INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: Indonesia Anti-Trafficking in Persons (Tip)

Published: Mon 12 Mar 2007 02:06 AM
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FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3778
INFO RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI 0312
RUEHKL/AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR 2290
RUEHKU/AMEMBASSY KUWAIT 0402
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 0537
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 3992
RUEHGP/AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE 5857
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0380
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 3964
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 0507
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 2327
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 1963
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
UNCLAS JAKARTA 000701
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EAP/RSP
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB
SUBJECT: INDONESIA ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP)
REPORT, March 2005 to March 2006 (PART 4 OF 4)
POLICE APPROACH TO INVESTIGATIONS
---------------------------------
Update
------
Beginning as early as 2001, the police established women's
help desks (RPK) to protect women and child victims of
violence, including trafficking, and also to aid in
investigations of these crimes. The police have steadily
expanded the number of RPK, totaling 280 such desks as of
February 2007. End update.
Anti-trafficking NGOs report increasing levels of
cooperation with police and prosecutors in some parts of
eastern Indonesia. East Java NGOs report a greater police
awareness of human trafficking as a crime and increased
sensitivity to victims and their needs during interviews.
A good example of greater cooperation is the East Java
ATTF, formed during 2006. Its 26 members from around the
province meet monthly to discuss human trafficking trends
and best practices in victim assistance. They also form
anti-trafficking policy and are developing an anti-
trafficking legislative agenda for submission to the
provincial legislature. The provincial government offices
participating in the East Java ATTF are the Community
Empowerment Board, the Regional Planning Development Board,
the Health Office, the Manpower and Transmigration Office,
East Java police, several government hospitals, the
Immigration Office and the East Java Attorney GeneralQs
Office. (Surabaya input)
West Lombok anti-trafficking NGOs, on the other hand,
report little change in local government and policeQs
apathetic attitude toward the thousands of trafficking
victims sourced from the province. They implicate local
government officials in actually running overseas
employment agencies engaged in dubious employment practices
while serving as local Manpower or Immigration officers.
The Central Sulawesi Child Protection Agency (CSLPA)
reports a rapidly growing trafficking problem in Palu that
was only recently identified. Central Sulawesi Police
intercepted a boat carrying twenty-two 14 to 16 year old
girls from East Java. The police investigation uncovered a
ring based in Surabaya moving several boatloads of girls
per month to be indoctrinated at a brothel in Palu then
trafficked to Kalimantan and eventually to Malaysia for
employment as commercial sex workers. The boat captain
escaped and police eventually released the Palu brothel
owner due to a lack of local laws defining the activity as
a crime.
As noted above, police continued actions to investigate
traffickers, break up trafficking rings, arrest traffickers
and free victims during this period. Police trained under
the DOJ/ICITAP program carried out qualitatively improved
investigations of trafficking during 2005, according to
U.S. Mission observations. In most incidents, however,
police were largely reactive in their investigations,
taking actions in response to complaints by family members,
escaped trafficking victims, civil society groups, NGOs,
the pess and other government officials. Police morereadily took action in the case of children trappe in
prostituution, rathe than adults forced into,o*r trapped
in, the sexiindustry.
In 2005, certain police districts, inl(uding Jakarta and
North Sumatra, formed specialized investigative units
focused on crimes againstwwomen and children, with the
units referred to b the abbreviation RENATA. In 2006 the
RENATA untt in Medan, North Sumatra, consisted of 18 full-t ime female police investigators, led by a senior female
police official, and focused most of its work on cases of
domestic violence and trafficking in persons. As noted
above, in 2005 North Sumatra carried out more anti-
trafficking law enforcement actions than any other
province, per available data. Jakarta's RENATA unit
achieved some high-profile success in 2005 with the arrests
of two traffickers sending young women into prostitution in
Japan.
GOI officials and NGOs often criticized police officers as
too passive in combating trafficking absent specific
complaints. Although police were often aware of underage
prostitutes or other trafficking situations, they
frequently did not intervene to protect victims or arrest
probable traffickers without specific reports from third
parties. Police in some areas facilitated and accepted at
face value efforts by pimps to obtain written statements by
prostitutes, which "verified" that the prostitutes were of
adult age and had consented to their roles. Police in some
areas generally accepted trafficking or trafficking-like
situations, whether out of lack of awareness of trafficking
as a crime, their direct or indirect involvement in
trafficking, their individual financial interest in
prostitution, lack of police resources for operations, or
competing law enforcement priorities.
To aid in trafficking investigations, cases involving
Indonesian migrant workers, and other crimes, beginning in
2003 the police posted liaison officers in Indonesian
embassies in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Australia and
Thailand. These police liaison officers contributed to
growing law enforcement cooperation particularly with
Malaysia. The Indonesian police liaisons in Australia and
Saudi Arabia have also helped to investigate trafficking in
the past.
INVESTIGATIVE TECHNIQUES
------------------------
In some instances, the police, particularly those who had
received anti-trafficking training, used active
investigation techniques to develop trafficking cases. The
police used undercover operations to some extent. In the
past, police occasionally employed electronic surveillance
using technical expertise developed for counter-terrorism.
Information collected through electronic surveillance is
not admissible in Indonesian courts except in cases of
terrorism. The cooperation of victims and witnesses was
important to police and prosecutors in making cases against
traffickers. According to a number of the police, GOI
officials and NGOs, victims frequently avoided testifying
because of the prolonged nature of court cases, their
desire to return to their home areas and lack of financial
assistance to maintain themselves. This complicated
prosecution efforts. In some cases, police did not detain
suspects, who then subsequently disappeared and did not
present themselves in court.
SPECIALIZED TRAINING
--------------------
Update
------
Training of law enforcement officials by USG and
international NGOs greatly increased this year, with strong
cooperation by Indonesian officials. In 2006, the Asia
Foundation trained 72 religious judges representing nearly
60 percent of the 120 Islamic court judges in Aceh in
adjudicating trafficking cases. IOM has also trained 539
prosecutors and 240 judges (including all 60 members of the
Supreme Court), 539 prosecutors and 722 police. DOJ has
trained 200 police in 2006 and an additional 120 from
January to February 2007 and 106 prosecutors and judges.
Other governments and organizations have also done training
of law enforcement officials. Well in excess of a thousand
police, prosecutors and judges were trained in 2006, not
counting training done by those already trained by
internationally-sponsored trainers. Joint training has
taken place as well, such as IOM training of police,
prosecutors, immigration officials and judges in December
2006.
The Manpower Ministry trained labor inspectors and
officials responsible for migrant workers on the worst
forms of child labor and trafficking, a total of 172 in ten
provinces.
Indramayu Manpower office hosted the training on using
Video Training and Campaign Kit in August 2006, attended by
24 counselors who are part of the BP2TKI Manpower Ministry
pilot project. End update.
Beginning in 2003, the GOI and POLRI, using their own
budgets, began to provide some training to officials and
law enforcement officers on TIP and related subjects at the
national and local levels, a positive change from previous
years. NGOs at times served as resource persons for such
training. POLRI has welcomed anti-trafficking training
assistance from the U.S. via the Department of
Justice/ICITAP, which continued in 2006 after a break in
funding in 2005. The International Organization for
Migration (IOM) continued to provide some anti-trafficking
training to the police over the past year.
COOPERATION WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTS
----------------------------------
The GOI cooperated with other governments, particularly
Malaysia, in the investigation and prosecution of
trafficking cases during this reporting period. Indonesian
and Malaysian law enforcement officers worked together to
stop criminal operations trafficking women and girls into
prostitution in Malaysia, and trafficking of babies to
Malaysia. Indonesian and Singaporean police also
cooperated in the investigation
of a ring sending Indonesian prostitutes to Singapore. It
was unclear whether the prostitutes were trafficked.
In the past, Indonesia and Australia cooperated in the
investigations of Australian pedophiles victimizing
children in Bali, and syndicates trafficking women to
Australia.
Indonesian police and other officials cooperated actively
with U.S. law enforcement to arrest and expel wanted
American citizen pedophiles (see below).
EXTRADITION
-----------
Indonesia maintains extradition treaties with only five
countries or territories, but very seldom utilizes this
mechanism to seek extradition of its citizens, preferring
less formal options such as rendering and deportation.
Indonesia does not have a history of extraditing or
rendering its own citizens to other countries.
Indonesia did not extradite any traffickers during this
reporting period and there were no reports of such requests
from other countries.
Indonesian police and officials have cooperated with
foreign governments, including the U.S. and Australia, in
the apprehension and repatriation of foreign sex offenders.
GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN OR TOLERANCE OF TRAFFICKING
--------------------------------------------- --------
Some government officials and individual members of the
security forces facilitated, tolerated, or were involved in
TIP on a variety of levels. The GOI in past reports
acknowledged this fact, which has been widely reported by
groups working on trafficking. The most common example of
such complicity was in the production of national identity
cards. In local communities, low-level officials certified
false information to produce national identity cards and
family data cards for children to allow them to work as
adults. They commonly did so in order to collect bribes
and also to assist poor families in gaining additional wage
earners. In most cases, these officials facilitated such
cards without knowing the children will be trafficked. In
a much smaller number of cases, the local officials
presumably were aware that they are facilitating
trafficking. Based on the identity cards, traffickers
processed passports and work visas for children who
otherwise would not be able to obtain such documents. With
less than 30 percent of all births registered in the
country, and such registrations also subject to
falsification, authorities often had little legal basis to
challenge documents containing false information.
Some officials in local Manpower offices (Disnaker)
reportedly licensed and tolerated migrant worker recruiting
agencies despite the officials' knowledge of the agencies'
involvement in trafficking. In return for bribes, some
Immigration officials turned a blind eye to potential
trafficking victims, failing to screen or act with due
diligence in processing passports and immigration control.
Local governments' informal or formal regulation of and
alleged profiteering from established prostitution zones in
larger cities also raised concerns about local officials'
involvement and tolerance of trafficking.
Individual members of the police and military were
associated with brothels and prostitution fronts, most
frequently through the collection of protection money,
which was a widespread practice. Sometimes off-duty
security force members worked as security personnel at
brothels. Security force members also involved themselves
in prostitution as brothel owners or through other illicit
business interests, according to NGOs and other reports.
As one prominent example, NGOs continued to report the
involvement of Indonesian navy personnel and police in the
Dolly prostitution complex in Surabaya, one of Southeast
Asia's largest brothel areas. A 2005 NGO examination of
trafficking in Papua also found indications of police and
military personnel involved in trafficking.
NGOs described the involvement in TIP of individual police
and military members primarily as one of extorting
protection money from brothel owners and pimps, and of not
taking proactive steps to free underage or other trafficked
prostitutes. In past years, there have been reports of
police officers assisting pimps to return runaway
prostitutes to brothels. The NGOs did not report any
examples of security force members actively recruiting or
forcing children into prostitution.
Police, public order officials and military members
sometimes clashed as a result of raids on prostitution
areas, publicly highlighting the link between security
force members and the sex trade. Examples of such clashes
occurred in Padang, West Sumatra, in 2005 and in Sukabumi,
West Java, in February 2006.
In some cases, the police tolerance of trafficking,
profiteering from the sex trade, and/or lack of
understanding of the law limited or delayed their actions
in response to complaints. On occasions in the past,
national police headquarters intervened with local police
units to generate actions, after the local units failed to
respond to direct complaints.
Police and officials often did not recognize the
relationship of debt bondage and trafficking of women and
girls for prostitution.
DEBT BONDAGE INSTITUTIONALIZED
------------------------------
The recruiting process for Indonesians working as unskilled
or semi-skilled labor abroad tends to institutionalize debt
bondage, which technically is illegal under Indonesian law.
Migrant worker recruiting agencies commonly hold
prospective workers in debt bondage. The indebtedness
stems from processing fees charged to the workers by the
agencies and costs incurred by the agencies prior to the
departure of workers for jobs overseas. Prospective
migrant workers can remain in holding centers for months at
a time, awaiting placement and departure. In some cases,
such situations degenerate into jail-like conditions, with
poor food and sanitation, and with workers unable to leave
locked warehouses where they are housed. There often
appeared to be widespread societal acceptance and tolerance
by GOI officials and law enforcement of such migrant worker
conditions. Situations of debt bondage commonly continued
with overseas employers.
The Manpower Ministry and the Jakarta police launched raids
on unlicensed migrant worker agencies, some of which kept
women and girls under inhumane conditions (see above).
U.S.-funded NGOs, the ILO and others examined the basis for
legal challenges to debt bondage and alternative means of
organizing migrant worker recruitment. There was a gradual
increase in awareness among some Indonesian officials that
the GOI should address the issue of debt bondage.
STEPS TO END OFFICIALS' INVOLVEMENT IN TRAFFICKING
--------------------------------------------- -----
Update
------
As reported above, the GOI has begun to seriously take
action against officials involved in trafficking, including
corruption charges, administrative sanctions, dismissals
and transfers. The impact of these few but unprecedented
actions is beginning to change the culture of impunity.
Unfortunately, this type of action is not being applied to
military officials who abet trafficking, particularly of
women and girls trapped in prostitution. Muslim teachers
in one community related how military personnel visited a
prostitution area daily to collect money from pimps, an
area where many women and girls are known to be trafficked.
End update.
The GOI did not provide details regarding actions taken
against civil officials suspected of involvement in
trafficking. From time to time, the GOI applied
administrative sanctions against officials involved in
passport or other document fraud. Criminal prosecutions
for such actions are not common. There were no GOI reports
of the security forces prosecuting or disciplining their
own members for involvement in prostitution or other
activities related to trafficking.
FOREIGN PEDOPHILES PROSECUTED, DEPORTED
---------------------------------------
Update
------
On December 19, a court in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara
sentenced an Australian, Donald John Stern, to four years
in jail. Another Australian is currently on trial at the
South Jakarta Court. A third committed suicide believing
police were about to arrest him. There were no American
citizen pedophiles extradited in 2006 and none are known to
operate there now. Three American citizen pedophiles were
extradited from Bali in 2005.
During 2006 Consulate Surabaya Regional Security Officer
and the FBI worked a joint anti-pedophile operation with
Balinese police. The operation resulted in the closure of
a massage parlor and several arrests.
Police say pedophile cases are particularly difficult to
pursue since affected boys and girls and their families are
reluctant to file reports against the perpetrators. End
update.
The police actively investigated reports of foreign
pedophiles operating in Indonesia. In 2004, these efforts
led to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of an
Australian pedophile in Bali in May 2004, and of a Dutch
pedophile in West Nusa Tenggara also in May 2004. In 2005,
a court in Bali sentenced a French pedophile to 30 months
in jail. Police in Bali arrested a suspected Dutch
pedophile in July 2005, but the case remains under
investigation. In February 2006, the GOI deported an
Australian pedophile who had escaped from a jail in western
Australia.
RATIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
-----------------------------------------
Indonesia has signed and in most cases ratified
international instruments related to the worst forms of
child labor and the trafficking of women and children:
-- The GOI signed ILO Convention 182 concerning the
elimination of the worst forms of child labor and ratified
this with Law No. 1 of 2000 on March 8, 2000.
-- Indonesia ratified ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor in
1950. The GOI ratified ILO Convention 105 on the Abolition
of Forced Labor in 1999.
-- Indonesia signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child
Prostitution and Child Pornography, and ratified this in
September 2001.
-- Indonesia signed in December 2000 the UN Convention
Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. The
GOI has not yet ratified the Convention and Protocol.
-- On September 25, 2003, Indonesia signed the Convention
for
the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the
Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, 1950, and the
Convention's Final Protocol. Indonesia has not yet
ratified these instruments.
-----------------------------------------
IV. PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS
-----------------------------------------
GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS
--------------------------------
UPDATE
------
National and local level assistance efforts continued or
increased over the past year, although they remained small
in comparison with the scope of the problem. The police
increased women's help desks in police departments from 237
to 280 nationwide. The GOI and police increased from 18 to
38 the number of operational "integrated service centers,"
providing health services to TIP and other victims of
violence. With U.S. assistance, the police upgraded such
centers to become full medical recovery centers
specifically for trafficking victims, and opened a third
medical center. The GOI operates four medical centers
treating trafficking victims. The GOI pays for about a
third of the cost of treating victims by offering intensive
care treatment for the cost of ordinary care funded by IOM.
These trafficking victim recovery centers treated thousands
of patients since opening in 2005. The integrated service
centers in Jakarta at the Kramatjati police hospital as
well as service centers in Surabaya, Pontianak and Makassar
support services such as temporary shelter, medical,
psychological, and legal assistance provided at these
centers.
Authorities continued to round-up and deport a small number
of foreign prostitutes without screening them for possible
trafficking victims. Various GOI offices and diplomatic
missions received training on TIP victim recognition and
assistance, training for personnel at the Mission in
Malaysia, making great progress in 2006.
As of March 2006, there were 41 hospitals with integrated
service centers in 26 provinces, an increase from 11 in
2005.
The GOI at various levels and to varying degrees assisted
its citizens who fell victim to trafficking. National and
local level assistance efforts continued or increased, but
remained small in comparison with the scope of the problem.
In general, the GOI provided modest but more structured
assistance to Indonesians trafficked abroad. In contrast,
government assistance specifically for internal trafficking
victims remained minimal. Local government assistance
usually appeared ad hoc and often focused on cases with a
public profile.
The police further increased the number of its women's help
desks (RPK), units established to assist women and children
who fall victim to violence including trafficking, and to
help related investigations. The total number of such
units at the province and district levels has gradually
increased from 163 in 2003 and 226 in 2005, to a total of
280 women's help desks in 2006. The women's desks provided
temporary shelter, special police handling, and some level
of legal services for victims. The women's desks often
cooperated with local NGOs, which arranged for medical and
psychological services, and longer term shelter. Distrust
of the police discouraged some victims from using these
desks. In 2006, the national police was in the process of
restructuring womenQs help desks to become a Service and
Protection Unit for Women and Children (P3A Unit) which
will be established in every district/city level police
office.
An increasing number of NGOs and community based
organizations have set up WomenQs Crisis Center, Drop in
Centers or Shelters, and now the number of these centers
has increased from 11 units to 34 units in 2006, in 15
provinces. End update.
Local governments worked together with NGOs and civil
society groups to establish and operate shelters for TIP
victims, in key transit points like Dumai, Riau Province,
and Batam, Riau Islands Province, and in Entikong on the
West Kalimantan border with Malaysia. Local governments
also used social services offices and police women's desks
as temporary shelters. Women's bureaus in provinces like
East Java, North Sumatra, and Riau Islands budgeted modest
funding for victims' services.
The Foreign Ministry operated shelters for trafficking
victims and migrant workers at its embassies and consulates
in a number of countries, including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, and Singapore. These diplomatic establishments
sheltered thousands of Indonesian citizens, including
trafficking victims. Indonesian diplomatic missions, in
coordination with other GOI agencies, assisted with
repatriation of trafficking victims.
The Manpower Ministry has an Overseas Worker Protection
Directorate. The GOI upgraded this office over the period
2001-2003 and dramatically increased its budget. The
Directorate regulates migrant worker recruiting agencies,
provides limited training to migrant workers, and assists
and repatriates overseas workers fleeing abusive
situations. Some of the repatriated female migrant workers
fit the definition of trafficking victims.
The Social Affairs Ministry founded a Sub-Directorate of
Social Assistance for Victims of Violence and Migrant
Workers in 2001. In 2002, the Ministry upgraded this
office to become a Directorate, with greater authority and
budget, responding in part to the demand for action against
TIP. In terms of trafficking, the Directorate primarily
assisted victims returning from overseas since domestic
cases normally fall under the responsibility of local
governments. The Ministry provided some repatriation
assistance to tens of thousands of migrant workers, the
vast majority of whom returned from Malaysia. This
included transportation, basic medical care, and food for
some of these returnees. The Directorate provided some
training to provincial Social Affairs offices. The
Ministry also operated women's rehabilitation centers and
assists with crisis centers, including the Children's
Crisis Center established in Jakarta in 2002.
The provincial government in East Java established a
women's crisis center in 2003 that serviced trafficking
victims and other women who suffered violence. Police and
public hospitals provided medical care to trafficking
victims, in accordance with a GOI directive (see below).
In 2004 the Women's Ministry, with input from international
and local NGOs, finalized standard operating procedures
(SOPs) to be used when assisting trafficking victims to
ensure their protection. This was in accordance with the
anti-trafficking National Action Plan's goal of having the
SOPs in place by 2004. The Ministry began to train
officials in the SOPs during 2005.
VICTIM HEALTH CARE FACILITIES
-----------------------------
The Social Affairs Ministry, the Women's Ministry, the
Health Ministry and POLRI signed a coordination agreement
in October 2002 to provide "integrated service centers"
(PPTs) for women and children who are victims of violence.
As part of this MOU, the GOI assigned police hospitals,
like the Kramat Jati police hospital in Jakarta and the
Bhayangkara hospital in Surabaya, to be the medical
treatment points for migrant workers who return from abroad
with serious medical or psychological problems. In other
locations, public hospitals operate the service centers, in
coordination with the ministries and the police.
After 2002, the Jakarta police hospital, as a PPT, began
treating hundreds of trafficking victims annually. With the
assistance of a U.S.-funded IOM project, Indonesia police
upgraded the Jakarta police hospital facility to become a
full medical recovery center for victims of trafficking,
the first in Indonesia. The center provides comprehensive
medical care, including psychological treatment, to TIP
victims, most of whom have returned from abroad. The
medical center, which officially opened in its new form in
June 2005, has capacity for 30 in-patients. During 2006,
the hospital treated 777 in-patients and 161 out-patients.
IOM and Save the Children also supports the process of
return and reintegration of trafficked persons, working
with a variety of GOI agencies. In the period of March 2005
to January 2007, IOM supported assistance provided to as
many as 1,966 trafficking survivors (1,362 female, 153
male, and 443 children) - 459 of them originated from West
Kalimantan with the majority of these cases involving
exploitation in Malaysia.
Some government medical facilities and NGO clinics
conducted HIV/AIDS screening, but this did not appear to be
widespread or systematic.
GOI SUPPORT FOR NGO SERVICES TO VICTIMS
---------------------------------------
The GOI provided some funding to domestic NGOs and civil
society groups that supported services for TIP victims,
usually as part of a larger program rather than one focused
exclusively on trafficking. At the national level, for
example, the People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry and the
Social Affairs Ministry provided food assistance to social
centers and safe houses nationwide. Local governments in
North Sulawesi, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Riau
Islands, and East Java funded NGOs to provide services to
some victims, including shelters, medical exams and
training.
SCREENING AND REFERRAL OF VICTIMS
---------------------------------
In Jakarta, a screening system is in place at the
international airport to refer cases of abused migrant
workers and trafficking victims to the city's police
hospital (see above). NGOs active in migrant worker
advocacy also identify and refer returned migrant workers
who need medical attention. An NGO screening process was
also in practice in Surabaya.
Women's help desks at provincial and district level police
offices typically have formal or informal arrangements in
place with local NGO's to provide short-term shelter and a
modicum of care for trafficking victims. In general, long-
term care does not appear to be available. A current U.S.-
funded project, implemented by IOM, has begun to develop
models of better and longer-term care for trafficking
victims.
RESPECT FOR THE RIGHTS OF VICTIMS
---------------------------------
The GOI's written policy, found in its annual trafficking
report, is that, "from a legal perspective, the Government
treats persons who are trafficked not as criminals, but as
victims who need help and protection." The People's
Welfare Coordinating Ministry, the Women's Ministry, and
training conducted by international NGOs and DOJ/ICITAP,
reinforced this policy during the year in public settings
and trainings of police and other officials. Police who
received ICITAP training demonstrated greater awareness of
and respect for TIP victims.
Local government and police practice varied, particularly
in the lower ranks of law enforcement agencies. Local
governments, exercising greater authority under the
nation's decentralization program, sometimes enacted
regulations that tend to treat trafficked prostitutes as
criminals, contrary to national policy. In many instances,
GOI officials and police actively protected and assisted
victims. In other cases, police officers treated victims,
particularly trafficked prostitutes, as criminals,
subjected them to detention, and took advantage of their
vulnerability to demand bribes and sexual services. The
media and lower level officials, including police,
frequently failed to protect victims' identities and
commonly provided victims' names to the public.
The GOI's policy is not to detain or imprison trafficking
victims. Police implementation of this policy varies in
practice. Not all local government laws comply with this
policy. Local police often arrested prostitutes,
presumably including trafficking victims, who operated
outside recognized prostitution zones on charges of
violating public order. Police raids on prostitute areas
commonly resulted in the arrest of prostitutes, rather than
users or pimps. On occasion, the police detained victims,
sometimes to gain their testimony or in the belief they
were protecting the victims from traffickers. In other
cases, police detained victims in order to extract bribes.
While there appeared to be a growing understanding of the
need to protect Indonesian victims of trafficking, this was
not the case for foreign prostitutes. In Jakarta, police
and immigration officials in August 2005 rounded up and
deported foreign prostitutes from China, Russia and
Uzbekistan without screening them as possible trafficking
victims or protecting their identities from intrusive media
coverage.
ENCOURAGING VICTIMS TO ASSIST INVESTIGATIONS/PROSECUTIONS
--------------------------------------------- ------
The GOI encourages victims to assist in the investigation
and prosecution of traffickers. The GOI reported that
victims frequently were reluctant or refused to provide
testimony out of shame and fear of retribution against
themselves and their families. There are no specific legal
mechanisms for victims to seek compensation from
traffickers.
In previous periods, there have been reports of police
officers who refused to receive complaints from trafficking
victims, but insisted instead that victims and traffickers
reach an informal settlement (for example, payment of debts
in return for a prostitute's release from a brothel).
PROTECTIONS FOR VICTIMS AND WITNESSES
-------------------------------------
Update
------
The Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Women's Ministry
drafted a Witness and Victim Protection bill which was
passed into law in 2006. End update.
The functions of the women's help desks at provincial and
district level police stations include protection of women
and children during the police investigation process of
crimes such as trafficking. Some of the desks functioned
reasonably well, while others did not function adequately.
There were no specific reports of the GOI providing special
protection to witnesses during court cases on trafficking.
TRAINING FOR OFFICIALS TO RECOGNIZE/ASSIST VICTIMS
--------------------------------------------- --
The National Action Plan calls for training of government
officials in recognizing trafficking and assisting victims,
to be carried out in the 2003-2007 timeframe. The GOI
conducted such training on an ad hoc basis through various
seminars, workshops and government meetings. POLRI and the
Manpower Ministry both conducted anti-trafficking training,
including victim recognition, over the past year.
NGOs and international organizations have assisted in the
training of Indonesian officials. IOM and ICMC have worked
with Indonesian diplomatic offices in Malaysia to improve
their screening procedures for potential trafficking
victims. The Foreign Ministry discontinued the ICMC
activity due to perceived political sensitivities in
Malaysia.
The relationship between Indonesian diplomatic missions and
NGOs abroad that serve trafficking victims appears to vary
greatly. A 2005 survey of Indonesian diplomatic offices in
Malaysia revealed some working frequently with NGOs and
others not. The availability of such NGOs was a factor.
ASSISTANCE TO REPATRIATED NATIONALS
-----------------------------------
The GOI, both at the national and locals levels, provides
some measure of assistance, including limited medical aid,
shelter, and financial help, to its repatriated nationals
who were trafficking victims. In general, the government
at various levels provided more attention and assistance to
repatriated victims compared with victims of internal
trafficking.
NGO'S WORKING WITH TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
--------------------------------------
ICMC/ACILS, in their 2003 book, identified 45 local NGO
offices around the country that provide services to
trafficking victims, most in the context of other social
programs. Some of the more prominent NGOs are Solidaritas
Perempuan (Jakarta), LBH-Apik (Jakarta and West
Kalimantan), Yayasan Mitra Kesehatan dan Kemanusiaan or
YMKK (Batam), Rifka Anisa (Yogyakarta) and LADA (Lampung).
Some labor unions also provided services to trafficking
victims. The activities of these groups related to TIP
include: legal assistance, prevention and education
programs, medical services, clinics for children, research
and advocacy, counseling, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS
prevention, and shelters. More NGOs have emerged over the
past several years, including Migrant Care, currently a
leading advocacy body for migrant worker rights and anti-
trafficking, and Anak Bangsa, a pioneering NGO assisting
victims along the Indonesia-Malaysia border area of West
Kalimantan.
The GOI's 2004-2005 trafficking report listed service
providers for trafficking victims, including women's crisis
centers, trauma centers, shelters and drop-in centers set
up by local governments, NGOs, and community organizations
in 14 provinces. The report also documented dozens of
legal aid organizations and their branches across Indonesia
that have a mandate to provide legal assistance to victims
of trafficking and other violence.
The GOI continued strong cooperation with NGOs over the
past year in the area of assistance to trafficking victims.
In some cases government offices relied heavily on NGO
inputs and advice. GOI offices provided licenses to
organizations and access to trafficking victims, included
NGOs on national and local action committees, and
interceded with law enforcement agencies in some cases to
permit NGOs to carry out their activities. NGOs frequently
interacted with the police, though mutual suspicions
limited the interaction in some areas.
---------
V. HEROES
---------
Wahyu Susilo is in the forefront of migrant workers issues
in Indonesia through his organization "Migrant Care". In
2000, he initiated the establishment a consortium for the
advocacy of Indonesian migrant workers, a network of 80
organizations throughout Indonesia, actively advocating for
the improvement of legislation and policy with regard to
migrant workers protection. Since migrant workers are
prone to being trafficked during the employment process,
Wahyu Susilo has tirelessly advocated for the protection of
the rights of domestic and overseas Indonesian workers and
campaigned for stronger regulations governing recruitment
and control of employment agencies. One example of Wahyu
SusiloQs determination to protect overseas migrant workers
is his work relaying first-hand information to the general
public as well as Indonesian government on the names of
overseas migrant workers whose lives are in danger,
including those facing the death penalty in destination
countries. He also has documented thousands of Indonesian
migrant workers who have disappeared overseas and lobbied
the GOI to seek the whereabouts of these missing workers.
Such information has helped enhance public awareness and
appropriate action by the government.
Employers, government officials and the media pay attention
when Wahyu Susilo speaks about protecting migrant workers
from human trafficking, labor abuse and other human rights
violations by labor recruiters. Wahyu Susilo began helping
to make the issue of migrant worker protection a priority
in the country's national consciousness following the
"Nunukan tragedy." In 2002, some 350,000 undocumented
migrant workers were deported from Sabah, Malaysia, to the
Indonesian frontier town of Nunukan on the island of Borneo
resulting in the deaths of at least 85, with thousands of
others starving and contracting various diseases due to the
Indonesian government's lack of serious response. Susilo
has consistently leveraged his reputation and relationship
with the media and government to advocate ceaselessly for
migrant worker protections. His success in highlighting
these issues has been threatening to some -- and since he
is outspoken and well-known, he has become a target of acts
of intimidation designed to silence him. His dedication
can in part be explained by his roots in a poor
community where migrant work was one of the only options
for economic survival.
------------------
VI. BEST PRACTICES
------------------
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2006
assisted in the return, recovery and reintegration of over
1200 victims of trafficking in Indonesia. IOMQs efforts
begin in destination countries and end only when trafficked
victims are settled into their home communities. One part
of their program entails working with the Indonesian
Embassy and consulates in Malaysia, and to assist in the
treatment and recovery of victims at recovery centers at
the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. IOM works with the
Malaysian and Indonesian governments to escort trafficked
workers across the border. For IOM staff this has entailed
hazardous duty of fighting off thugs who attempt to grab
vulnerable victims as they walk from the border immigration
post to a bus on the first stage of their journey home.
Staff have been threatened while escorting victims.
In Indonesia, after victims of trafficking have been
identified, they are referred to Medical Recovery Centers
that are based in Police Hospitals. Currently, there are
four Medical Recovery Centers in Police Hospitals in
Jakarta, Surabaya, Makassar and Pontianak. The Medical
Recovery Center in Jakarta was the first to open and the
largest, with the capacity to serve 30 victims of
trafficking. Virtually every day since the opening of the
center in Jakarta, it has been filled to capacity. With
their consent, victims are provided with free and
comprehensive medical and psychological care, including
testing for sexually transmitted infections and HIV.
Victims are put under the care and supervision of doctors,
psychologists and social workers in the Recovery Centers.
These medical recovery centers are strategically located at
police hospitals so that the victims can be linked with
appropriate law enforcement officials, if they so choose.
After receiving appropriate health services from the IOM,
and government, a network of over 80 NGOs and Faith Based
Organizations (FBOs), partnering across Indonesia to
facilitate the victims return home and reintegration into
the community. IOM works with government, local NGOs, Save
the Children, FBOs and the individual victims to develop a
reintegration assistance plan tailored to the victimQs
specific needs, which may include the following: follow-up
medical care and psychological counseling, housing support;
employment and/or education counseling; vocational
training; income generating tools, and legal assistance.
Importantly, the NGO and FBO will monitor the victim
throughout the reintegration period to ensure successful
reintegration. During 2006, 1268 victims have been
assisted through the comprehensive victim assistance
program.
HEFFERN
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