Cablegate: Indonesia Anti-Trafficking in Persons Report

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 25 JAKARTA 000415

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EAP/RSP

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PHUM PREF ELAB EAID ID

SUBJECT: INDONESIA ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

REF: A. STATE 161287

B. 07 JAKARTA 3359

C. 07 JAKARTA 590

JAKARTA 00000415 001.2 OF 025

1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Indonesia took a major step forward in

fighting trafficking in persons (TIP) in April 2007 with the

signing into law by President Yudhoyono of a tough,

comprehensive Law on the Eradication of the Criminal Act of

Trafficking in Persons. Police and prosecutors began using

the new law widely during the past six months. Law

enforcement against traffickers increased dramatically in

2007 for the second year in a row, with arrests up 77

percent, from 142 to 252, prosecutions up 94 percent, from 56

to 109, and convictions up 27 percent, from 36 to 46. A

number of trafficking syndicates were shut down.

2. (SBU) Police have cooperated closely with RSO Jakarta in

investigating trafficking syndicates to the United States.

Law enforcement action to rescue children from prostitution

and other trafficking was vigorous. Police carried out

significant action to shut down manpower placement companies

which were complicit in trafficking, including the arrest and

prosecution of two owners. Important progress was made in

fighting trafficking-related corruption, including the arrest

and prosecution of several immigration officials. NGOs

reported that because of enforcement of the new

anti-trafficking law had a severe chilling effect on the

practice by local officials of issuing false documentation

for trafficking purposes and that they are much more hesitant

to do so now, thus greatly inhibiting the ability of

traffickers to obtain false documents.

3. (SBU) The President and other senior officials gave

prominent public attention to trafficking by meeting with

victims abroad. The media and public information campaigns

continued to widely publicize trafficking issues, and a

survey of Indonesians revealed that two-thirds of the

population express concern that Indonesians who work abroad

are likely to suffer physical and psychological abuse by

employers. Local laws and actions by local government-civil

society anti-trafficking task forces were vigorous in 2007,

inspired by wide dissemination of the new anti-trafficking

law. Provincial and local governments significantly

increased efforts and resources to fight trafficking

nationwide. Overseas, Indonesian embassies and consulates

were very proactive in rescuing and assisting victims.

4. (SBU) However, some serious roadblocks to fighting

trafficking remained in place. The GOI showed little

political will to renegotiate an MOU with Malaysia which

ceded basic workers' rights to hold their travel documents.

Exploitation of workers by manpower placement companies

continued to be widespread despite police action, due to GOI

inaction. The decentralized approach to rescuing, treating

and reintegrating victims has hindered implementation of the

law due to lack of central direction and funding to assist

victims, while the national budget for trafficking remained

far below needs. There was no progress in stopping officials

from abetting trafficking in prostitution. No action was

taken to protect women and children entrapped in debt bondage

as domestic servants within Indonesia.

5. (SBU) Indonesia needs to take the following actions to

make further headway in curbing trafficking:

--Greatly accelerate efforts to combat the corruption that

feeds trafficking, particularly among law enforcement

officials, including the military, police, ministry of

manpower and immigration officials.

--Increase GOI funding for law enforcement against

traffickers and for rescue, recovery and reintegration of

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victims.

--Create a migrant manpower recruitment and placement system

that protects and benefits the workers rather than exploits

them to the benefit of the manpower companies and employers.

--Pursue better cooperation with receiving countries in

combating trafficking.

--Better protect domestic workers within Indonesia,

particularly children, through enforcement of existing laws.

END SUMMARY.

SOURCES

-------

6. (U) The U.S. Mission in Indonesia received information

from the following sources: Indonesian National Police (INP)

which provided a report in February 2008, "Law Enforcement

Against Trafficking in Persons" as well as detailed data on

investigations and arrests; the Attorney General's Office

(AGO); the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry (the Manpower

Ministry); the Department of Foreign Affairs Office of

Overseas Manpower Protection; and a number of local

government offices. International and domestic NGOs also

provided information, in particular the American Center for

International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) and International

Organization for Migration (IOM), as well as the

International Labor Organization (ILO).

7. (U) The report text follows the general outline of themes

and questions provided in ref A instructions.

8. (U) The Jakarta Mission point of contact on the TIP issue

is Political Officer Stanley Harsha, tel. (62) 21-3435-9146,

fax (62) 21-3435-9116.

9. (SBU) Report text:

I. OVERVIEW OF INDONESIA'S ACTIVITIES TO

ELIMINATE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

-----------------------------------------

The past year did not witness significant change in overall

trafficking patterns in Indonesia. There is a continuous

trend of Indonesians seeking work abroad as high unemployment

and poverty pushes workers overseas. Cases of severe abuse

of Indonesians trafficked abroad continued unabated.

INDONESIA FACES SIGNIFICANT TRAFFICKING CRIMES

--------------------------------------------- -

Indonesia, a developing country and emerging democracy with

the world's fourth largest population, is a place of origin

for a significant number of internationally trafficked women

and children, and to a lesser extent men. Indonesia is also

a transit and destination country for international

trafficking, although foreign victims are very small in

number relative to Indonesian victims. Very significant

incidents of trafficking occur within Indonesia's borders,

including for prostitution. Different regions of the country

are identifiable as sending, transiting and/or receiving

areas for internal as well as international trafficking.

There were no reports during this period of trafficking in

territory outside of GOI control.

SOURCE REGIONS

--------------

Various official data and observations by ACILS/ICMC

(November 2006, When They Were Sold) indicate that all

provinces of Indonesia are both sources and destinations (ref

B). Indonesian National Police (INP) reported primary origin

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areas as Java, West Kalimantan, Lampung, North Sumatra and

West Nusa Tenggara. This data matched 2007 statistics from

IOM which, based on the 1,154 victims it assisted that year,

reported the following points of origin: West Kalimantan, 23

percent; West Java, 21 percent; East Java, 14 percent;

Central Java 11 percent; West Nusa Tenggara seven percent;

Lampung, six percent; East Nusa Tenggara (5 percent), South

Sumatra, three percent, Jakarta, one percent; with other

sources areas all composing under one percent of the totals.

TRANSIT AREAS

-------------

INP reported primary transit areas as Jakarta, Surabaya,

Bali, Batam, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. Domestic routes

varied.

DESTINATIONS

------------

INP reported primary domestic destinations as: Java, Bali,

North Sumatra, East Kalimantan and Papua. A disturbing trend

in recent years has been an increase in trafficking of young

girls, many under age 18, from North Sulawesi, West

Kalimantan, and Papua, where they are exploited in

prostitution in areas with rich extractive industries,

according to NGOs. A Manado-based NGO reported that more than

80 girls were trafficked from North Sulawesi between January

and September 2007, an average of two girls per week.

Internationally, INP reported the following destinations:

Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong,

Saudi Arabia, UEA, Qatar, Syria, Kuwait, France, Belgium,

Germany and Holland. In the latter half of 2007, an RSO

investigation working with Jakarta police uncovered

trafficking operations to the U.S.

According to 2007 IOM statistics for the victims it assisted,

the primary destinations were as follows:

--------------------------------------

Destination Freq Percent

--------------------------------------

Malaysia 936 81

Indonesia 186 16

Japan 9 .79

Saudi Arabia 7 .61

Others: Iraq, Singapore, Taiwan, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.

TYPES OF WORKERS EXPLOITED

--------------------------

IOM 2007 data revealed that of the victims it assisted, 57

percent were domestic workers, 11 percent prostitutes, 11

percent exploited during transit, 7 percent plantation

workers, 3 percent waitresses and the rest construction

workers, shopkeepers, nannies, fishermen, masseuses, and

cultural dancers. ICMC and ACILS, in their 2003 book

entitled "Trafficking of Women and Children in Indonesia,"

identified three categories that generate the greatest number

of TIP victims: female migrant workers, prostitutes and

child domestic workers. Men and boys, women and girls, are

all widely trafficked, but 2007 IOM data of the victims it

assisted revealed 87 percent female and 13 percent male; 77

percent adult and 23 percent children.

CHILDREN

--------

As outlined in the Mission's 2007 Worst Form of Child Labor

Report (ref A), children are trafficked for a w(e variety of

purposes, but primarily into domestic servitude,

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prostitution, rural agriculture and cottage industries.

Many girls under age 18, and even under age 15, work long

hours at low wages as domestic servants, according to

reliable NGO studies underway in 2007. They are often times

under perpetual debt bondage due to pay advances given to the

children's families by brokers. The problem is hidden

because children work under lock and key. So-called

"foundations" are commonly used as fronts for trafficking

children as domestic servants. In 2007, one NGO identified

285 child domestic workers in Bandung and 305 in Surabaya

under age 17 -- mostly under age 15.

The Child Protection Commission in December 2007 uncovered

children employed in the birds' nest processing industry in

West Jakarta, involving what they suspect could be large

numbers of children aged 15 and under. The commission

rescued six children from one of the homes where this

activity took place and are attempting to rescue other

children.

Internationally, from November 2006 to October 2007, one NGO

rescued 313 boys and girls aged 7 to 17, including 107 aged

15 and under. They had been trafficked to Jordan, Kuwait,

Malaysia, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Indonesia.

RELIABLE STATISTICS UNAVAILABLE

-------------------------------

Reliable statistics or estimates of the overall number of

victims--including number of prostitutes and child

victims--remain unavailable and unreliable.

TRAFFICKING CONDITIONS, METHODS

-------------------------------

For internal trafficking into the sex trade, traffickers used

debt bondage, violence and threats of violence, drug

addiction, and withholding of documents to keep women and

children in prostitution. Traffickers employ a variety of

means to attract and hold victims, including promises of

well-paying jobs, debt bondage, community or family

pressures, threats of violence, rape, and false marriages.

Promises of relatively lucrative employment are among the

most common tactics. For example, police and NGO interviews

of women who escaped from forced prostitution in Batam, Papua

and Malaysia commonly reveal that traffickers recruited the

young women with offers of jobs in restaurants, supermarkets

or as domestic servants. Once at their destination,

traffickers used violence and rape to force them into the sex

trade. Migrant worker recruiters also use misrepresentation

and debt bondage to traffic men and women.

Debt bondage is particularly common in the sex trade.

Indonesian women and girls trafficked into prostitution in

Batam, for example, commonly began with a debt of

USD600-1,200. Given the constant accumulation of other

debts, women and girls are often unable to repay these

amounts, even after years of work as prostitutes.

Some migrant workers, often female, also entered trafficking

and trafficking-like situations during their attempt to find

work abroad through migrant worker recruiting companies

(PJTKI). Licensed and unlicensed companies used debt

bondage, withholding of documents and confinement in locked

premises to keep migrant workers in holding centers,

sometimes for periods of many months. Some also uses threats

of violence to maintain control over prospective migrant

workers. Civil society, officials, and victims themselves

commonly viewed conditions of debt bondage and physical

confinement as acceptable aspects of the migrant worker

JAKARTA 00000415 005.2 OF 025

system, rather than as rights violations.

Traffickers took advantage of persons in many impoverished

regions. While poverty plays a leading role in facilitating

trafficking, poor educational opportunities, cultural factors

and established trafficking networks also acted as important

determinants.

Police and NGOs found in 2007 that Indonesians sometimes

arrive legally in one country, for example Malaysia, and then

are provided with false documentation and lured to more

remote locations, such as the Middle East and Europe, where

they are trafficked.

TRAFFICKERS

-----------

Traffickers fit many different profiles. Some worked in

larger mafia-like organizations, particularly for trafficking

into major prostitution areas. Others operated as small or

family-run businesses. Husband-wife teams of traffickers

were common, with the wife often serving as the recruiting

agent. In many instances, local community leaders and parents

of victims assisted in trafficking.

Some manpower brokers operated similar to trafficking rings,

leading both male and female workers into debt bondage,

abusive employment situations and other trafficking

situations. Some of the offending manpower companies held

official licenses. Others operated illegally or appeared to

be fronts for traffickers.

U.S. TRAFFICKING SYNDICATES UNCOVERED BY RSO

--------------------------------------------

RSO Jakarta uncovered new trafficking syndicates in 2007

using these techniques to traffic workers to the U.S. These

syndicates provided victims with false documents to procure

visas to the U.S., after which they were turned over to

agents in the U.S. who used debt bondage to enslave the

victims. Since October 2007, RSO has coordinated with the INP

to target criminal syndicates that specialize in the

production and sale of counterfeit documents to facilitate

human smuggling and/or trafficking to the United States. RSO

provided information to the INP that has resulted in over

thirty arrests and eight search warrants against vendor

operations in the Jakarta metropolitan area. The information

obtained from these search warrants led to the discovery of a

Pennsylvania based Indonesian human smuggling/trafficking

syndicate. RSO is coordinating with Diplomatic Security

Service's (DSS) Visa Fraud Branch, the Federal Bureau of

Investigation and the Department of State's Human Smuggling

and Trafficking Center to in

vestigate this syndicate. Additional leads related to this

criminal organization are being pursued both in the United

States and Indonesia.

In coordination with the Jakarta Consular Section's Fraud

Prevention Unit, RSO has identified twenty-five other

criminal organizations within the Jakarta metropolitan area

that are involved in the production and distribution of

counterfeit documents and/or the smuggling/trafficking of

persons from Indonesia to the United States and other

countries. DSS has authorized RSO JAKARTA to coordinate with

the INP to fund and conduct undercover operations against

these criminal elements.

DSS has provided RSO Jakarta with funds to provide human

smuggling/trafficking training to the INP. RSO, in

conjunction with Department of Justice's International

JAKARTA 00000415 006.2 OF 025

Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP),

will provide a minimum of five human smuggling and

trafficking training courses to the INP in calendar year

2008. In response, INP Jakarta has set up a local

anti-trafficking unit.

OFFICIAL COMPLICITY

-------------------

NGOs reported that because of enforcement of the new

anti-trafficking law, had a severe chilling effect on the

practice by local officials of issuing false documentation

for trafficking purposes and that they are much more hesitant

to do so now, thus greatly inhibiting the ability of

trafficker to obtain false documents. Some individual members

of the security forces were complicit in trafficking,

particularly by providing protection to brothels and

prostitution fronts in discos, karaoke bars and hotels, or by

receiving bribes to turn a blind eye to such crimes. In

Sorong, Papua, newly arrived trafficked girls from North

Sulawesi are taken to the local police by sex pub owners.

Police are told that the girls have a large debt and are

under contract. Police agreed to arrest the girls and return

them to the pubs if they escape, according to officials and

NGOs in North Sulawesi. An unknown number of civilian

officials, including those who work in local government

service, immigration, and local Manpower offi

ces, either contributed to or were complicit in trafficking.

INP reported that traffickers in 2007 were increasingly

recruiting young women to work in Malaysia as "interns" in

hotels, since the law allows girls under the age of 21 to

work as interns. Upon arrival in Malaysia, these girls are

forced to work with low pay and are subsequently trafficked

into slave labor.

There were many reports of families either selling or

encouraging children to enter abusive domestic service or

prostitution. Children worked to pay off debts or advances

provided to their families.

DATA ON PROSTITUTION

--------------------

Prostitution constitutes a major source of concern for TIP in

Indonesia due to the number of women and children involved;

the clandestine, abusive and often forced nature of this

work; the prevalence of organized crime; and the frequent

awareness and/or complicity of officials and security forces

(police and military) in prostitution. There is no reliable

data on the number of girls and women forced into

prostitution through debt bondage but the numbers are

significant.

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. Police often times claim that they cannot

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identify underage prostitutes because they have fake IDs and

cannot prove their age.

INDONESIAN VICTIMS IN MALAYSIA

------------------------------

Malaysia is commonly identified as the country receiving the

greatest number of Indonesian trafficking victims. According

to ACILS, in Malaysia the risks of being trafficked are

compounded by the fact that probably more women and girls

enter Malaysia illegally than legally to seek employment.

ACILS reports that an over-supply of Indonesian women and

girls in Malaysia results in placement agencies in Malaysia

offering incentives to more families to hire foreign maids,

including offering the employer recovery of fees from the

employee through wage reductions. Various sources report

that the first five months of wages are commonly deducted.

IOM reported that from March 2005 to October 2006, 72 percent

of female victims recovered from various countries had

chlamydia, and a significant proportion had other STDs,

including 1.7 percent who were HIV positive. Of these

victims, 63 percent came from Malaysia.

A 2006 bilateral MOU between Indonesia and Malaysia failed to

give adequate protection to Indonesian migrant workers,

opening the door to abuse. The agreement allows employers to

hold workers' passports restricting their freedom to return

home, allows monthly deductions of up to 50 percent of

negotiated wages to repay loans and advances, and does not

specify time off. Indonesian and Malaysian authorities met

in June 2007 to discuss renegotiating the MOU but no progress

was made. The GOI has demonstrated little political will to

address this issue.

"CULTURAL PERFORMERS" IN JAPAN

------------------------------

GOI stopped permitting Indonesian women to travel to Japan

and South Korea as "cultural performers" in June 2006, thus

curtailing a practice that led to victims being trafficked

under this guise. However, in 2007, traffickers increasingly

used false documents, including passports, to obtain tourist

visas for young girls who are forced into prostitution in

Japan to repay a debt USD20,000. The false documentation

makes it all the more difficult for them to escape from

sexual slavery.

Taiwan

------

Trafficking of young girls to Taiwan - mainly from West

Kalimantan - persisted in 2007. Traffickers use false

marriage licenses and phony marriage photos for the girls to

obtain visas, Migrant Care reported. They are forced into

prostitution in Taiwan.

Middle East

-----------

Migrant Care reports that large-scale trafficking to the

Middle East persists, Saudi Arabia being the worst offender.

The UAE, Jordan and Iraq are also destination countries,

though others exist. Many Muslim girls are lured to Saudi

Arabia with promises of a good salary and the opportunity to

make a pilgrimage to Mecca, a dream far beyond their

financial means. Many Indonesians are trafficked from

Malaysia. One large syndicate trafficked 27 girls to

Kurdistan, Iraq in 2007. Some of these girls were brought

legally to Jordan first and then told they were not qualified

JAKARTA 00000415 008.2 OF 025

to work in Jordan and promised good jobs in Kurdistan,

Migrant Care reported. One girl who Labatt spoke with by

telephone in Kurdistan in October 2007 said a Turkish

businessman kept her and other Indonesian girls trapped in

domestic servitude with low wages. She and four others

escaped by contacting IOM, which facilitated their travel

from Iraq.

MIGRANT WORKERS

---------------

Illegal migrant workers are more likely to be trafficked, and

according to ACILS at least 800,000 of the current estimated

1.5 million Indonesian workers in Malaysia are said to be

illegal. Some 600,000 documented Indonesian workers went

abroad in 2006, and another two million traveled

undocumented, according to GOI sources. In order to relieve

unemployment in Indonesia, the official target is to send

750,000 workers abroad next year, according to the Ministry

of Manpower. The policy is to send 70 percent semi-skilled

workers, reducing the number sent in low wage informal sector

jobs.

FOREIGN VICTIMS IN INDONESIA

----------------------------

According to an American researcher who conducted a study in

2007 on trafficking of women in Southeast Asia, the vast

majority of foreign prostitutes in Indonesia are from

Mainland China. Smugglers told this researcher that they

estimate the number to be between 4,000 and 20,000. Of the

100 Chinese prostitutes he interviewed, none had been forced,

although all had debts of between USD1,000 and USD4,000 to

repay. They were under pressure to repay the debts and then

earn money to send home, the women told the researcher. The

pimps/smugglers kept their passports and said it was easy to

extend the visas with bribes. The researcher also came across

a few women from Thailand and eastern Europe.

POLITICAL WILL

--------------

Political will to fight trafficking was clear at the national

leadership level as well as at local levels in 2007, while

awareness of the issue continued to penetrate through

government agencies. During a January 2008 visit to

Malaysia, President Yudhoyono met with trafficking victims,

including Nirmala Bonat, whose relentless fight in the

Malaysian court system to bring justice to the employers who

abused her in 2004 has become the cause clbre for

Indonesian trafficking victims. Following his visit to five

Middle East countries in May 2007 where he met with

trafficking victims, the President convened a cabinet meeting

at which he called for action to ensure better treatment and

protection of Indonesian migrant workers.

A Malaysian law enforcement delegation visited Indonesia in

December 2007 to discuss better cooperation to protect

Indonesian migrant workers and the INP reports good

cooperation with its Malaysian counterparts in investigating

cases.

Furthermore, the President has appointed senior level

officials in key positions with clear instructions to

eliminate trafficking, resulting in noticeable progress in

law enforcement. The government has trained over a thousand

law enforcement officials on fighting trafficking, often

times in interagency courses also attended by NGOs. The

number of special anti-trafficking police and prosecutors

greatly increased.

JAKARTA 00000415 009.2 OF 025

As President Yudhoyono's clear stance on clean government

filtered down this year through the ranks, corrupt officials

complicit in trafficking have been fired, prosecuted or

transferred. In 2007, several senior law enforcement

officials complicit in illegal activities that promoted

trafficking were being investigated for corruption,

sanctioned, or transferred to less sensitive positions,

according to reliable official sources.

With the passage of the new anti-trafficking law, local task

forces in many provinces across Indonesia have reinvigorated

their efforts. For example, the North Sulawesi

anti-trafficking task force meets regularly with

representatives from the full spectrum of official agencies

and NGOs. In 2007 this effort resulted in dramatic progress

to prevent trafficking, to raise public awareness and to

rescue trafficking victims. For example, most of the North

Sulawesi anti-trafficking police, based on information

provided by NGOs, traveled to Sorong, Papua, to rescue and

return several trafficked girls to North Sulawesi. North

Sulawesi officials report that in 2004, 70 percent of the

girls trafficked to Papua were from North Sulawesi, but that

their prevention efforts resulted in that percentage dropping

to 30 percent by 2007.

LIMITATIONS, RESOURCES

----------------------

During 2007, Indonesia showed significant progress in its

counter-trafficking efforts through the passage of a strong

anti-trafficking law and widespread efforts to disseminate

information concerning this law. But the year was also marked

with serious shortfalls that could be attributed to continued

lack of capacity but potentially also due to diminished

political will to continue tackling the complex problems

associated with trafficking. Due to the fact that a new

national task force had not yet been formed through a mandate

from one of these implementing regulations, little emphasis

has been placed on developing a second National Plan of

Action (NPA) to combat trafficking in persons, despite the

fact that Indonesia's first NPA expired at the end of

December. Work on finishing national guidelines for services

to trafficked persons - through another revision of the

Standard Operating Procedures for Return, Recovery and

Reintegration of Trafficking Victims (SOPs) and a new

regulation on standard minimum servi

ces (SPM) - met with little progress following passage of the

anti-trafficking law. Finally, an annual report on

trafficking in persons by the Government of Indonesia has yet

to be issued for 2006 (publication has traditionally taken

place in March of each year) and it appears that a report for

2007 has not yet been worked on in any significant way.

The Ministry of Women's Empowerment, charged with

coordinating efforts to implement the law, was not yet able

to provide data on the amount spent on trafficking in 2007,

but is gathering this information. Post will report this

septel.

Given the scope of the country's trafficking problem,

Indonesia's actions against trafficking, whether the

responsibility of national or local governments, continued to

demonstrate serious weaknesses and failings. Indonesia's

relative poverty, weaknesses in governance, poor public

funding, preoccupation with post-tsunami recovery, and

endemic corruption all contributed to these shortcomings.

ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFORTS

JAKARTA 00000415 010.2 OF 025

-----------------------

President Yudhoyono's strong anti-corruption stance resulted

in action against officials complicit in trafficking in 2007.

The national police chief, the attorney general and the new

director general of immigration all gave signals to officials

that corruption would not be tolerated, taking their lead

directly from the President. As a result, GOI and NGO

sources confirmed that several senior officials suspected of

corruption that contributed to trafficking are either being

investigated for corruption, sanctioned, or transferred to

less sensitive positions. In addition, the following

specific actions can be reported:

National police reported arresting and prosecuting at least

three immigration officials at key transit points: the

Jakarta international airport and at the Entekong border post

with Malaysia; other investigations are underway which they

could not discuss.

On January 2, 2008, former Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia,

Hadi A. Wayarabi, was sentenced to 30 months in jail for

corruption in the collection of immigration document fees.

Wayarabi was found guilty of involvement in the collection of

illegal fees from Indonesians needing immigration documents

at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur from 2000-2003.

On January 4, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)

indicted former Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia,

Rusdihardjo, and immigration section chief Arihken Tarigan,

as graft suspects. Both Rusdihardjo and Tarigan were

suspected of corruption during their time as officials in

Kuala Lumpur between January 2004 and October 2005.

On May 8, 2007, the KPK found Eda Makmur, a former consul

general in Johor Baru, Malaysia, guilty of graft in

overcharging for passport fees and sentenced him to two years

in prison.

The Corruption Eradication Commission's prosecution team

indicted former director general of manpower education and

inspection Marudin Saur Marulitua Simanihuruk on corruption

in relation to the 2004 audit of funds for foreign workers in

Indonesia. On February 28, the Anti-corruption Court began

proceedings against Marudin, together with another manpower

ministry official, Suseno Tjipto Mantoro. Both face 20-year

jail terms.

II. PREVENTION OF TRAFFICKING

------------------------------

A 2007 survey contracted by USAID included questions on

Indonesian migrant workers, revealing a high awareness level

of the dangers of working abroad: about two-thirds of

Indonesians believed that Indonesians who work abroad are

likely to suffer from physical or psychological abuse from

employers, while 60 percent believed that it is not worth

seeking work abroad because of the high costs. Only three

percent have seriously considered working abroad, and among

those who do not want to work abroad, 15 percent said they

fear mistreatment, while 21 percent say the costs of seeking

work abroad are too high. While this was the first time this

issue was surveyed, it does indicate that publicity and

public awareness campaigns might be raising awareness of the

risks of being trafficked.

In January 2007, the National Agency for the Placement and

Protection of Overseas Workers was (BNP) was established.

The agency took over the Ministry of Manpower's

responsibilities to protect migrant workers, such as

JAKARTA 00000415 011.2 OF 025

facilitating labor export and providing legal protection.

The agency was established as required by the 2004 Overseas

Labor Placement and Protection Law. The law also requires

the government and the new agency to supply workers only to

countries that have labor agreements with Indonesia. This

new body is directly responsible to the president. Through

this same decree, GOI will decentralize Migrant Holding

Centers to the district level which will benefit migrant

workers because it will reduce the cost of travel to the

centers, facilitate monitoring of the centers and reduce the

potential for manipulation of the documents. Social controls

of abuses at the local levels are believed to be stronger and

thus help better protect workers from trafficking.

During its first year of operation, BNP did very little to

increase protection of migrant workers. Far from

recommending the closure of abusive manpower companies, the

number of brokers increased under BNP's supervision and

corruption continued.

The Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2007

established a medical clinic at the shelter in the Embassy.

The embassy has two doctors on call to provide basic medical

services to stranded migrants at the shelter, regardless of

whether they are victims of trafficking. Now, each stranded

migrant worker at the embassy is entitled to a free medical

check up and treatment. The embassy pays for these medical

services in full. Apart from that, exit documents needed for

victims of trafficking to leave Kuala Lumpur are obtained

quicker than in the past. In the past, victims would be at

the shelter for well over year and this is being cut back to

a few months. Also, all consulates (Penang, Johor Baru,

Kuching, Kota Kinabalu) and the embassy are actively

screening all migrants for victims of trafficking. The staff

are using the IOM's screening form (based on UN definition of

trafficking). Once migrants are identified as victims of

trafficking, they are immediately referred to IOM for

assistance.

GOI ANTI-TIP CAMPAIGNS

----------------------

The following activities have been undertaken to prevent

trafficking:

-- The Ministry of National Education has funded activities

to eliminate Child Drug Trafficking.

--West Nusa Tenggara's (NTB) provincial government allocated

USD10 million for its migrant worker empowerment program in

2007.

--The East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) provincial government

allocated USD 24,000 to assist migrant workers who experience

hardship in their overseas workplaces.

--On February 16, 2008, the Lombok Barat Parliament passed

the West Lombok Regional Regulation on Migrant Worker

Protection, establishing a Migrant Worker Protection

Commission to investigate and settle migrant worker problems.

In Surabaya, The Forum of Concerned Women was created in

November 2007, focusing on human trafficking.

--The North Sulawesi Government established an Integrated

Service Center for Women and Children, as did Cirebon, West

Java.

--In 2007, East Java provincial government worked together

JAKARTA 00000415 012.2 OF 025

with NGOs to formulate guidance on how to handle trafficking

cases.

--In Manado, the Bureau of Women's Empowerment in North

Sulawesi, the NGO Swara Parangpuan and the Manado Port

Authority have successfully cooperated to apprehend

traffickers and rescue victims before they depart.

-- As a contribution to prevention efforts, Nusa Tengarra

Barat province's Legal Aid Association (LBH) provided legal

assistance to five villages in East Lombok to help formulate

village regulations regarding the recruitment of migrant

workers.

--The East Java government established a Rapid Response Team

in 2007 to assist the victims of trafficking. It is

comprised of local government employees and NGO workers and

provides social, psychological and legal counseling.

-- In 2007, the East Java government signed an MOU with

regencies and cities in the province to work together to

handle the return of trafficking victims. The Provincial

government bears the responsibility for returning trafficking

victims to their homes, while government at the regency and

municipal levels bears responsibility for monitoring and

preventing trafficking victims from being re-trafficked.

--The North Sulawesi Department of Religious Affairs

established a counseling center in 2007 to provide religious

counseling to the victims of trafficking.

Media coverage of trafficking, both domestic and

international, expanded over recent years. National

television, radio and print media, and local newspapers

routinely covered TIP issues. Investigative journalism shows

highlighted the crime.

GOI SUPPORT TO OTHER PREVENTION PROGRAMS

----------------------------------------

The GOI supported and administeredd other national programs

related to the prevention of trafficking, but not designed

specifically as anti-trafficking efforts. These programs

commonly faced serious constraints in terms of GOI limited

funds, institutional capacity, and corruption. Some of the

more relevant programs were:

-- A program to encourage free basic public education through

the first nine years of schooling, including subsidies for

students from poor families. A number of districts announced

their achievement of free public schooling.

-- School Subsidy Operation providing a subsidy to poor

people who were directly affected by the policy to increase

the price of oil.

-- A program to encourage birth registrations, coupled with a

law that mandates government offices to provide birth

certificates free of charge. At least 21 local governments

began free provision of birth certificates.

-- A national program to eliminate gender inequality in

education.

-- Programs to train female migrant workers.

-- Credit schemes for micro-businesses, some of which focused

on women.

-- Revolving credit schemes for cooperatives and savings and

JAKARTA 00000415 013.2 OF 025

loan associations.

-- The Directorate of Women and Child Labor Monitoring in the

Manpower Ministry has allocated funds for the establishment

and operation of Provincial and District Action Committees on

the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOI, NGOs AND OTHER ELEMENTS

--------------------------------------------- ----

The overall relationship between relevant GOI offices and

NGOs remained cooperative and mutually supportive on

TIP-related issues. Cooperation varied from agency to agency

and location to location. The GOI recognized the importance

of NGO expertise, networks and involvement. NGOs met

regularly with officials and participated in national and

local task forces. The GOI and NGOs collaborated on many TIP

initiatives, including in protection of victims, public

awareness raising, and in providing assistance to law

enforcement officials in investigations and prosecutions. The

police and NGOs continued to share information on

trafficking, although mutual suspicions between NGOs and

police sometimes prevented their cooperation.

MONITORING OF IMMIGRATION/EMIGRATION

------------------------------------

The Directorate of Immigration, under a new Director General,

has made trafficking a top priority, particularly of

children. The implementation of bio-metric passports will

help immigration officials to stop trafficking of girls as

well. Immigration, police, prosecutors and judges from

migrant worker transit areas were trained together in 2007.

While efforts to increase passport integrity began,

Indonesia's passport services, like most other government

services, remained the object of widespread corruption.

Indonesians are able to easily obtain passports in false and

multiple identities. The lack of computerized nationwide

passport and immigration records facilitated the work of

traffickers, and made it difficult to check whether potential

trafficking victims have left Indonesia. Recruitment

agencies routinely falsified birth dates, including for

children, in order to apply for passports and migrant worker

documents. A field visit by Labatt to a border post revealed

loose controls and rampant corruption.

The GOI did not effectively monitor immigration and

emigration patterns for evidence of trafficking, with some

limited exceptions. On the whole, however, immigration

officials and law enforcement agencies did not have the

equipment, capacity or tools to generate useful information,

or did not prioritize such information.

The Transnational Crime Center (TNCC), which includes

trafficking as one focus, was established in 2004 and has

aggressively tackled trafficking.

COORDINATION AND COMMUNICATION MECHANISMS

-----------------------------------------

In 2006, Indonesia signed the ASEAN Declaration on the

Protection and Promotion of the Rights and of Migrant

Workers, committing itself to an extensive list of

protections. End update.

At the national level, the Women's Ministry served as the

focal point for GOI actions on TIP. The People's Welfare

Coordinating Ministry, which includes the Women's Ministry

under its umbrella, also played a key role in coordinating

JAKARTA 00000415 014.2 OF 025

efforts across different agencies. The National Action Plan

to eliminate trafficking created a Task Force led by the

People's Welfare Coordinating Minister and the Women's

Minister, and included some 28 government and law enforcement

agencies, NGOs, and civil society groups (see above). Many

provinces and a number of districts operated task forces for

coordinating anti-trafficking efforts.

The GOI actively participated in multilateral and

international coordination efforts to combat trafficking

under UN, ASEAN and regional frameworks. As an example, the

GOI hosted the ASEAN workshop on combating TIP in November

2005.

The GOI has given responsibility for developing

anti-trafficking programs to the National Anti-Trafficking

Task Force, created by the National Action Plan, and led by

the People's Welfare Coordinating Minister and the Women's

Minister, which includes other government and law enforcement

agencies, NGOs, and civil society groups. Responsibility for

provincial and district-level programs varies from location

to location. A growing number of provinces and districts (26

in total) have their own task forces or committees.

III. INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS

--------------------------------------------- ------

Law Enforcement Increases Two Straight Years

--------------------------------------------

Police and prosecutors began using the new anti-trafficking

law soon after it passed, not waiting for implementing

regulations; however, other laws were still mostly used in

2007 pending widespread implementation of the new law. These

laws included the Penal Code, Child Protection Act, the

Manpower Placement Act and the Manpower Act.

For the second year in a row, law enforcement against

traffickers increased dramatically in 2007 over 2006: arrests

increased 77 percent from 142 to 252, prosecutions increased

94 percent from 56 to 109, and convictions increased 27

percent from 36 to 46. The average sentence in these cases

was 45 months. This data came mostly from the national

police (INP) and the Attorney General's Office, with some

cases reported by reliable NGOs. All data was based on cases

linked directly to trafficking.

The 21-man national police anti-trafficking task force has

worked with local police, Ministry of Manpower, the Migrant

Workers Protection Agency, Immigration, Foreign Affairs and

NGOs to shut down several large trafficking syndicates using

Indonesia as a transit point and rescue hundreds of victims,

mostly children, according to a February INP report,

interviews with police and media reports. While police could

not share details of every case with us, they did share much

information. The two-part "Operation Flower" which began in

March 2007 and is on-going, targeted trafficked children,

primarily in sexual exploitation. In March, this operation

shut down large operations in red-light districts of Jakarta,

the Riau islands, Central and West Java and elsewhere,

arresting dozens of pimps and rescuing dozens of children.

Separately, local police in North Sumatra, South Sulawesi,

Bali, Lombok, West Kalimantan and elsewhere, broke up

trafficking syndicates, using testimony from the victims to

arrest traffickers

and to gain information about links in other countries which

they shared with those law enforcement authorities. In

Pontianak, in May 2007, police allowed emboff to interview

both a teenage victim still under the care of the GOI after

escaping from sexual bondage in Malaysia, and the three

persons who trafficked her, interviewing them in prison.

Police in late 2007 cooperated with the Manpower Ministry to

JAKARTA 00000415 015.2 OF 025

shut down a manpower company that was trafficking workers,

rescuing over a hundred persons, including children, and

arresting staff on charges of document falsification.

Internationally, police cited some of the already successful

anti-trafficking actions completed in 2007, including

stopping one syndicate trafficking workers to France and

another to Syria, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. In yet another

operation, police broke up a syndicate trafficking Sri

Lankans to Australia.

In 2007, police had set up 304 women's help desks (RPK) to

protect women and child victims of violence, including

trafficking, and also to aid in investigations of these

crimes, an increase of 24 from 2006. INP also had set up

Integrated Service Centers in 36 locations in 2007 where

specially trained anti-trafficking police work with doctors

and social service workers at police hospitals to provide

special treatment for victims. Complying with the 2007

anti-trafficking law's requirement to set up special

interview rooms for trafficking victims, police in major

cities across Indonesia have already provided these rooms,

complete with video cameras to record testimony for victims

who do not want to appear in court and special materials to

help with interviewing children.

To aid in trafficking investigations, 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.

EXISTING ANTI-TIP LAWS

----------------------

The New Anti-Trafficking Law

----------------------------

On March 20, 2007, the Indonesian national legislature

passed Law No. 21 of 2007 on the Eradication of the Criminal

Act of Trafficking in Persons. On April 19, the law was

enacted through the President's signature. The law does five

things:

1. Defines trafficking

2. Establishes harsh punishments

3. Provides protections for victims and witnesses

4. Provides services and restitution to victims

5. Calls for actions to address trafficking

The law stipulated that three implementing regulations must

be promulgated within six months following enactment. The

three implementing regulations included:

1. Establishment of special police service units (RPK) and

procedures for examination of witnesses by Regulation of the

Chief of National Police (Article 45);

2. Procedures and mechanisms for integrated service centers

by Government Regulation (Article 46);

3. Establishment, organization, membership, budget, and

operating procedures of the national and local task forces by

Presidential Decree (Article 58).

The GOI enacted the first regulation in July 2007, through

the National Police Decree No. 10, to provide the

organizational structure and procedures for a special unit

providing services to women and children. The second

regulation on integrated services was enacted in February

JAKARTA 00000415 016.2 OF 025

2008. The third on organization and budget awaits action by

the Government Secretariat and Cabinet Secretariat.

The anti-trafficking law meets international standards to

prevent and outlaw trafficking, and includes a comprehensive

legal mandate for rescue and rehabilitation of victims. The

law outlaws all forms of trafficking including debt bondage

and sexual exploitation. It also provides stiff penalties

for complicity in trafficking by officials and labor agents,

which include harsh prison sentences. Penalties for

trafficking of a child under 18 years range from three to 15

years in prison, with penalties for officials higher by

one-third, and fines of between $12,000 and $60,000.

The law defines sexual exploitation as any form of the use of

sexual organs or other organs of the victim for the purpose

of obtaining profit, including but not limited to all acts of

prostitution and sexually indecent acts. A person who uses

or takes advantage of a victim of trafficking in persons by

way of engaging in sex or other indecent acts, or gains

benefit from the result of the crime, faces a possible prison

sentence of between three and fifteen years and a fine of

between USD12,000 and USD60,000.

OTHER LAWS

----------

The National Plan of Action encourages provincial and local

governments to their own anti-trafficking regulations and a

number have done so. Notable are strong anti-trafficking or

women and child protection laws which reflect local reactions

to the trafficking problem and are being used vigorously.

Some of these laws include:

-- North Sulawesi with Regional Regulation No. 1 of 2004 on

Prevention and Elimination of Trafficking of Women and

Children.

-- North Sumatra with Regional Regulation No. 6 of 2004 on

Prevention and Elimination of Trafficking of Women and

Children.

--Indramayu District with Local Regulation No. 14 of 2005 on

Prevention and Prohibition of Trafficking for Child

Commercial Sexual Exploitation.

--East Java Province with its Local Regulation No. 9 of 2005

on Provision of Protection for Women and Children Victims of

Abuse.

--Sumbawa District with its Local Regulation No. 11 of 2003

on Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers originating from

Sumbawa, and a similar regulation in East Lombok (2006).

In 2004, the DPR passed Law 39/2004 on the protection of

migrant workers abroad. The law provides greater regulation

of the migrant worker recruiting and placement process. It

establishes jail sentences of 2 to 15 years for unlicensed

labor recruitment agencies.

Indonesia has also ratified almost all major conventions

relating to trafficking. In addition to those referred to

above, Indonesia has ratified ILO Convention 29 on Forced

Labor, the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination

against Women, and has signed the optional protocol to the

Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of

Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. Indonesia

has also signed the UN Convention against Transnational

Organized Crime and its supplemental Protocol to Prevent,

Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women

and Children.

JAKARTA 00000415 017.2 OF 025

PENALTIES FOR RAPE OR FORCIBLE SEXUAL ASSAULT

---------------------------------------------

The Criminal Code, Article 285, stipulates a maximum of 12

years imprisonment for rape committed outside of marriage.

Other generally less severe criminal sanctions apply for

sexual intercourse with a minor, forcing a person to commit

an act of sexual abuse of a minor, facilitating minors to

perform acts of obscenity, and other related offenses. The

12-year maximum jail sentence for rape exceeds the 6-year

maximum for trafficking under the Criminal Code, but is

similar to the 15-year maximum penalty for trafficking of

children under the Child Protection Act.

PROSTITUTION NOT LEGAL, BUT WIDESPREAD

--------------------------------------

As a matter of national law, Indonesia has not legalized

prostitution. Indonesia's Penal Code does not explicitly

mention prostitution, but the Code's Chapter 14 refers to

"crimes against decency/morality," which many within national

and local governments interpret to apply to prostitution.

Central government officials contacted by the Embassy agreed

in their interpretation that the Penal Code renders

prostitution illegal. The prostitution of children is

clearly illegal under the Penal Code and the 2002 Child

Protection Act.

The Penal Code can be used to prosecute the acts of pimps,

brothel owners and enforcers on the basis of various crimes,

including: using violence or threats of violence to force

persons to conduct indecent acts (Article 289, with a maximum

penalty of nine years in jail); facilitating indecent acts

(Article 296, with a possible jail term of 16 months);

conducing/facilitating public indecency (Article 281); and

making profits from the indecent acts of a woman (Article

506, with a possible one-year jail sentence). In practice,

authorities rarely pursued such charges against those

involved in prostitution.

Clients of child prostitutes can be charged under the Penal

Code and the Child Protection Act. In theory, married

persons who are clients of prostitutes can be charged for

engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage (Penal Code

Article 284). In general, police did not arrest and pursue

charges against clients of prostitutes.

While contrary to societal and religious norms in Indonesia,

the practice of prostitution is widespread and largely

tolerated in many areas of the country, particularly when it

is not a matter of public display. Although contrary to

national interpretations that the Penal Code prohibits

prostitution, authorities in some localities have formally or

informally regulated prostitution in response to community

pressure.

In some areas, including certain locations in Papua, brothel

owners registered prostitutes with the police with a view to

demonstrating that the prostitutes are not coerced or

underage.

Some local governments gained important tax revenues from

otherwise legal entertainment businesses, such as karaoke

bars, that also offer prostitution. Individual police and

other officials also gained illegal income as a result of

prostitution. These factors encouraged the tendency to

tolerate prostitution, according to observers.

In East Java, the province's Child Protection Commission,

police, city authorities, and NGO representatives in May 2005

JAKARTA 00000415 018.2 OF 025

launched a network to monitor and prevent trafficking of

children into prostitution. The network monitors brothels

and reports to the social services office and police if a

brothel employs a child prostitute. In 2007, this resulted

in a decrease of child prostitutes from 68 to 8, according to

an ILO survey.

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

--------------------

Training of law enforcement officials by USG and

international NGOs greatly increased this year, with strong

cooperation by Indonesian officials. Over a thousand police,

prosecutors and judges were trained on trafficking in 2007.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTS

----------------------------------

The GOI cooperated with other governments, particularly

Malaysia, in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking

cases dQing this reporting period. Indonesian and Malaysian

law enforcement officers worked together to stop trafficking

operations.

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.

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.

JAKARTA 00000415 019.2 OF 025

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.

At the Jakarta international airport migrant worker transit

center, "Terminal Three," returning migrant workers are

forced to pay a wide variety of unofficial fees in order to

go home.

Some officials in local Manpower offices 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.

In 2007, officials of the Migrant Worker Placement and

Protection Agency posted at airports allowed returning

trafficking victims to be taken by officially sanctioned

transport back to the manpower company that trafficked them

to begin with, returning them to debt bondage, Migrant Care

reported.

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

JAKARTA 00000415 020.2 OF 025

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.

STEPS TO END OFFICIALS' INVOLVEMENT IN TRAFFICKING

--------------------------------------------- -----

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 involved in trafficking, particularly of

women and girls trapped in prostitution.

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

---------------------------------------

On February 26, 2007, the South Jakarta District Court

sentenced Australian pedophile Peter William Smith to ten

years in prison after he was found guilty of sexually

assaulting more than 50 under-age children between 2003 and

2006. Smith, a language teacher, was arrested in Jakarta

after seven children complained he had sexually abused them.

A second suspect committed suicide believing police were

about to arrest him.

Police say pedophile cases are particularly difficult to

prosecute since affected boys and girls and their families

are reluctant to file reports against the perpetrators.

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.

JAKARTA 00000415 021.2 OF 025

-----------------------------------------

IV. PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS

-----------------------------------------

GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS

--------------------------------

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 GOI and police

operated 41 "integrated service centers," providing health

services to TIP and other victims of violence. Four of these

are full medical recovery centers specifically for

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

provide support services such as temporary shelter, medical,

psychological, and legal assistance.

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.

An increasing number of NGOs and community based

organizations have set up Women's Crisis Centers, Drop in

Centers or Shelters. 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

Entekong 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. Over the course of 2007, 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 Social Affairs Ministry Directorate of Social Assistance

for Victims of Violence and Migrant Workers assisted victims

returning from overseas since domestic cases normally fall

under the responsibility of local governments. In 2007, 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 assisted 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

JAKARTA 00000415 022.2 OF 025

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.

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 Tanjung

Priok seaport to refer cases of abused migrant workers and

trafficking victims to the city's police hospital. 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. However,

at Jakarta international airport, during a February visit,

the Labor Attach observed that trafficking victims are not

screened at all by the migrant protection officials

responsible at that location. The Labor Attach witnessed one

mentally disturbed woman handcuffed to a cot receiving no

care, while another severely abused victim had slept for two

days at the terminal because she did not have funds for

transportation home. NGOs reported that migrant workers

returning to this location are never screened for abuse or

referred to treatment facilities as required under the

anti-trafficking law.

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

JAKARTA 00000415 023.2 OF 025

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. Police and immigration

officials deport foreign prostitutes without screening them

as possible trafficking victims.

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.

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

-------------------------------------

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.

With the new anti-trafficking law and the Witness Protection

law, police routinely offer witnesses special protection such

as giving testimony via videotape.

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. INP and

Immigration both conducted anti-trafficking training,

including victim recognition, over the past year.

NGOs and international organizations have assisted in the

JAKARTA 00000415 024.2 OF 025

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 relationship between Indonesian diplomatic missions and

NGOs abroad that serve trafficking victims appears to vary

greatly.

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. In 2007, the GOI greatly improved its level of

care for victims held at Embassy shelters overseas. In some

cases the GOI paid the cost to fly victims from Malaysia to

Indonesia.

NGO'S WORKING WITH TRAFFICKING VICTIMS

--------------------------------------

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.

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

---------

Nirmala Bonat is an Indonesia maid who has relentlessly

pursued justice in Malaysian courts for nearly four years

since being brutally beaten and burned on her breasts with an

iron in 2004 by her Malaysian employer. Despite suffering

from the anguish of being trapped in the Indonesian Embassy

migrant shelter in Kuala Lumpur, and being humiliated in

court, she has stood her ground, refusing to return home and

give up her case. In doing so, she has because the cause

clbre for abused trafficking victims worldwide, and an

inspiration for others to stand up for their rights. A poor,

uneducated 19-year-old woman when she arrived in Malaysia

four years ago, her courage is all the more remarkable given

her powerless position in society. Nirmala's choice as a TIP

hero would demonstrate that victims also have power, and also

can be heroes for simply refusing to be beaten down.

------------------

JAKARTA 00000415 025.2 OF 025

VI. BEST PRACTICES

------------------

East Java TIP Task Force (KAP) was its first in Indonesia,

established by the governor in 2004. It was developed to

coordinate anti-trafficking efforts of various agencies and

institutions throughout the province. Members of KAP are

NGOs, relevant government departments (to include health,

social services, employment, human rights, law enforcement,

prosecutors, port authority officials, and other related

institutions). It meets regularly and government agencies

and NGOs share information fully. KAP has made great strides

in reducing human trafficking in East Java to include

prevention efforts, reintegration of victims and assistance

for trafficking victims.

KAP established a rapid response team to provide social,

psychological, and legal counseling for trafficking victims.

In 2007, KAP formulated guidance on how to handle trafficking

cases. This guidance will be distributed to an

anti-trafficking task force at the regency/city level in East

Java. KAP also signed an MOU with regencies and cities in the

province to work together to handle the return of trafficking

victims. KAP has a responsibility to return the victims to

their homes, while local government at the regency and city

levels has an obligation to monitor and prevent trafficking

victims from being re-trafficked. Besides providing five

dollars for each trafficking victim who is returned to his or

her home village, KAP allocates a special budget for proving

food assistance for trafficking victims while they are

staying in the shelter waiting to be returned. KAP is a

model for how communities can work together to fight

trafficking.

HUME