RI to Repatriate More Human Trafficking Victims from Malaysia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A total of 39 victims of human trafficking from Indonesia have been repatriated from Malaysia by the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the second such repatriation after the embassy repatriated 14 trafficking victims earlier in the year. 

"These 53 victims were about to be trafficked to the Middle East," said Sr. Comr. Aby Nur Setianto, the permanent representative for the Indonesian National Police (Polri) at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur at Polri's headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday, December 3, 2014. 

The incident was revealed when the Human Trafficking Squad of the Malaysian Police arrested Jordanian national identified as IM, along with L, an Indonesian citizen at Kuala Lumpur's International Airport. At the time of their arrest, IM and L were about to send off 10 Indonesian trafficking victim to the Middle East. 

From IM and L's testimony, the Malaysian Police managed to locate the remaining 53 trafficking victims, who were being held in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur. Many of the victims were in possession of travel papers that would allow them passage to the Middle East. "They were scheduled to leave Malaysia for Egypt, before continuing on to Syria and Lebanon," said Aby. 

Aby said that IM and L reaped around Rp8 million in profit for each victim sent to their prospective clients in the Middle East, before adding that both suspects had been involved in the business since 2008. "IM is a part of an established trafficking ring, and had been apprehended twice by the Indonesian authorities for his involvement in other trafficking cases," he explained. 

The majority of the victims, said Aby, hailed from West Java, East Java, and West Nusa Tenggara. These victims had been recruited by illegal agents in Indonesia, one of whom was M, an illegal agent based in Sukabumi, West Java. "He has been in our custody since November 24," said Aby. 

Sudiarti, a 48-year-old trafficking victim, said she had been held in the apartment for nine days. She said that all victims were barred from leaving the apartment. "If it wasn't for the raid, then we would still be stuck in the apartment," said Sudiarti, who said that she had previously worked in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

That said, IM and L will be released soon as their detention period expires. "Both suspects were only sentenced to one month's imprisonment and fined Rp25 million," said Aby, who said that the Malaysian authorities had only charged them with forgery. 

SINGGIH SOARES