other governments," Pudjiastuti stated at the ASEAN conference on human trafficking and employment in the fishing industry here on Monday.
The minister remarked that illegal fishing was also closely related to human trafficking.
The minister pointed out that several Indonesian citizens had become victims of human trafficking abroad.
"Some 700 thousand Indonesian people, who work as crew abroad, are prone to becoming victims of human trafficking," the minister pointed out.
To eradicate human trafficking, the minister affirmed that ASEAN member countries should have the political will.
The Indonesian National Police (Polri) had earlier uncovered a case of human trafficking in which Indonesian citizens were being transported to Malaysia to serve as commercial sex workers.
Chief of Polris Criminal Offenses Division Umar Surya Fana stated that the racket was unraveled after a victim had filed a report on May 3.
"We immediately conducted an investigation that led to the arrest of three suspects identified as AR alias Vio, RHW alias Rendi alias Radit, and SH alias Sarip," Fana stated at the Bareskrim Offices in Jakarta on Monday (Aug. 2).
He made assurance that the Polri will continue to investigate the case until all suspects are arrested.
The modus operandi of the perpetrators was to lure the victims with job offers as spa therapists in Malaysia at a monthly salary of Rp15 million.
"These people were recruited through social media platforms, such as WeChat, Bee Talk, and Tagged," Fana noted.
He revealed that the suspects were able to produce authentic passports obtained by submitting fake documents at the immigration offices in Jakarta by paying Rp9.5 million per passport. They were even able to get the victims names changed to make it appear as though they had obtained the passports before.
Polri strongly suspected that Sarip was part of a syndicate specializing in producing counterfeit documents for passports.
As soon as they arrived in Malaysia, the victims found that they had signed up to work as sex workers in Kuala Lumpur.
The victims were not paid salaries for the initial two months and were not allowed to return to Indonesia either. They were told to clear off the debts incurred on account of the costs borne for their departure, passports, and accommodation.
According to the police, YS, a victim, admitted that they were forced to serve four to nine men a day.
After two months of work, YS could no longer bear the ordeal and begged to return home, on the pretext that her parents were ill.
As soon as she arrived in the motherland, YS reported her predicament to the police.
Fana further narrated that there were 12 victims, two of whom have returned to Indonesia, five remain in a detention center in Kuala Lumpur, and four in women protection centers. The whereabouts of the rest were still unknown.
"We have coordinated with the Foreign Ministry to further investigate this case and rescue the victims. We will also send our investigators to Malaysia," Fana added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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