The Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) raided an apartment in the North Jakarta area and secured 26 prospective Indonesian migrant workers (CPMI) from a trafficking syndicate (TPPO), Friday (9/4/2021).
Reported by Antara, the Head of the Technical Service Unit of the DKI Jakarta Province BP2MI Mucharom Ashadi said they found the 26 PMI candidates during a raid on Wednesday night (7/4) at their temporary shelter, inside an apartment in the Kelapa Gading area, North Jakarta.
“After we collected, there were 26 PMIs, the majority of whom came from West Nusa Tenggara. From the results of the brief interview earlier, they admitted that they would be dispatched to Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), and several other Middle Eastern countries,” said Mucharom.
Mucharom said the PMI candidates were ambushed by officers after receiving information from the public that there was a suspicious group of people living in an apartment in North Jakarta.
After further investigation, it turned out that the PMI candidates were collected in three-bedroom apartments, each with a maximum capacity of five people.
“It turned out that they were found in one of the rooms of nine PMI candidates, in a different room 10 PMI candidates were found. In total, all three rooms contain PMI candidates,” said Mucharom.
According to Mucharom, since the issuance of the Decree of the Minister of Manpower (Menaker) No. 250 of 2015, the placement of PMIs for Middle Eastern countries as domestic workers or domestic workers is still a moratorium or in other words the placement of PMIs in 21 countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya and Pakistan are still banned.
“In connection with that, we are announcing that they will carry out an attempt to act on human trafficking. They were mobilized by the person whom we will pursue later. We are synergizing with our friends from the police to find out who is the perpetrator of the placement outside this procedure,” said Mucharom.
This allegation is not without reason, Mucharom explained that during the current pandemic, there are still many PMI placement countries that are closing themselves off from the arrival of PMI candidates because the country is also experiencing a pandemic period. Therefore, BP2MI will find out further whether in these Middle Eastern countries there are still individuals who accept illegal PMI placements.
Mucharom further said that the raids they carried out were a form of prevention so that there were no more PMIs who did not receive protection from the state.
“We know that in the Middle East countries there are still no laws in favor of protecting our migrant workers,” added Mucharom.
Henceforth, BP2MI will investigate a number of distributors of the detained PMI candidates in order to eradicate the illegal departure of PMI syndicates abroad.
“We inform all Indonesian people, let’s help together, because (the actions of illegal PMI distributors) are part of an effort to exploit the nation’s children,” said Mucharom.
PMI candidates exploited tens of millions of rupiah
BP2MI said that they managed to get information from one of the PMI candidates that from just one PMI, they were exploited up to Rp60-80 million.
“That’s per one person (exploited) from overseas users. Therefore, this has been included in the Criminal Act of Trafficking in Persons, therefore BP2MI will not hesitate, after this we will carry out legal processes to ensnare the person concerned,” said Mucharom.
During the raid, in addition to securing a number of female PMI candidates, BP2MI also brought along four men who were suspected to be workers from the distributors assigned to keep the PMI candidates in their apartment. They were led from their room to seven cars belonging to BP2MI which were parked in the Mall of Indonesia area.
Mucharom said from their confession, so far, the four people have not claimed to be from a particular distribution company.
“But it could be by PT or PJTKI, but it could also be done by individuals, because that requires further study. They’ve been here for more than a week, some are even leaving tonight. We immediately move quickly to take precautions before they actually become victims of exploitation in those countries,” said Mucharom.
PMI candidates who admitted to BP2MI officers that they had been treated properly so far also admitted that they did not know that the distribution was illegal because each PMI candidate was dispatched by brokers or sponsors in their respective villages.
“So their touts are different, these 26 people may not know each other. Now, this is the modus operandi of the TIP actors,” concluded Mucharom.
Meanwhile, the Head of BP2MI, Benny Rhamdani, stated that from the results of their investigation, it was suspected that they were a TIP syndicate, apart from immigration officers, there were also government officials who played in it.
“Starting from the police, the military, the Ministry of Manpower, to the embassies, this business is still running smoothly. So everyone is involved in legalizing this business, at the end point it is the immigration officers who make it easier for them to depart from the airport,” said Benny in a media broadcast.
