"I urge the police to improve cooperation with the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers," Minister Mahfud remarked during a cross-institutional meeting at the ministry's office on Monday as quoted from a written statement received on Tuesday.
The national board and the police force were present at the meeting.
He emphasized the need for collaboration since addressing human trafficking cases was quite a challenging task.
"I know there are many problems. Hence, it is not easy for either the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers or for the Police. It is not just a technical matter of law but a political issue and various aspects," he said.
"Now, that has to be dealt with one by one, particularly the mafia, the recruitment of workers, just take action first. Then, we warn them to not mess around. This is a humanity problem and has become a national concern," he added.
According to Mahfud, cases of human trafficking had occurred since long, and in practice, it involved several aspects, including law enforcement, immigration, and trickery at the regional scope.
"This is not only about the police but also about immigration, courts, prosecutors, civil registration, regional government, 'back ups', and many other problems, such as poverty and ignorance," he elaborated.
Hence, human trafficking had become one of the several discussions of the government since last year, he revealed. He urged the police force to enhance collaboration with other stakeholders, particularly with the national board.
The request was well-received by Head of the criminal investigation agency at the National Police, General Commissioner Agus Andrianto. He voiced his readiness to cooperate with the national board to investigate human trafficking cases.
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"In principle, we are ready, and we have the experience to deal with this issue. We are confident in our experience. If we unite, I am confident that efforts to save Indonesian workers can be pursued,” he stated.
Head of National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers, Benny Rhamdani, said that the human trafficking mode was still using the old method, such as recruitment that promised huge salaries to bait mostly people of lower socio-economic classes.
"The mode is the general conventional mode, brokers go to the community offering jobs, big salaries, leave (for the job) immediately, and all costs are covered," Andrianto expounded.
In truth, traffickers had falsified documents, starting at the village or sub-district scopes.
"Maybe it is important for us to cooperate with the village government. Then, the brokers give compensation of Rp5 million to Rp10 million to the family. How can they not be interested? Economically, they are weak," Rhamdani noted.
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Translator: Tri Meilani A, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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