Human Trafficking in [Indonesia Street Children in [Indonesia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Indonesia] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the first
ten years of the 21st Century
- 2000 to 2009
Indonesia is a major source of women, children, and men
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. To a far lesser extent, it is a destination and transit country
for foreign trafficking victims. The greatest threat of trafficking facing
Indonesian men and women is that posed by conditions of forced labor and debt
bondage in more developed Asian countries – particularly Malaysia, Singapore,
and Japan -- and the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, according to IOM
data. Indonesia women and girls are also trafficked to Malaysia and Singapore
for forced prostitution and throughout Indonesia for both forced prostitution
and forced labor. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June,
2009 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Human
Trafficking, Migrant Labor Often Linked in Indonesia More than 2.5 million Indonesians
from poorer regions support their families every year by traveling overseas seeking
work as domestic servants and laborers. Most work in Malaysia and Saudi
Arabia, but hundreds of thousands of others also can be found in Singapore,
Japan, Syria, Kuwait, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Some of these individuals find
work through officially sanctioned recruiting agencies. But Susilo estimates that more than half of would-be migrant
workers bypass these programs for the deceptive ease of working through less
reputable recruiters who, like traffickers the world over, confiscate
passports, trap would-be workers with exorbitant loans to travel abroad and
force them into laboring in dangerous and abusive work environments in a
futile effort to repay their unmanageable debts before sending money home to
their families. Indonesia's Footwear Workers Too Thin For Aerobics www.hamline.edu/apakabar/basisdata/1992/10/17/0001.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Suyatmi, a shy, 20-year old factory
worker, is too poor to know much about sneakers. She's never heard of Bo
Jackson and is too skinny to care about aerobics.
Her world consists of a rented, 5-foot sqaure room in a shantytown where she sits on the
concrete floor with three other young women.
Every day a t 7 a.m., Suyatmi
begins work at P.T. Hardaya Aneka
Shoes Industry, one of six companies in Indonesia making shoes for Nike Inc.,
the spectacurly successful U.S. sporting goods
company. Her production "line" of 30 workers produces 350 pairs of
Nike's glitzy footwear a day. Suyatmi and her co-workers earn a base salary of 1,900
Indonesian rupiahs a day, the equivalent of $1.15.
Working a six-day week, with a least two hours of overtime each day, she
takes home about $17 per week. The company also gives her lunch and a bus
ride to work. "Some days it's hard,"
she said. "But I'm just happy to have a job." ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The December 26 tsunami left
thousands of children in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The Singkawang District of West Kalimantan remained well
known as an area from which poor, ethnic Chinese women and teenage girls
between the ages of 14 and 20 were recruited as "mail order" brides
for men, primarily in In many cases traffickers
recruited girls and women under false pretenses. One tactic was to offer
young women in rural areas jobs as waitresses or hotel employees in distant
regions, including island resorts. After the new recruits arrived and
incurred debts to their recruiters, they learned that they had been hired as
prostitutes. In October Many victims became vulnerable to
trafficking during the process of becoming migrant workers. Many unauthorized
recruiting agents operated throughout the country and were involved in
trafficking to various degrees, and some government-licensed recruiting
agents also were implicated in trafficking. Recruiting agents often charged
exorbitant fees leading to debt bondage and recruited persons to work
illegally overseas, which increased the workers' vulnerability to trafficking
and other abuses Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2004 [51] The Committee is concerned
that the current adoption legislation discriminates between groups of
different ethnic origins, does not provide sufficient safeguards against
abusive practices, including trafficking of children, and does not take
sufficiently into account the principle of the best interest of the child. [87] The Committee welcomes the
endorsement by the State party of relevant international and regional
agreements such as the Regional Commitment and Action Plan of the [88] The Committee is nonetheless
concerned at the lack of awareness in the State party on this phenomenon, at
the insufficient legal protection for victims of trafficking, and that few
measures have been taken to prevent and protect children from sale,
trafficking and abduction. Human
Trafficking Escalates as World Economy Plunges www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=109082 A native of a tiny Indonesian
agricultural village, Ima and her family were among
that country's estimated 116 million citizens who subsist on less than $2 a
day. As a teen, she regularly traveled two hours to the city of Surabaya to
bring in a little money cleaning houses. During one such trip, she got an
offer she couldn't refuse. "A
woman came to me and said she had a cousin in L.A. who needed a nanny," Ima recalled. "Would I go to the It was 1997, and she was 17 when
she excitedly arrived in L.A., only to have her "employer" — an
affluent Indonesian woman — confiscate Ima's
passport, tell her that she would receive her salary in a lump sum after two
years; work her 10-to-18 hours a day, seven days a week, as nanny and
housekeeper; and beat her – hitting her in the face and slamming her into
walls. Yet Ima
was one of the lucky ones. She wasn't raped, fed a meal of rice once a day or
made to sleep in the doghouse – as other victims have recounted. Human
trafficking victims suffer from mental distress www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/02/04/human-trafficking-victims-suffer-mental-distress.html
As many as 57 human trafficking
victims in West Nusa Tenggara
have suffered from mental distress and at one point were treated at Selagalas Mental Hospital in Mataram,
said the head of a group concerned with the issue. "Some of them are still being treated
and the condition of the others is improving, but they are still receiving
outpatient treatment," Endang Susilowati, director of the Mataram
Panca Karsa Foundation
(PPK Mataram), told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday. Endang
said the 57 victims were among the 317 human trafficking victims under the
care of PPK Mataram during 2008, 80 percent of whom
are women and 40 percent of them children under the age of 18. Endang said the
victims were believed to have suffered severe trauma after being cheated,
exploited and abused during their ordeal, as well as being ashamed to return
to their home villages. Police
discover new mode of human trafficking www.antara.co.id/en/view/?i=1232741127&c=NAT&s= Police have discovered a new mode
of human trafficking, eration by kidnapping and
drugging, National Police spokesman Insp Gen Abubakar Nataprawira said here
on Friday. "In the past, human
trafficking was carried out by flattery and offering the victims a job, but
now the perpetrators get their victims by kidnapping and drugging," Abubakar Nataprawira said. He made the statement commenting on human
trafficking from Indonesia to Malaysia through border crossing point of Entikong, West Kalimantan. Church
slams daily human trafficking and authorities’ complicity Migrant women abducted by criminal
gangs, drugged and then put to work in prostitution rings under false
identities, often with complicity of corrupt local officials and police
officers is but one typical aspect of human trafficking in Indonesia. Human
Trafficking, Migrant Labor Often Linked in Indonesia More than 2.5 million Indonesians from
poorer regions support their families every year by traveling overseas
seeking work as domestic servants and laborers. Most work in Malaysia and
Saudi Arabia, but hundreds of thousands of others also can be found in
Singapore, Japan, Syria, Kuwait, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Some of these individuals find
work through officially sanctioned recruiting agencies. But Susilo estimates that more than half of would-be migrant
workers bypass these programs for the deceptive ease of working through less
reputable recruiters who, like traffickers the world over, confiscate
passports, trap would-be workers with exorbitant loans to travel abroad and
force them into laboring in dangerous and abusive work environments in a
futile effort to repay their unmanageable debts before sending money home to
their families. Indonesian Police Arrest 15 For Alleged Human Trafficking www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=264885 Indonesian police have arrested 15
people for alleged trafficking of women and girls to Malaysia who eventually
ended up in the flesh trade and at nightspots. Its security and transnational crime
vice-director, Bachtiar Hasanudin
Tambunan, said the victims, mostly from West Java,
were promised restaurant jobs with large salaries before finding themselves
working in cafes, discotheques and brothels. Human
Trafficking Rate in Indonesia Still High The commitment of the Indonesian
government in handling human trafficking is still considered to be low. This can be seen from the amount of human
trafficking victims that keep increasing every year. Child
trafficking on rise in Indonesia Indonesian authorities are
battling a growing trade in child trafficking, including a recent case where
hundreds of babies were sold overseas, a report says. The report, by the Indonesian Ministry of
Women Empowerment, found that efforts to retrieve the children in baby
trafficking cases were flawed. The report said one woman was
caught in South Jakarta last year after having sold 880 babies abroad. A
further 25 babies were saved. Disasters
Increase Risk of Human Trafficking The crimes are many forms:
distribution of 880 babies from North Sumatra to Singapore by a foundation,
for instance. The babies, she
explained, were re-sold when they arrived in Singapore. If they were caught in action at sea, the
babies were often thrown out of board so as to wipe the evidence. US Official Urges Indonesia to Crack Down on Human
Trafficking mensnewsdaily.com/2006/11/04/us-official-urges-indonesia-to-crack-down-on-human-trafficking/ At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] On Saturday, at a crisis center in
Miller says Indonesians are
particularly vulnerable to human traffickers because of the country's
poverty, widespread slavery rings, and lack of law enforcement due to
corruption. Bangka Belitung fertile
ground for human trafficking www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2006/9/18/bangka-belitung-fertile-ground-for-human-trafficking/ At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Bangka Belitung
province is a fertile ground for the operations of human trafficking
syndicates as the world`s biggest tin producing
region is also full of ecoomic activities
facilitating their illegal practices, a local women rights protection
activist said. "People from
different areas in Indonesia who fell victims of human trafficking were
initially offered good jobs with good salaries but in the end they were
forced into prostitution in pubs or red-light districts," woman rights`
protection activist Radmidha Dawam
said here Monday. Govt still weak in protecting women
from human trafficking www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2006/9/13/govt-still-weak-in-protecting-women-from-human-trafficking/ At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The Indonesian government is still
weak in preparing and implementing laws against human trafficking which has
been harming women, Executive Director of the Centre for Development of
Female Resources (PPSW) Endang Sulfiana,
said here Wednesday. The victims, aged 14 to 17, were
promised jobs in Jakarta as domestic workers, but were then flown to West
Kalimantan province on the Indonesian side of Borneo and taken across the
border into Malaysia, sometimes using false travel documents. Microsoft Partners with Asian NGOs to Help in Fight Against Human Trafficking Microsoft Corp. has awarded over $US 1 million through its Unlimited Potential grants to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across six Asian countries. The latest round of grants will deliver IT training courses specifically for people in human-trafficking hot spots across the region - often women and children. Human trafficking has been described as "the emerging human rights issue of the 21st century" by the US State Department. The Unlimited Potential grants to help combat human trafficking were distributed in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand and will deliver IT skills through training that enhance the employment prospects and economic conditions of people most vulnerable to, or already victimised by, human traffickers. Guest
Worker May Lose Digits, Toes After Being Tied Up in Bathroom for a Month A 25 year-old Indonesian guest worker will have several
of her fingers, toes and part of her right foot amputated because of gangrene
after being tied up for a month in a bathroom by her Saudi sponsor. The Indonesian Embassy noted that 2,000
housemaids have been repatriated to Sex Trafficking Growing in S.E. Asia www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5722826&cKey=1114521622000 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Girls from the villages of Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia
and the Philippines are lured into cities or neighboring countries with
promises of lucrative jobs as waitresses and domestic helpers, only to end up
in massage parlors and karaoke bars.
Others are flown as far as Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Indonesia
moves to preempt child trafficking after tsunami as UNICEF issues
exploitation warning The government of Indonesia, concerned
over reports of human trafficking in children in the wake of last week's
tsunami disaster off the west coast of the country that killed over 100,000
and left other hundreds of thousands homeless, has now placed restrictions on
the transport of youngsters out of the country and has brought special guards
into refugee camps, directing local police commanders to be on watch against
abduction or other exploitation of children. Tsunami orphans available for the right price www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=2245 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Volunteers from the Muslim-based
Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) claim that "human lives" are
being bought and sold in some of the refugee camps in North Sumatra's
provincial capital of Confirmed
Child Trafficking in Indonesia "An NGO has reported seven
trafficking cases in Indonesia," Richard Danziger,
head of IOM's counter-trafficking unit, told Reuters. He declined to name the
agency. US issues guidelines to prevent human trafficking in
tsunami-hit Asia www.mywire.com/pubs/AFP/2005/01/05/696289 The contents of this article may
possibly still be accessible [here]
The US State Department said
Wednesday it was issuing guidelines to officials and volunteers in
tsunami-hit Call for legal reforms to protect children in Indonesia www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/projects/promoting_law/indonesia.asp At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The report highlights concerns
about inconsistencies and gaps in the law, especially with regard to the
treatment and protection of children. For example, prostitution is one of the
main forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Indonesia. But
the law does not provide for children who are sexually exploited in the
streets and brothels to be treated as victims of a crime. Instead, they are
more likely to be treated as criminals. This is because the Criminal Code
contains no provisions relating to commercial sexual transactions with a
child even as it allows for punishment of children forced into street
prostitution, either for offences against public order or as vagrants. Meanwhile, people who pay for sex with a child
and those who facilitate this action commonly escape punishment due to the
lack of explicit laws targeting people who buy sex with children and weak
enforcement of existing laws on pimping. Report On Laws And Legal Procedures Concerning The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Children In Indonesia [DOC] www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/projects/promoting_law/indonesia_report/Indonesia%20eng%20version.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] This study finds that in blog.indahnesia.com/entry/200406090004/indonesia_s_shameful_export.php yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=4043 It is not something any government
likes to make public, but the figures say it all: Indonesia is one of the
world's largest exporters of sex workers, mainly children. The UNICEF says as many as 70,000
Indonesian children have been sold across the country's borders as sex
commodities. They are employed in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand,
Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Similarly, nearly half of the 400,000 estimated sex workers in
Indonesia are children under 18 years old. UNICEF Urges Action On Child Trafficking www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/IRC/newsdesk_articles.asp?SCID=1294 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) has called on Indonesia to follow Thailand, Cambodia and the
Philippines in taking strong measures to combat child trafficking for sexual
exploitation. Help Wanted: Abuses against Female Migrant Domestic
Workers in Indonesia and Malaysia hrw.org/reports/2004/indonesia0704/3.htm#_Toc76201449 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] I. SUMMARY - The agent came to my house and
promised me a job in a house in I worked for five people, the
children were grown up. I cleaned the house, the kitchen, washed the
floor, ironed, vacuumed, and cleaned the car. I worked from 5:00 a.m.
to 2:00 a.m. every day. I never had a break; I was just stealing time
to get a break. I was paid just one time, 200 ringgit
[U.S.$52.63]. I just ate bread, there was no rice [for me]. I was
hungry. I slept in the kitchen on a mat. I was not allowed
outside of the house. ─
Interview with Nyatun Wulandari,
age twenty-three, returned domestic worker, Lombok,
Indonesia, January 25, 2004. In Indonesia, prospective migrant
workers secure employment in Malaysia through both licensed and unlicensed
labor agents who often extort money, falsify travel documents, and mislead
women and girls about their work arrangements. In both Indonesian
training centers and in Malaysian workplaces, women migrant domestic workers
often suffer severe restrictions on their freedom of movement; psychological
and physical abuse, including sexual abuse; and prohibitions on practicing
their religion. Pervasive labor rights abuses in the workplace include
extremely long hours of work without overtime pay, no rest days, and
incomplete and irregular payment of wages. In some cases, deceived
about the conditions and type of work, confined at the workplace, and
receiving no salary at all, women are caught in situations of trafficking and
forced labor www.abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/programs/s1167304.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] There are claims that the
Indonesian military and police have been extorting bribes from Acehnese asylum seekers and selling them into slavery.
The claims have been backed by refugee advocates working closely with the UN
refugee agency in Malaysia, where thousands of Acehnese
are facing expulsion under a government crackdown on illegal workers. Fighting
sexual exploitation and trafficking in Indonesia Yani was 15 when her boyfriend lured
her away from home with false promises of a lucrative job and a chance to
continue her education. After a long journey by car to an unknown
destination, she was raped by a middle-aged Indonesian man who beat her
unconscious after she refused his advances. She was immediately sold to a
brothel where she was guarded day and night. Indonesia to
Intensify Battle vs Human Trafficking An estimated 230,000 Indonesian
women and children have been trafficked from their home villages in Java,
Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara
and Sulawesi to be employed as sex workers and
cheap labor in urban areas at home and the sex trade overseas. The government has recently brought home
more than 300 women who were employed as sex workers in Saudi Arabia and
Malaysia. Forced labour and exploitation
of Indonesian migrant workers www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2003-indonesia.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Since the early 1980s, poverty,
high unemployment and lack of educational opportunities have been driving
Indonesian migrants abroad in search of work, and by the late 1990s, they
were among the fastest-growing migrant population in Slavery continues to plague Indonesian migrant workers www.mail-archive.com/islamkristen@yahoogroups.com/msg34376.html pace.unipi.it/MakeItFair/migrant/Slavery%20continues%20to%20plague%20Indonesian%20migrant%20workers.phpHow
tragic How tragic and terrible has been
the violence against a great number of Indonesian women employed overseas
this year! Not only were they harassed, physically abused or even raped but
were also sent home without proper payment or traded from one employer to another.
Many women workers who had just
arrived home from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia and Singapore said how they
were insulted and beaten if they made mistakes in performing their daily tasks,
how they had to work overtime without extra pay, how they were sexually
harassed or raped by their male employers or their relatives and how they
were physically attacked by their female employers after they had been forced to have sex
with their male employers. Behind "the success
story" of most migrant workers, many have to endure brutality and
undergo a form of slavery to gain 600 riyal per month in Saudi Arabia, or 300
ringgit in Malaysia. ILO Cites Child Labour, Forced Prostitution in Indonesia acr.hrschool.org/mainfile.php/0136/175/ Children as young as 13 are
involved in the drug trade in WOMEN RESCUED FROM SEX RING - Malaysian police and the staff
of the Indonesian consulate have rescued 13 Indonesian women allegedly forced
into the sex trade in the interior Keningau
district. The rescue came a week after two of them escaped from the
hotel. The women, aged between 14 and 24, were sent back to Indonesia
through Tawau. The Keningau
police are reportedly questioning the alleged pimp and three of his
assistants. Trafficking of Women and Children in Indonesia solidarity.timberlakepublishing.com/content.asp?contentid=502 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] This
300-page report was published as part of a joint Solidarity Center/
International Catholic Migration Committee countertrafficking
campaign in Indonesia, where hundreds of thousands of young girls are lured
away from their homes each year under false pretenses, sold into bondage,
physically and sexually abused, sent out into the streets as beggars, or
worse. Indonesia’s President Wahid joins ILO Battle Against Child
Labour www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/public/releases/yr2000/pr0004.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Indonesia:
Children held in slavery Investigators believe the children
- aged between 6 and 17 - are among up to 1,000 separated from their parents
at the height of violence in East Timor last year and later from refugee
camps in West Timor. Investigators fear many of the children have been forced
to work in factory sweatshops, plantations or as prostitutes. Child Labour on Indonesian
Fishing Platforms www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2000-Jermals.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The Indonesian NGO, KKSP
Foundation and Anti-Slavery International have long been concerned about the
use of children on hundreds of rickety fishing platforms, known locally as jermals, in the seas off the northeast coast of Children can fall or be carried
off by large waves during storms and there are no life jackets on the
platforms. The children suffer from fatigue because of the very long hours
they work and interrupted sleep patterns. In such a state it is easy to lose
concentration and fall from the platform or let a hand slip from the winch. Indonesia's Footwear Workers Too Thin For Aerobics www.hamline.edu/apakabar/basisdata/1992/10/17/0001.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Suyatmi, a shy, 20-year old factory
worker, is too poor to know much about sneakers. She's never heard of Bo
Jackson and is too skinny to care about aerobics.
Her world consists of a rented, 5-foot sqaure room in a shantytown where she sits on the
concrete floor with three other young women.
Every day a t 7 a.m., Suyatmi
begins work at P.T. Hardaya Aneka
Shoes Industry, one of six companies in Indonesia making shoes for Nike Inc.,
the spectacurly successful U.S. sporting goods
company. Her production "line" of 30 workers produces 350 pairs of
Nike's glitzy footwear a day. Suyatmi and her co-workers earn a base salary of 1,900
Indonesian rupiahs a day, the equivalent of $1.15.
Working a six-day week, with a least two hours of overtime each day, she
takes home about $17 per week. The company also gives her lunch and a bus
ride to work. "Some days it's hard,"
she said. "But I'm just happy to have a job." All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin,
"Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
Human Trafficking in [Indonesia Street Children in [Indonesia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Indonesia] [other countries]