"The Ministry of Education and Culture should have taken a more proactive role in ensuring this incident will not recur. Since the victims are also academics and professor, I think the ministry should be involved," Chairman of Commission X of DPR RI Syaiful Huda noted in a statement from him on Thursday.
Apart from allowing the legal process of this case, Huda said the ministry should also be involved in ensuring no future recurrence of similar cases.
On April 3, the ministry confirmed that the internship program for students to Germany, or Ferienjob, is not included in the Independent Learning Campus (MBKM) Program.
"Ferienjob is not compatible with the MBKM Program organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture," the ministry's Director General of Vocational Education at the Ministry of Education and Culture Kiki Yuliati remarked.
Ferienjob is regulated in Article 14, paragraph (2) of the Germany Employment Ordinance that is carried out only in official semester breaks or official semester holidays, with the type of work being manual labor or physical labor.
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Yuliati stated that this type of job is not related to the academic world since it aims to fulfill the shortage of physical labor in Germany and is only meant to fill the students' semester holiday period.
Thus, facts related to Ferienjob indicated that the internship was completely unrelated and was not an MBKM program organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture, she pointed out.
According to Yuliati, internships included in the MBKM Program are not held during the holidays but during the current semester, as they must contribute to the students' academic grades or achievements.
On March 28, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Hadi Tjahjanto, stated that around 1,900 Indonesian students were indicated to be victims of human trafficking acts through the Ferienjob program.
The alleged human trafficking case, whose victims were indicated to be Indonesian students in Germany, came to light in mid-March of 2024. The National Police Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) began investigating the case after receiving a report from the Indonesian Embassy in Germany.
"Students are employed non-procedurally, resulting in students' exploitation," Director of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro, had stated on March 20.
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Translator: Tri Meilani A, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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