TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The light skinned woman with long hair left the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in Early December 2016. The woman named Oey Wenny Gotama was questioned all day long by Kupang Police. She was allegedly involved in human trafficking from East Nusa Tenggara into Malaysia.
After the questioning, Oey Wenny told Tempo that she was a representative of NG Bersatu Sdn Bhd, a Malaysia-based recruitment agency. She, however, had denied involvement in alleged human trafficking. “I’m not aware of the human trafficking,” said Wenny, who claimed to have Indonesian nationality.
Wenny was named in financial transaction slips received by Tempo. The documents show that billions of rupiah were paid for from Malaysia to perpetrators of human trafficking in Medan and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), one of the main sources of Indonesian migrant workers. Within a year, since August 2015, Wenny transferred at least 646,000 Malaysian ringgits, or around Rp2 billion, to a bank account under the name of Seri Safkini, the owner of PT Cut Sari Asih, a recruitment agency based in Medan, North Sumatra.
Seri Safkini later distributed the funds to his subordinates in NTT, including Yohanes Leonardus Ringgi, a security officer at El Tari Airport, Kupang. Over Rp1.8 billion was transferred on 155 occasions in the period. Yohanes Ringgi, who is now under East Kupang Police custody in a human trafficking case, has confirmed the wire payment from Seri Safkini. Yohannes was tasked with scouting prospective domestic workers to be sent to Malaysia. “I received Rp500,000 per migrant workers,” he said.
Yohanes paid Rp1-2 million to sway the family members into allowing their children to work in Malaysia. Yohanes’ subordinates would sometimes lure the prospective migrant workers with high wages. The money received by Yohanes was also used to forge the identity of child workers. The forged identity would then be used to apply for passports to ensure entry into Malaysia.
Read more about the investigative report “Human Trafficking into Malaysia” in Tempo magazine this week.
INVESTIGATION TEAM
