Semarang (ANTARA) - The Central Java Regional Police is committed to taking firm action against those involving in cross-border trafficking in persons by targeting Indonesian migrant workers, a police officer said.

"In handling the cases, we will coordinate with the National Police's Criminal Investigation Division (Bareskrim)," Deputy Chief of the Central Java Police' s Human Trafficking Task Force Senior Commissioner Johanson Simamora said in Semarang on Sunday.

The provincial police have so far handled 46 human trafficking cases, he said, adding that
the perpetrators are illegal worker recruitment agencies and individuals.

"Their motives are still related to economy. The suspected perpetrators do not have permits to dispatch the job seekers," he said.

According to him, dozens of those arrested for allegedly involving in these human trafficking cases are executive officers of the unlicensed recruitment agencies. They have been named suspects.

Until now, he said, the police investigators still explore a possible involvement of a network in the various cases that had been uncovered.

Simamora, who is also the provincial police's director of General Criminal Investigation Department, said the task force that he leads has conducted the law enforcement against human traffickers in the past month.

Following the law enforcement operation, the task force personnel would evaluate their.works to determine what to do next. Whether prevention will be carried out or what depends on the orders of the National Police Headquarters," he said.

President Joko Widodo along with other ASEAN leaders had earlier committed to eradicating all forms of crimes of cross-border trafficking in persons.

The cross-border cooperation is not just related to exchanging information, but also efforts to improve law enforcement operations to arrest perpetrators staying abroad.

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Translator: Immanuel Citra Senjaya, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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