“The President's Order is clear. We will do it with utmost commitment. (We have) commitment to the republic and the Red and White flag, that they must not be stained by the syndicates and mafias," Head of the BP2MI Benny Rhamdani said at the Presidential Palace here on Tuesday.
He made the remarks following an internal meeting led by President Widodo to discuss human trafficking eradication.
According to Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD, who was also present at the meeting, the head of state directed that the human trafficking prevention and eradication task force be restructured.
The President also asked government officials, including those from the police and the military, to take immediate measures to address human trafficking issues for a month to demonstrate that the state is going to assist the public right away.
“The President has declared that the fight against syndicates must always be carried out. The state must not back out. The state must be present, and the law should work (on it)," he stressed.
The measures taken by the board have included the removal of one of their own staff about eight months ago after the staff were found to be involved in illegal placements, he pointed out.
"This is a crime against humanity, which the state must not back down from, in fighting the syndicates and the mafia. It is naive of this country if the workers' placement aspect is controlled by syndicates and mafias," Rhamdani added.
He further said that in the previous three years, his administration has handled at least 94 thousand cases of Indonesian migrant workers being deported from the Middle East and Asia.
Ninety percent of the cases involved migrant workers who used the services of illegal placement syndicates.
"And then there are more or less 1,900 bodies. It means that each day, on average there are two coffins sent to Indonesia. Similar case, 90 percent of them are those who went illegally, victims of illegal placement syndicates," he informed.
He also brought attention to the number of migrant workers who got sick, depressed, lost their memory, and even suffered a disability, which stands at 3,600.
He said that the warnings about human trafficking began after the World Bank issued data in 2017 showing at least 9 million Indonesians working overseas. The number did not match the board's registry at the time, whose records showed only 4.7 million migrant workers employed overseas, Rhamdani underlined.
"So the assumption is that there are 4.3 million Indonesians working overseas who went through unprocedural means, and it is believed that they were sent by illegal placement syndicates," he added.
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Translator: Gilang Galiartha, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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