"We have submitted a report to the Tangerang City Police to investigate the smuggling of illegal migrant workers from Indonesia," BP2MI deputy for migrant workers' placement and protection for Europe and the Middle East, I Ketut Suardana, informed in Tangerang on Wednesday.
His party and the police are focusing on uncovering the syndicate responsible for sending illegal migrant workers.
"We continue our work to prevent the practice of sending illegal migrant workers as stated in Law Number 18 of 2012 concerning the Protection of Indonesian Workers," Suardana informed.
As many as 10 prospective non-procedural or illegal migrant workers were prevented from departing to the Middle East by BP2MI recently.
They were originally planned to be sent to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Suardana, the prospective illegal migrant workers were all women aged 23–54 years from West Java, Banten, and Lombok.
"We succeeded in prohibiting them from departing on January 19, 2024. They were placed in a shelter," he informed.
Suardana said that the preventive measures began with the receipt of information from the public, who reported the plan to smuggle migrant workers illegally.
Based on the information, BP2MI checked a suspected shelter in Neglasari, Tangerang city, Banten.
"After we found the prospective migrant workers, we interrogated them. They admitted that they wanted to work abroad through a middleman with the initials AWS. However, at the time, AWS was nowhere to be found," Suardana explained.
He informed that the illegal PMI were promised a salary of Rp4 million per month by the agency if they agreed to work in a Middle Eastern country.
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Translator: Azmi Syamsul M, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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