UNDERSTANDING HUMAN TRAFFICKERS IN INDONESIA: CHARACTERISTICS, PERSPECTIVES, AND PATHWAYS TO PREVENTION A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Yuniar Aristia Paramita Sari BA (Universitas Jember), MA (Nagoya University) School of Global, Urban and Social Studies College of Design and Social Context Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) September 2021
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN TRAFFICKERS IN INDONESIA: CHARACTERISTICS, PERSPECTIVES, AND PATHWAYS TO
PREVENTION
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Yuniar Aristia Paramita Sari BA (Universitas Jember), MA (Nagoya University)
School of Global, Urban and Social Studies
College of Design and Social Context
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
September 2021
i
Declaration
I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author
alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other
academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since
the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or
unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics, procedures and guidelines
have been followed.
I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of the
Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
Yuniar A Paramita Sari
16 September 2021
ii
Acknowledgement
This thesis has benefited from the support and contributions of many people and institutions,
to whom I am forever grateful and remain indebted. I am thankful for RMIT University and
the funding to do this Ph.D. program under the Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship
and other research funding. Without this support, this study would not have been feasible.
My heartfelt thanks go out to the two members of my supervision team who tirelessly and
compassionately guided me during this Ph.D. program. To Associate Professor Julian Lee, you
are not only very helpful and understanding, but you have become my example on how to treat
others especially students. Your willingness to understand me and my thoughts have
encouraged me to keep working on this thesis. Thank you for always come with solutions and
motivations that make this process easier. I am grateful I ever met you and being under your
supervision to complete this project. And to Dr Kaye Quek, your trust, support, and patience
motivated me to keep this research going. Thank you for your priceless advice for my thesis
and the time you gave to me, Kaye. Thank you for helping me to make my arguments clearer
and deeper. It is been a great learning process with you. As with Julian, you have also inspired
me a lot with your personality and professionalism.
I am also indebted to Professor Douglas Lewis for being a key component of my milestone
panels from the beginning. Thank you for your supports, feedbacks, and helping me to see the
gaps in my research, and also for sharing some of your Indonesian experience. I also would
like to thank Associate Professor Georgina Heydon for helping me a lot during this program.
Thank you for your helping hands whenever I encountered some challenges since the beginning
of my study.
This research also benefitted greatly from the advice of Dr Larissa Sandy and Dr Vandra Harris
in the early stages of my Ph.D. candidature. Thank you for your guidance during my first year
as a Ph.D. student as I navigate this research. I have learned a lot about how to develop and
plan the research from you.
iii
I thankfully acknowledge Lee Miller, Principal Editor at Edit Mode who has been copy-edited
and proof-read this thesis, whose services are consistent with those outlined in Standards D
and E of the Australian Standards for Editing Practice (ASEP).
I also wish to acknowledge the immense supports and friendship from my Ph.D. colleagues:
Acknowledgement .......................................................................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... iv
List of Figures and Tables ........................................................................................................................... viii
List of Acronyms ........................................................................................................................................... ix
1.1. Background and Statement of Problem .................................................................................................... 3
1.2. Why Focus on Indonesia and on Human Trafficking for Domestic Labour and the Sex Industry ....... 5
1.3. Research Objectives and Research Questions ........................................................................................... 7
1.4. Definition of Key Concepts Used in This Thesis: Human Trafficking and Human Traffickers ............ 8 1.4.1. Human Trafficking ........................................................................................................................... 8 1.4.2. Human Traffickers ............................................................................................................................ 9
1.5. Significance of the Research ................................................................................................................... 10
1.6. Scope and Limitations of the Research ................................................................................................... 13
1.7. Organisation of the Thesis ....................................................................................................................... 15
Chapter 2: Development of International Anti-Trafficking Policy ............................................................. 19
2.2. History and Evolution of International Anti-Trafficking Legislation ................................................... 20 2.2.1. Attempts to Abolish Slavery ........................................................................................................... 20 2.2.2. White Slave Traffic and Preventing Trafficking in Women and Children ................................ 23 2.2.3. The Birth of the Trafficking Protocol ............................................................................................ 26
2.3. Policy Approaches to Counter Human Trafficking ................................................................................ 29 2.3.1. Migration and Border Control Management Approach ............................................................ 30 2.3.2. Criminal Justice Approach ............................................................................................................ 32 2.3.3. Human Rights-based Approach ..................................................................................................... 35
2.4. What Went Missing? ................................................................................................................................ 38
4.2. Slavery and Human Trafficking during Indonesia’s Colonial Period ................................................... 59
4.3. Contemporary Human Trafficking in Indonesia .................................................................................... 63 4.3.1. Human Trafficking for Domestic Labour ..................................................................................... 64 4.3.2. Human Trafficking for the Sex Industry ...................................................................................... 66 4.3.3. Other Forms of Human Trafficking .............................................................................................. 69
4.4. Responses to Human Trafficking in Indonesia ...................................................................................... 73 4.4.1. Indonesia’s Anti-Trafficking Regulations and the National Anti-Trafficking Task Force ...... 73 4.4.2. Implementation of the 3Ps (Prevention, Prosecution, and Protection) in Indonesia ................. 76 4.4.3. Other Responses by Civil Society Organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations ........ 85
5.2. Complexity in Researching Human Trafficking ..................................................................................... 89
5.3. Research Design ....................................................................................................................................... 91
5.6. Fieldwork Experience and Positionality ............................................................................................... 100
5.7. Coding and Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 104 5.7.1. Analysing the Interviews .............................................................................................................. 105 5.7.2. Analysing the Court Documents .................................................................................................. 106
6.2. Socio-Demographics of Traffickers ...................................................................................................... 110 6.2.1. Age .................................................................................................................................................. 110 6.2.2. Gender ............................................................................................................................................ 112 6.2.3. Occupation ..................................................................................................................................... 113 6.2.4. Origin and Place of Residence ...................................................................................................... 116 6.2.5. Religious Affiliation ...................................................................................................................... 121 6.2.6. Education ....................................................................................................................................... 123 6.2.7. From Victim to Perpetrator ......................................................................................................... 123 6.2.8. Relationship between Trafficker and Victim .............................................................................. 126 6.2.9. Close Relationships among Perpetrators .................................................................................... 130
6.3. Modus Operandi ..................................................................................................................................... 131 6.3.1. Methods of Recruitment ............................................................................................................... 131 6.3.2. Transport and Trafficking Routes ............................................................................................... 138
6.4. Organisational Structure ....................................................................................................................... 140 6.4.1. Group Characteristics and Division of Labour .......................................................................... 141
7.2. Economic Benefit ................................................................................................................................... 153 7.2.1. Maintaining Lifestyle .................................................................................................................... 154 7.2.2. Lack of Job Opportunities ............................................................................................................ 155 7.2.3. Easy Way to Make Money Quickly ............................................................................................. 157 7.2.4. Big Profits ...................................................................................................................................... 158
7.3. Socio-Cultural Influences ...................................................................................................................... 160 7.3.1. Lack of Legal Awareness .............................................................................................................. 160 7.3.2. Helping Others .............................................................................................................................. 166 7.3.3. Seen as a Champion ...................................................................................................................... 169 7.3.4. Daughter as a Breadwinner and Source of Family Pride in West Java ................................... 172
8.2. Current Efforts to Deter Human Traffickers ........................................................................................ 186 8.2.1. Global Efforts ................................................................................................................................ 186 8.2.2. Indonesia’s Efforts ........................................................................................................................ 189 8.2.3. Improving Indonesia’s Efforts ..................................................................................................... 192
8.3. Recommendations to Prevent People Becoming Traffickers ................................................................ 194 8.3.1. Primary Prevention ....................................................................................................................... 194
8.3.1.1. Improving the Understanding of Human Trafficking and Increasing the Awareness in
Society of the Risks of Becoming Perpertrators .............................................................................. 194 8.3.1.2. Increase the Role of the Village ............................................................................................ 197 8.3.1.3. Improve Job Opportunities by Creating and Supporting Local Business ....................... 201 8.3.1.4. Planting the Seed (Human Trafficking Education at School) ........................................... 203 8.3.1.5. Women’s Empowerment and Participation in Anti-Trafficking Efforts.......................... 205 8.3.1.6. Recruitment Agencies dealing with Labour Supply Abroad ............................................. 207 8.3.1.7. Approaches to Small Cafes, Spa Business, and Brothels ................................................... 210
8.3.2. Secondary Prevention ................................................................................................................... 211 8.3.2.1. Face to Face Dialogue Between Traffickers and Community Representatives ................ 211 8.3.2.2. Focus on the Areas where Traffickers Reside and Operate .............................................. 214 8.3.2.3. Approaches to Police and Immigration Institutions ........................................................... 216
8.3.3. Tertiary Prevention ....................................................................................................................... 219 8.3.3.1. Rehabilitation in Prison ........................................................................................................ 219 8.3.3.2. Restorative Justice in addition to Criminal Justice ............................................................ 221 8.3.3.3. Reintegration Support........................................................................................................... 224 8.3.3.4. From Perpetrators to Facilitators ........................................................................................ 226
8.4. Proposed Improvements to Indonesian and International Law ........................................................... 228 8.4.1. Provisions to Acknowledge the Factors That Make People Vulnerable to Being Involved in
Human Trafficking as Perpetrators. ..................................................................................................... 228 8.4.2 Provisions to Acknowledge the Rights of the Accused and the Convicted During Criminal
Justice Process ......................................................................................................................................... 229 8.4.3. Provisions Related to Efforts to Prevent Reoffending ............................................................... 230 8.4.4. Provisions to Prevent Human Trafficking Based on the Form of Trafficking ........................ 231
9.3. Research Findings ................................................................................................................................. 237
9.4. Limitations and Avenues for Future Research ..................................................................................... 241
This section details the socio-demographics of the people involved in human trafficking in
domestic labour and the sex industry in Indonesia. It explores the variables of age, gender,
occupation, origin and place of residence, religious affiliation, education, prior experience as a
victim of trafficking, relationships between victims and perpetrators, and relationships between
perpetrators. As the data shows, there are significant differences in the socio-demographic
variables in term of age, origin and place of residence, occupation, and the form of relationship
with the victims between perpetrators in the two types of trafficking. Understanding the
differences in perpetrators in the two forms of trafficking enables us to create the right policies
for prevention in the future.
6.2.1. Age
The information on offenders’ age provided in the court documents is the age when the offender
went through criminal proceedings and a verdict was reached. Therefore, to obtain the age of
offenders at the time they committed the crime, I looked at their date of birth and the date when
they committed the crime.
Many of the individuals involved as perpetrators in human trafficking for the sex industry were
relatively young when compared to those for domestic labour. Court data shows that eleven
offenders (31.4%) committed human trafficking offenses in the sex industry when they were
around 18 – 24 years old, while only one offender in that age range committed the offense of
trafficking for domestic labour. While the offenders of human trafficking for the sex industry
had a wide range of ages, the majority of human trafficking offenders for domestic labour were
over 35 years old, mostly between the ages of 35 and 53. Seventeen offenders (47.2%)
committed human trafficking offenses for domestic labour in the 35 – 44 year old range.
111
The mean age of offenders in trafficking for domestic labour is 39.9 years and the mean age of
sex trafficking offenders is 33.1 years. The overall mean age for both domestic labour and sex
trafficking is 36.5 years old.
Table 2: Convicted Offenders by Age at time of Human Trafficking Offense
Age Total Sex Industry Domestic Labour
17 or younger 0 0 0
18 – 24 12 11 1
25 – 34 15 7 8
35 – 44 27 10 17
45 – 54 16 6 10
55 – older 1 1 0
71 35 36
These results are very similar to the research of Broad (2013) on individuals who committed
human trafficking in the UK, where none of the offenses were committed by young people
under 20 years old (Broad 2013, p. 171). In contrast the research by Keo (2011) on human
traffickers in Cambodia shows a small number of people under 17 years old who participated
in human trafficking. Banks and Kyckelhahn (2012) also document a small number of
trafficking suspects in the US under 17 years old.
Although the data from court documents does not show the involvement of minors in human
trafficking offense, an interview with a representative from a local NGO in Sukabumi, West
Java talked about their experience in dealing with minors who traffic others in sex industry.
Yang paling menakutkan sih, mudah – mudahan saja tidak. Apakah kejahatan sekarang itu menurun
ke usia – usia yang lebih rendah? Dulu kan anak-anak SMA, sekarang malah anak SMP. Khawatir
kalo anak - anak SD sekarang bongsor – bongsor itu kan sekarang sudah mulai pelecehan seksual.
Anak SD Itu bukan cuman korban tapi pelaku juga, karena mungkin tadi akses informasi, dari media
sosial, dari youtube kan sekarang mudah didapat ya. Mereka mungkin sebenarnya belum tau apa itu
yang dikerjakan. Hanya mengadaptasi, mengimitasi. (ORG #11)
In English:
The scariest thing is, which I hope it isn’t, the crime is nowadays committed by elementary school
students. Before, many upper-secondary or lower-secondary students were involved in it. I am
worried if elementary school kids are also committing sexual abuse (which can lead to trafficking).
Because, as you know nowadays these kids are mature earlier. Elementary school kids are not only
the victims, but they are also perpetrators. Maybe they got the idea from the internet, such as
112
YouTube or social media. Maybe they actually don’t realise what they are doing. They just imitate
what they see. (ORG #11)
In the statement above, a representative of a local NGO is expressing her worries about the
possibility of young girls who are still in elementary school becoming involved in the sex
industry and putting their school mates into sex exploitation. She also explained during the
interview that there is a big influence from easy internet access these days that might inspire
children to do this sort of thing. It is possible that these kids do not realise what they are doing,
as they only imitate what they see on the internet.
6.2.2. Gender
In line with the research results of Keo (2011) and Surtees (2008), my research indicates that
traffickers in Indonesia convicted in 2018 and 2019 were more often female than male. As
stated by Siegel and De Blank (2010) the role of women in the recruitment process to traffic
other women for the sex industry and in other forms of trafficking is not a new phenomenon
(Siegel & De Blank 2010, p. 438). In this research, from 35 offenders of human trafficking in
the sex industry, 15 were male and 20 female, while 16 males and 20 females were identified
among the traffickers for domestic labour.
Although women have been said to perform mainly lower level roles in trafficking (Broad
2015, p. 1058), this is not the case in trafficking for domestic labour in Indonesia as many
women there become the boss of the recruiters (atasan or pimpinan in Bahasa Indonesia). In
10 of the 22 cases considered women led, supervised or financed the recruitment process. For
example, a woman in West Java worked together with her husband to send people as domestic
workers to Iraq. She was assisted by at least four other recruiters and a few other people who
dealt with airport transfers, medical check-ups and the visa process (CDA #9).
On the other hand, the court documents show nine women as leaders of different groups in
trafficking for the sex industry. Four of those nine women worked in the café industry. They
acted as a madam, a mami in Bahasa Indonesia. An interview with a lawyer described the role
of one woman, whose case also appeared in the court documents, who managed a trafficking
operation in the sex industry assisted by a male intermediary (CDB #16):
Jadi otak pelakunya satu, Tina. Jadi mucikarinya mungkin Tina. Wardi ikut serta seperti mengantar,
cari langganan. Jadi teman - temannya yang misalkan supir angkot itu ditawarin. “Itu ada cewek di rumah saya”, misalkan, “kamu mau nggak?” Nanti dianterin sama Wardi ke rumahnya. (Lawyer
#2)
113
In English:
So, Tina was the brain of that activity. She was the pimp and Wardi was the one who recruited the
girls and searched for the clients. He recruited the girls whom he met at the bus station and brought
them to Tina’s house. He also brought the clients who he met to Tina’s house. (Lawyer #2)
The above statement reveals that Tina (the woman) was the pimp and the brain of the activity.
In this she was assisted by a man called Wardi who acted as recruiter and also the one who
searched for clients.
There is no specific information on why the number of female traffickers are higher than male
traffickers in Indonesia. However, based on the findings of this research, the phenomenon of
ex-domestic workers and ex prostituted persons in Indonesia becoming perpetrators is
considered as one cause of higher numbers of female traffickers.
6.2.3. Occupation
The occupations of the human trafficking offenders mentioned in the court documents can be
classified into the following categories: private sector employee, business owner or
entrepreneur, farmer, housewife, student, freelance labourer and civil servant/government
employee. In some cases, more detailed information is provided in the occupation column,
with occupations such as waitress, cashier, merchant or airline staff. Of the 36 offenders in
human trafficking for domestic labour, seven (19.4%) worked as employees in the private
sector, sixteen (44.44%) ran their own business, four (11.11%) worked as farmers, eight
women offenders (22.22%) were housewives and one offender (2.77%) was a freelance
labourer. On the other hand, of the 35 offenders in trafficking for the sex industry, seven (20%)
worked as employees in the private sector, seventeen (48.57%) owned a business, five
(14.28%) were housewives, one (2.85%) was a student, one (2.85%) worked as a civil servant,
three (8.57%) were unemployed, and one offender (2.85%) was a merchant.
114
Figure 3: Convicted offenders by occupation
In some court documents, there is more detailed information about the offender’s job in the
chronology section. In trafficking for domestic labour, offenders whose jobs were in a private
company generally worked in labour distribution companies that were sending people overseas
to work. They had roles as staff in the recruitment department, as executive director, or as
supervisor. Another offender was working as ground staff for an airline company. The court
documents also show that some offenders of trafficking for domestic labour worked as farmers.
However there are no farmers among the sex trafficking offenders. Court documents show that
people convicted of human trafficking in the sex industry normally worked in a café as owner
or staff, in a brothel as owner or staff, or in a spa centre as owner or staff. Some offenders were
also small business owners with a small stall or a clothing shop. There were a few unemployed
found among the offenders of trafficking in the sex industry, while there were none among the
offenders of trafficking for domestic work.
Whereas the court documents tended to indicate that traffickers did not work in the public or
government sector, interviews with representatives from organisations indicated that, although
they were not convicted, people from the public sector were routinely involved. Immigration
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Employee
Business Owner
Farmer
Housewife
Student
Civil Servant
Freelance labourer
Unemployed
Merchant
EmployeeBusinessOwner
Farmer Housewife StudentCivil
ServantFreelancelabourer
Unemployed
Merchant
Sex Industry 20 48.57 0 14.28 2.85 2.85 0 8.57 2.86
#16). Almost none of them mentioned other Islamic countries as destinations. However, the
Middle Eastern countries have apparently become popular destinations for people working and
exploited as domestic workers nowadays.
Some research on human trafficking in Indonesia had already mentioned Batam as a transit
place (Ford & Lyons 2012; Lindquist & Piper 2007), especially for people trafficking to
Singapore and Malaysia. However, more research needs to be done to understand fully why
Batam is a transit zone for victims before they are sent abroad. Better understanding of places
like Batam that the traffickers use as transit centres will enable us to design better prevention
policies against human trafficking in Indonesia.
Human trafficking for the sex industry normally has shorter routes and simpler transportation
modes than for domestic labour, because most cases of sex trafficking occur inside the country.
There were only two cases where the victims were sent to Malaysia. From 22 cases, nine cases
of trafficking for the sex industry occurred in or started from West Java in the cities or regencies
of Bandung, Garut, and Subang. Three cases were in Bitung, a regency in North Sulawesi. The
others were from Jakarta, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Batam in the Riau Islands.
The most popular destinations for trafficking in the sex industry were Papua (three cases), Bali
(three cases) and two cases to Malaysia. Victims were also sent to Banggai Laut (Central
Sulawesi), Tretes (East Java) and Ambon (Maluku). In two cases victims were trafficked to
Papua from Bitung, North Sulawesi. The victims brought to Bali were from Garut and Subang
140
in West Java and from Jakarta. One organisation describes Papua as a sex trafficking
destination:
Ada sebuah kota di Papua, itu kota – kota brothels. Untuk melayani pekerja tambang – tambang
(ORG #1)
In English: There is a town in Papua that is a brothel city. To serve those who work in the mining industry.
(ORG #1).
So, in Papua the brothels were established to serve those who work in the mining industry.
Those brothels recruited women and girls from anywhere in Indonesia.
In human trafficking for the sex industry, the victims were not always transported from one
city to another. Somestime they were trafficked inside the same city, or even within the same
village, as happened with cases in Tulung Agung (East Java), Indramayu (West Java) and
Bengkulu city (Bengkulu). The action sometimes does not even involve the transportation of a
person to a different city or area. In these cases the victims were normally sexually exploited
in hotels, brothels, private apartments, spa places, or cafes. There are six cases according to
court documents that record sex trafficking that did not involve any movement elsewhere – in
Padang (West Sumatra), Bandung (West Java), Batam (Riau Islands), Karawang (West Java),
Tegal (Central Java), and Ketapang (West Kalimantan).
Most of the victims who were trafficked to other cities or provinces were transported by plane
- for example, the cases of trafficking from Garut (West Java) to Bali, Jakarta to Nabire
(Papua), and Bandung (West Java) to Pontianak (West Kalimantan). The victims from Bitung
(North Sulawesi) were transported by ferry or boat to Papua or Banggai Laut in Central
Sulawesi. In one trafficking case from Batam to Johor Bahru (Malaysia), the victim was also
transported by boat before continuing with land transportation to the destination. Although it
takes longer, bus was also a common mode used by traffickers to transport their victims - from
Subang (West Java) to Bali, for instance, and from Banjar (West Java) to Tretes (East Java). In
two cases the victims were transported by motorcycle.
6.4. Organisational Structure
This section explores the characteristics of the groups of traffickers. As described above in the
literature review in Chapter 3, there are different ways that traffickers work with others when
trafficking. Some work alone, some as a small group, and others in big groups. Sometimes
141
these groups are ad hoc or a loosely structured group of associates while others are highly
organised. This section looks at the types of organisational structure of people involved in
trafficking for the sex industry and domestic labour in Indonesia, and investigates whether
there are any differences in terms of organisational structure and group characteristics between
these two forms of trafficking.
6.4.1. Group Characteristics and Division of Labour
The data from the court documents and interviews shows that in Indonesia there are various
kinds of human trafficking groups. However, most of them are people who know each other,
individuals or family-run businesses with loose structures and non-hierarchical relationships
rather than an established and formal organised criminal group. The data also shows that
traffickers in domestic labour tended to work in bigger groups with a more complex division
of labour than trafficking for the sex industry. It is more common to find sole perpetrators in
trafficking for the sex industry.
A. Domestic Labour
People in Indonesia who took part in domestic labour trafficking were involved in medium to
large groups which on average consisted of three to ten people operating inside Indonesia
alone. Only in two cases was it run by just two people, one a manager and an employee in a
recruitment company trafficking only within Indonesia (CDB #4) and one the recruiter plus
someone who helped to deal with the passport and transportation (CDB #18).
Although those who were involved in trafficking for domestic labour worked together and had
trafficking as their aim, it is still unclear if they are part of a highly structured organised crime
group. Some groups may fit the criteria of organised crime as defined by UNTOC (see Chapter
3). However, a better definition provided by Van Duyne (1996) draws on the German Federal
Criminal Police Office’s definition and says that organised crime is carried out by more than
two people who cooperate with division of labour and for a long time using: 1) commercial or
commercial like structures; 2) violence or other types of intimidation; and 3) influence on
politics, media, public administration, justice and the legitimate economy (Van Duyne 1996,
p. 203). Hence, it is not clear that the groups of traffickers in Indonesia are part of established
organised crime as described by the criteria above, as they work in informal structures, have
no hierarchy and it is hard to prove that they used the three elements in Van Duyne’s definition.
142
In addition most offenders seem to take part in trafficking only because they have “a chance to
be involved”, meaning that they do not belong to any particular group for a long period of time.
Levi and Maguire (2004) feel that when the structure is flatter and the offenders team up with
one another, it may be difficult to properly classify the activities as “organised crime” even if
the crime is well organised and the members are continuing offenders (Levi & Maguire 2004,
p. 399). As Surtees (2008) explains, although many criminal syndicates are involved in cases
of human trafficking, the link between human trafficking and organised crime is not always
continuous. Human trafficking can happen outside organised crime (Surtees 2008, p. 47). In
Indonesia, each offender worked based on the opportunity to do the job and gain a quick profit.
Most group members work because they were offered the opportunity by other offenders to be
involved in a particular trafficking job. For them, it did not seem to require hard work, as many
people intend to work overseas or in another city.
One lawyer that I interviewed explained that the traffickers’ networks in domestic labour
trafficking are a kind of cooperation between an agent in Indonesia and an agent overseas. An
agent in this sense means a person or a company that can help to provide and distribute labour
(Lawyer #7).
Hubungan saling mengenal saja, agen yang di sana mengenal agen yang ada di Indonesia. Seperti
hubungan antar PT. Karena saya kenal dengan agen ini dan sudah percaya. Ada banyak agen di
sana, di sini juga. Sesama agen satu dengan yang lain tidak terstruktur, jadi berdiri sendiri – sendiri.
(Lawyer #7)
In English:
They just know each other. The agent overseas knows the agent in Indonesia. So, it is like
cooperation between companies. Because you know the agent in that country well and trust them,
you can cooperate. There are many agents there and here. Each agent works independently and
unstructured (Lawyer #7)
The lawyer mentioned that the agents work individually. They are able to cooperate because
an agent knows and trusts another agent in another country. His explanation indicates that this
type of cooperation between agents does not fit the concept of organised crime. Instead, it is
managed through personal connections, which are flexible and loosely interconnected.
It seems that there is no clear proof that trafficking in domestic labour in Indonesia is
committed by formal or high-level organised crime groups. However, some of the organisation
participants interviewed stated that big organised crime syndicates are involved in trafficking
143
in Indonesia (ORG #3; ORG #4; ORG #9; ORG #10; ORG #13; ORG #14), although it is
unclear what makes the perpetrators seem a part of organised crime groups to those NGOs. For
some of them the explanation is the involvement of police or immigration officers (ORG #4;
ORG #9), and government officials (ORG #14).
In the 22 cases of domestic labour trafficking from the court documents, five offenses were
committed with labour companies as an agent. From those five cases, three cases were
trafficking inside Indonesia. The rest of the 17 cases were committed by one individual alone
or with one person as an agent who liaised or worked with an individual in the receiving
country. One example is Merry, an agent in Jakarta. She went looking for someone to work in
China as a domestic worker. She asked a contact in Indramayu, West Java if there was a woman
in that area who would be interested in work in China. The recruiter found the victim,
introduced her to Merry and brought her to Jakarta. Merry also asked two other people for help
in dealing with the victim's passport, holiday visa, and other necessary documents. After they
arrived in Jakarta, the victim was taken to the airport for departure to Shanghai, China. In doing
this, Merry cooperated with Lisa, an agent in China. Lisa picked up the victim at the airport
and provided her with accommodation for a while until finally she found an employer for the
victim (CDA #11).
A person who becomes an agent can also be someone who was previously a migrant worker
overseas. Because they have established links and have worked with people in that country,
they feel like they can ‘help’ other people in Indonesia who need a job overseas, while also
receiving some benefit from the recruitment. One lawyer gave the case of her client who came
back from Saudi Arabia. She had established a relationship with an agent in Saudi Arabia. So,
when she returned to Indonesia, she worked in collaboration with that person and recruited
people to work there (Lawyer #4).
Agents in Indonesia routinely worked with other people who helped them to recruit and traffic
people. Most agents were located in Jakarta and Batam, Riau Islands. So they worked in
cooperation with people who were located in places where many people want to work overseas,
such as West Nusa Tenggara, Nusa Tenggara, and West Java. These people helped the agent
to recruit others. In one case of trafficking, an agent had between one and three recruiters
helping at various times. The agents were also assisted by other people who helped with
victims' health check-ups, dealing with passports and falsification of documents, providing
144
accommodation in a safe house, dropping off to the airport, picking up at the airport and from
other transit points. An agent might also have assistance from someone at the airport to help
with the flight check-in. For example, Sally was an agent in Jakarta who sent a victim to
Morocco. Initially she asked Fahri and Mirna who were located in Dompu, West Nusa
Tenggara to recruit someone who wanted to work abroad. Ahua, another person helping Fahri
and Mirna, made first contact with the victim who was willing to go abroad. Mirna and Fahri
took over the victim from Ahua and interviewed her. They also helped in the medical check-
up and later dropped her at the airport. Bakri was involved in this offense by dealing with
victims' travel documents. The victim flew in transit to Batam where she was picked up by
Talib, who also went to Malaysia with her and dropped the victim off at Kuala Lumpur airport
for the flight to Morocco (CDA #19).
Although most female traffickers worked as recruiters, some female traffickers also had a role
as an agent. Female traffickers also did other different jobs such as accompanying the victims
for a medical check-up, bringing the victims to the agent’s house, dropping the victims to the
airport or harbour, accommodating victims at the safe house and arranging passports. For male
traffickers, their jobs were more about handling passports and false documents, dropping off
and picking up at the airport, accompanying victims from one place to another, monitoring the
overall process and also taking part in the recruitment process.
Although the traffickers cooperated with each other, it is unclear if each member knows every
other person within their trafficking ring. Normally they worked in the group because they
were asked by other traffickers to do one particular job such as recruiting people in the
community or falsifying the documents. For example, in a case of trafficking from Sukabumi
to Malaysia, Yurina the recruiter introduced the victim to Ali and Jami who were located in
Jakarta and brought the victim to them. In Jakarta, the victim met Jami and Ali. Jami then
informed Iman who was managing the whole process. Another person named Alif assisted in
falsifying the victim's documents. The victim was brought to Batam and then Bengkalis before
being being picked up from there by Sunardi and taken to Kuala Lumpur. In Kuala Lumpur,
another person, Taufan received her and brought her to the actual employer who later exploited
her. In this case, Yurina’s role was just to recruit the victim and she only knew Jami and Ali.
She did not know about all the other perpetrators - Ilman, Alif, and Taufan. Similarly, Alif,
who made the false documents only knew Jakin as someone who asked him to make
documents. He did not know the other traffickers (CDA #17).
145
B. Sex Industry
It is easier to describe the characteristics of human trafficking for the sex industry in Indonesia.
Compared to trafficking in domestic labour, the perpetrators of trafficking for the sex industry
worked in smaller groups. The standard number of persons in each trafficking network was
one to three people, except for the cases of trafficking from Garut to Bali and trafficking in the
spa center in Karawang that involved more people.
Because most trafficking in the sex industry happened inside the country, the traffickers could
have a simpler structure. They could also use a simple process that did not require long
planning, and could act spontaneously when the opportunity arose. Most of the victims were
also transported directly to their destination without any delays or transits through somewhere
else.
Trafficking in the sex industry was committed by café or pub owners, brothel owners, spa
centre owners, and individual traffickers. Most of the individual traffickers are pimps who want
the victims so they can offer them to the clients they find for them. They usually operate alone
or with at one other person to put the victim where they can be exploited. On the other hand,
five of the eight cases of trafficking for café or pub sex work were carried out by three people.
These groups have a similar structure - café owner, café employee and recruiter, or café owner
and two recruiters. Similarly, in the cases of trafficking for the sex industry in a brothel, the
trafficking was usually organised by the brothel owners with assistance from recruiters or other
intermediaries. One case of trafficking from Garut to Bali had a more complicated structure,
as it consists of one brothel owner, one middleman, two recruiters, a manager for the recruiters
and a person that makes false documents and handles flight tickets (CDB #10). Three cases of
trafficking in spa centres were found and they involved spa owners, spa managers, spa
employees, and recruiters.
146
Figure 13: Forms of Trafficking in the Sex Industry in Indonesia
As the diagram above shows, many victims in Indonesia were trafficked into cafés or pubs and
generally the victims were trafficked by an individual who made all their own arrangements.
Hence, further policy for the prevention of trafficking in the sex industry might focus more on
cafes and on the individuals who are trafficking for their own benefit.
Unlike trafficking for domestic labour, there are no particular roles for women in trafficking
for the sex industry. The numbers of women and men in the various roles as café owners,
brothel owners, recruiters, and individual traffickers were almost equal.
6.5. Traffickers’ Profit
Not all court documents mention the money received by each offender. However, from the
court documents, it can be seen that three people earned under IDR 1,000,000 for the role as a
recruiter for trafficking in domestic labour. Ten people earned around IDR 1,000,000 to IDR
2,000,0000. Four people earned IDR 2,000,000 to IDR 5,000,000 and two people were paid
between IDR 5,000,000 and IDR 10,000,000. Some recruiters sometimes also had other jobs,
such as bringing the victims to the airport, putting the victims into accommodation in the safe
house, and also dealing with their documents. As someone who had the limited role of helping
at the airport, one person received IDR 500,000. But another case shows that a person received
IDR 5,000,000 for the same job. Those who arranged passport and made false documents
received the smallest payment. The four people that arranged passports and/or false documents
Trafficking for café/pubs Trafficking for brothels Trafficking for spa center individual trafficking
36.7%31.8%
13.6% 18.2 %
147
were paid IDR 150,000, IDR 300,000, IDR 500,000 and IDR 1,800,000 for their work. For
those traffickers organising accommodation for the victims and ensuring their successful
departure at the airport or harbour earnings were IDR 4,000,000, IDR 3,000,000 and IDR
2,000,000. One labour company earned IDR 2,000,000 for recruiting a victim to work abroad.
An NGO in Jakarta said that a recruiter earned IDR 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 for each person; an
NGO in Jember put the payment for recruiting people at IDR 2,500,000; an NGO in Cirebon
said it was around IDR 3,000,000 to IDR 5,000,000, while an NGO in Blitar estimated that the
fee was around IDR 500,000 for recruiting one person.
People involved in trafficking for the sex industry received very little benefit when compared
to those who work in trafficking for domestic labour. These traffickers usually received less
than IDR 500,000 per person. The major exception was the case of trafficking from Garut,
West Java to Bali that involved six people including the brothel owner and in this the main
recruiter received IDR 1,500,000, the middleman who brought the victims to the brothel owner
received IDR 4,000,000, and IDR 150,000 was paid to the man who dealt with the tickets and
false documents. In other cases of sex trafficking, a recruiter received from IDR 100,000 to
IDR 120,000 for sending victims to brothels and two brothel owners received IDR 150,000 to
250,000. Those who recruited persons to work for a café (four different cases) received at most
IDR 500,000. One recruiter admitted that she did not receive any benefit as she just wanted to
help the café owner who had been kind to her so far. Meanwhile, the recruiter in trafficking for
a café in Malaysia received IDR 1,000,000 and the agent in Indonesia received MYR 300, the
equivalent of IDR 1,015,000.
Those who traffic people into the sex industry individually without any affiliations with
brothels, café or spa received the least benefit. Four traffickers in this sort of case only received
IDR 50,000, two traffickers received 100,000 and one trafficker received 500,000 from
trafficking their friends, family or other people. Only two traffickers received more than IDR
500,000, (IDR 700,000 and IDR 800,000) from their trafficking. The two last amounts were
higher because the victims owed a debt to both traffickers, and the money given to the
perpetrators include the payment of debt from the victims.
148
A spa center in Karawang, West Java received IDR 110,000 every time its staff gave a sex
service. Meanwhile a recruiter for spa center in Indramayu, West Java received IDR 1,000,000
for each woman or girl he could bring to the spa owner.
An ex-trafficker who at the time of the interview was working for an NGO said that in the
1990s when he was actively recruiting girls in the village, he received IDR 10,000 for each
hour that his victims worked (ORG #6).
Iya, chanel seperti pegawai negeri, nongkrong aja digaji. Anak buah 10 hitung saja. Setiap hari kalau
anak – anak itu dapat 20 jam, jadi 20 jam dikali 10 ribu. (ORG #6)
In English:
We, the channel / recruiter felt like a government employee back then. We didn’t do anything but
got paid. You can calculate how much I earned if in one day those girls worked for 20 hours. 20
hours x IDR 10,000. (ORG #6)
The statement above shows that sometimes the trafficker received payment based on each
transaction that the victim made.
While an NGO in Bandung, West Java said that from 2010 to 2013 recruiters normally earned
IDR 500,000 to IDR 1,000,000 for recruiting one victim. (ORG #5)
6.6. Conclusions
The data shows that there are several important differences in characteristics between people
involved in trafficking for domestic labour and for the sex industry in Indonesia in terms of
age, origin and place of residence, occupation, the form of relationship with the victims, the
characteristics of the group they work in, the recruitment methods and trafficking routes.
People trafficking for the sex industry are relatively younger. Many of the people involved in
sex industry trafficking originally come from and many still live in West Java. In contrast, most
of the people involved in trafficking for domestic labour come from and still live in East Nusa
Tenggara or West Nusa Tenggara. In terms of occupation, people trafficking in the sex industry
gave their job as a civil servant, as student, as well as unemployed, while there were some
farmers found among traffickers for domestic labour. Other people engaged in trafficking for
the sex industry were the owners or employees of the spa centres, cafés and brothels where the
victims would work. Meanwhile some of those who involved in domestic labour trafficking
worked in recruitment agencies. Immigration officers, police officers, local government
149
officials (mayors or regents, community leaders, and village leaders) and faith leaders were
also implicated in human trafficking for domestic labour. A previous relationship with the
victim was common among offenders of trafficking for domestic labour.
The methods of recruitment used by human trafficking offenders for the sex industry are more
diverse than those for human trafficking in domestic labour. While most of the offenders in
domestic labour trafficking use iming-iming to lure their victims with promises of high salaries
and good living conditions, in the case of the sex industry, the offenders also use deception at
the beginning of recruitment, force or coercion and sometimes abduction. In terms of transport
and trafficking routes, human trafficking for the sex industry normally has shorter routes and
simpler transportation modes compared to trafficking for domestic labour, but this is because
most of cases of sex trafficking are within the country while the majority of trafficked victims
for domestic labour were sent overseas with major destinations the neighbouring countries or
Islamic countries, such as those in the Middle East. Often, the victims were taken in transit
through Batam in Riau Islands before continuing their journey overseas. Hence, more diverse
transportation modes are used to traffic people for domestic labour.
Traffickers in domestic labour tended to work in bigger groups with more complex division of
labour than trafficking for the sex industry. Sole perpetrators are more commonly to be found
in trafficking in the sex industry. The data shows that the majority of human trafficking
offenders for the sex industry and for domestic labour were not professional criminals. Instead,
they got involved in trafficking if given an opportunity to recruit other people, or in response
to an order from another person (to help at the airport for instance, or make false documents).
Most human trafficking cases were operated by loosely structured groups with more ephemeral
and non-hierarchical relationships rather than formal and hierarchical-type organised criminal
groups, although some organisation representatives explained that this type of organised crime
groups were involved in some trafficking offenses. Hence, the variation in offenders of human
trafficking for domestic labour and the sex industry in Indonesia is similar to the picture
presented in the study by Viuhko (2018), that the diversity of these offenders has to be
acknowledged. Remaining stuck in the stereotypical discourse of “innocent victims” and
completely “evil and inhumane traffickers” without understanding their real background and
characteristics will only lead to inappropriate policies and programs in the future.
150
With this understanding of the differences in the socio-demographic characteristics of people
involved in trafficking for the sex industry and for domestic labour, as well as the differences
in their methods of operation, and in their groups, it is clear that prevention efforts to deter the
perpetrators of human trafficking perpetrators cannot be generalised but must be tailored
specifically to fit the different forms of human trafficking. They need to be designed in light
of the specific context in which the trafficking occurs.
All the discussion and recommendations on further efforts to prevent people from trafficking
are presented below in Chapter 8 of this thesis. The next chapter (Chapter 7) will discuss the
the traffickers’ motivations and perspectives, and the other factors that make people commit
these offenses and become involved in human trafficking for domestic labour and the sex
industry.
151
Chapter 7: Motivations, Perspectives and Other Factors
Influencing Individuals’ Involvement in Human Trafficking for
the Sex Industry and Domestic Labour in Indonesia
7.1. Introduction
In the previous chapter, I discussed the characteristics of people convicted of human trafficking
for the sex industry and domestic labour in Indonesia. The chapter examined various socio-
demographic variables, their modus operandi, organisational structures, and the profits they
earned. This chapter will answer the second research question: “What are the motivations,
perspectives, and other key factors influencing individuals’ involvement in human trafficking
for the sex industry and domestic labour in Indonesia?” As human trafficking is often regarded
mainly as a transnational organised crime, financial gain is seen as the major reason why people
traffic others (Shelley 2010; Wheaton, Schauer & Galli 2010; Kara 2011; Varney 2013). In
some media and government reports, traffickers are often depicted as criminals making a
billion dollars profit a year (ILO 2014; UNODC 2007). However, studies such as those of
Molland (2011) and Keo (2013) have shown that this is not always the case, especially in
developing countries where traffickers earn minimal profits. This chapter seeks to gain an
improved understanding of the participants in human trafficking, one that is not founded on
stereotypes. It shows that people committed and involved in human trafficking in Indonesia
are not entirely individuals that aim for bigger profits but inclined to commit trafficking due to
number of various economic socio cultural factors.
Currently there are few studies that consider the factors other than economic factors that trigger
people into committing the offense. Shively et al. (2017), Molland (2011), Serie et al. (2018),
and Webb and Burrows (2009) show that people who have committed trafficking for the sex
industry think of their actions as a way of helping others. Likewise Asbill (2017) explains that
in Bulgaria people decide to commit trafficking due to support or influence from their family
(Asbill 2017, p. 29). Hence, this study will contribute to current knowledge by giving an insight
into what motivations and factors influenced people to become involved in human trafficking
for domestic labour and the sex industry in Indonesia. These will be looked at from various
angles with consideration given to economic, socio-cultural and other relevant factors. It is
152
hoped that the resulting picture of human traffickers in Indonesia will be more nuanced than
the one that presently prevails.
The exploration undertaken in this chapter is based on themes that appeared out of the 27 semi-
structured interviews held in DKI Jakarta, West Java, and East Java with lawyers and
organisation representatives. The interviews in Indonesia indicated that the factors influencing
people to become involved in human trafficking for the sex industry and domestic labour could
be classified into four categories: economic benefit, socio-cultural influence, victim’s
behaviour, and becoming inadvertently involved in trafficking. Some of the findings are similar
to those already found in the existing literature on people involved in human trafficking,
namely economic motives (maintaining lifestyle; lack of job opportunities; easy way to make
money quickly; the temptation of big money); socio-cultural influences (lack of legal
awareness; intention to help others); and the victims’ own behaviour and influence. However
this research noted other factors and motives, such as other socio-cultural influences (to be seen
as a champion, young girls as breadwinners and a source of family pride in some places in
West Java); and becoming inadvertently involved in trafficking, which can be considered as
new findings.
This research noted that the main reason why people are involved in human trafficking in
Indonesia is for economic benefit or money. Even though this is the main motivation for most,
it is also different from the dominant idea that millions of dollars of profit are involved. There
are also some differences in the motivation of gaining financial benefit from trafficking
between people involved in trafficking in the sex industry and for domestic labour. In the sex
industry people committed trafficking for insignificant or modest amounts of money, because
of lack of other job opportunities or as an easy way to make money quickly. In contrast, those
who were involved in trafficking in domestic labour participated in the crime due to the
temptation of larger profits.
Besides economic motivation as a primary factor, there are found a number of secondary
factors for people becoming involved in human trafficking which fall under the category of
socio-cultural influence, namely lack of legal awareness and the intention to help others to get
a job. The intention to help others get a job was found more among people involved in
trafficking for domestic labour. However in some cases in parts of West Java, girls are
trafficked for the sex industry by the family due to their pride in their daughter, because it
153
implies that they are beautiful and wanted. In addition, girls in the West Java culture are also
expected to contribute as a breadwinner to the family and this pressures them to take work as
domestic workers and prostitutes, and thus makes it more likely that they will become victims
of trafficking. There are other secondary reasons that contribute to the desire to earn money,
such as the wish to maintain a certain lifestyle. Sometimes it the victim’s own behaviour that
acts as a secondary factor in making people decide to traffic others.
Lastly, another factor noted, admittedly not that significant, is the wish to be perceived as a
champion in their society as they ‘help’ people get a job. There are also the cases where people
have become inadvertently involved in trafficking without realising it. One of the contributions
of this thesis is an improved understanding of all those factors which have hitherto largely been
overlooked in the studies of human trafficking in Indonesia.
In line with the explanation given above, this chapter will be divided into six sections. After
this introduction, the traffickers’ motivation to gain economic or financial benefit is elaborated
in Section 7.2. Section 7.3 will describe those factors contributing to people’s participation in
trafficking from the angle of community attitudes and perception. Where the victims’ own
behaviour causes people to become involved in trafficking will be explained in Section 7.4.
The last factor, inadvertent involvement in trafficking, will be elaborated in Section 7.5.
7.2. Economic Benefit
There is no doubt that economic benefit is often considered as the main reason why people
commit human trafficking (Shelley 2010; Wheaton, Schauer & Galli 2010; Kara 2011; Varney
2013). Similarly, the 27 interviews conducted with lawyers and organisation representatives
show that the majority of traffickers engaged in human trafficking for economic benefit. Money
is the main factor underlying why people commit trafficking offenses and are involved in
trafficking for the sex industry and domestic labour in Indonesia. According to the studies on
human trafficking, often people engaging in trafficking for economic benefit are affected by
other economic factors, such as poverty and lack of job opportunities (Keo 2011; Broad 2013;
Shen 2016; MacCarthy 2016; Asbill 2017; Levenkron 2007), desire to maintain a lifestyle
(Shen 2016; Rijken, Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven 2015), desire to earn big profits (Levrenkon
& Codish 2007), and desire to gain money easily (Rijken, Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven 2015).
Similarly, in the 27 interviews when talking about the Indonesian traffickers’ motivations to
154
gain money the same reasons were put forward - the need to maintain their lifestyle, lack of
job opportunities, the temptation to make money easily, and the lure of big profits. Of those
four supporting factors, lack of job opportunities or the need to earn to survive, and easy money
were identified as the main factors rather than maintaining a lifestyle or earning big profits.
This section shows that three of these reasons - to maintain a lifestyle, to survive economically,
and to earn money easily applied to trafficking for both domestic labour and the sex industry.
However involvement in human trafficking in order to earn a big profit seems to be a factor
found only in human trafficking for domestic labour, as the data from the interviews does not
clearly show big profits as a reason for becoming involved in human trafficking for the sex
industry.
7.2.1. Maintaining Lifestyle
In addition to the more commonly cited economic factors like poverty that lead to people
becoming involved in trafficking, another reason to engage in trafficking that has been found
in Indonesia is to maintain a certain lifestyle. This reason was also found by Shen (2016) in
research on trafficking by women in China, and Rijken, Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven (2015)
too note that one of the reasons people are involved in human trafficking in Romania is to
improve their lifestyle (Rijken, Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven 2015, p. 54). In this particular
case of trafficking in the sex industry the lawyer who handled the case felt that the offender
already had enough resources to meet their daily needs, but she needed more money to sustain
her desired lifestyle:
Tapi saya lihat, dia memang orangnya hedon dan gayanya ‘wow’. Jadi menurut analisa saya, dia
melakukan itu karena gengsi. Teman-temannya juga bergaya seperti itu. Sehingga kalau
pekerjaannya hanya menjual pop ice, dia tidak cukup, karena bergaulnya sama orang-orang seperti
itu. Dia juga mengakui kalau dia sebenarnya tidak berniat menjual, tapi butuh untuk gaya hidup.
(Lawyer #2)
In English: I saw that she is a kind of hedonist and had an intense fashion style. So according to my analysis,
she did it because of prestige. Her peers also behaved like that. So, if her job was only selling
milkshakes, it will not be enough for her, because she socialised with those kind of people. She also
confessed that she did not intend to trade the girl. But she needed to do it to sustain her lifestyle.
(Lawyer #2)
As the lawyer explains it, the offender trafficked a girl for sex services to maintain a certain
lifestyle. The offender was seeking money to pursue a more comfortable lifestyle because of
155
the influence of her peers. While her basic daily needs were met, she needed more income to
maintain the higher lifestyle that she wanted.
In like manner, people also became involved in human trafficking for domestic labour because
they were influenced by their neighbours or friends who had became successful as a result of
trafficking and could buy the things that they dreamed of. So those people started to imitate the
behaviour of their peers by trafficking others. As described in interview by a lawyer:
Jadi ada pengaruh orang lain tentunya, biasanya dari kawan-kawannya yang sudah sukses. Yang
tadinya tidak punya apa-apa, sekarang punya apa-apa. Tadinya tidak punya motor, sekarang punya
motor baru. Kan jadi tertarik ya.(Lawyer #5)
In English: So, surely there is an influence from other people, normally from those who already successful.
Those who had been poor and had now become rich. Those who did not have a motorcycle, and
now have a new motorcycle. So that was attractive to them. (Lawyer #5)
As the lawyer implies, some people were tempted to become involved in trafficking as they
saw the success and the changes in lifestyle it had brought their neighbours, as exemplified by
owning a new motorcycle. The improvement in lifestyle of their peers pushed them to take up
the same activity i.e. trafficking.
7.2.2. Lack of Job Opportunities
Research on human traffickers in Europe shows that people become traffickers due to the
economic conditions in their country such as widespread poverty or lack of job opportunities
(Asbill 2017, p. ii). Similarly, research in various countries also shows that traffickers
themselves participated in human trafficking out of desperation due to unemployment or
poverty. There are examples from the research by Shen (2016) on child trafficking in China
where the traffickers were poor peasant workers and farmers; from Keo (2011) on people
undertaking human trafficking in Cambodia due to poverty and destitution; from Broad (2013)
on human trafficking in the UK carried out by immigrants who were finding it difficult to
obtain a livelihood and the means to survive; from McCarthy (2019) on child trafficking in
Russia, where parents would sell their child due to financial difficulties; and from Levenkron
(2007) on human traffickers in Israel who experienced financial hardship and bankruptcy
before they began trafficking.
The semi-structured interviews with organisation representatives and lawyers in Indonesia
revealed that human traffickers in Indonesia also participated in the offense for economic
156
survival, and that this applied to both forms of human trafficking. One underlying factor is
difficulty in finding a proper job. Some participants talked about the experience of traffickers
in the sex industry that decided to traffic others due to economic hardship and the difficulty of
finding a job. Sometimes the traffickers had a job before trafficking but the income from those
jobs was not enough to live on.
Ya awalnya memang mereka sulit mencari pekerjaan. Mereka memiliki pekerjaan tapi tidak
mencukupi (Lawyer #1)
In English: It started when they felt it difficult to find a job. They had a job but it was not enough to meet their
daily needs (Lawyer #1)
Iya, latar belakangnya karena ekonomi. Karena susah cari kerja dan cari mata pencaharian. Jadi
mereka cari cara gampang dengan menjual anak orang. Uangnya dapat, semuanya dapat. (Lawyer
#2)
In English: Yes, the background is economic. He had difficulty finding a job and making a living. So he took
an easy way by selling girls. He got money and everything by doing that. (Lawyer #2).
Just as in trafficking for the sex industry, other participants also identified the shortage of job
opportunities and lack of economic resources as trigger factors for why people decided to
become involved in trafficking for domestic labour.
Karena himpitan ekonomi, lapangan pekerjaanpun tidak ada. Apapun cara untuk mendapatkan uang
pasti mereka lakukan. (Lawyer #11)
In English:
Due to economic pressure, and there was no job opportunity available. So they do anything they
can to get money. (Lawyer #11)
In some parts of Indonesia, the general education level is low and this affects the ability of
people to get a proper job. Due to their lack of education, it is more difficult for them to get a
job or start a new business. The low average income in areas like this makes people choose to
get involved in trafficking.
Secara teknis, mungkin karena rata-rata tingkat pendapatan masih rendah. Ini sangat berpengaruh
secara ekonomi. (ORG #11)
In English: Technically, maybe because the average income level is low, and it affects their economic ability.
(ORG #11)
A lawyer talked about repeat offenders who commit the offense more than once because of the
difficulty to find a proper job after they are released from the jail:
157
Setelah keluar penjara biasanya mereka berfikir “Aduh cari kerja itu susah, ya sudah coba-coba lagi
lah. Mudah-mudahan aman”. (Lawyer #5)
In English: After released from the prison, they normally think that finding a job is a hard thing, so they will
try to do it again (traffic others) and hope this time they are safe. (Lawyer #5)
It means that the lack of job opportunities also affects whether people becoming recidivists.
The lack of jobs not only inspires people to participate in trafficking but can also bring people
to reoffending after they are released from the prison. Therefore, increasing job availability and
job skills should become a high priority in any efforts to prevent human trafficking. The lack
of job opportunities and limited family incomes have tempted people to participate in
trafficking, both for domestic labour and for sex trafficking. In Indonesia, this lack of job
opportunities also leads to people seeking work outside their town or overseas and that makes
them susceptible to being trafficked, when others who have decided to stay in their home town
can easily took advantage of their situation by participating in human trafficking.
7.2.3. Easy Way to Make Money Quickly
As seen in the research by Rijken, Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven (2015), some interview
participants also noted that trafficking in human beings can be a shortcut to getting money.
Rijken, Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven (2015) describe participation in human trafficking as an
opportunity to earn money easily just by sitting in a train for no more than a few hours (Rijken,
Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven 2015, p. 54). The people who committed the offense normally
want to gain money quickly and easily, and through something that does not require hard work.
Two interview participants talked about how people in Indonesia are motivated to traffic others
for the sex industry in order to gain money easily:
Adakalanya dia ingin pekerjaan yang ringan, tapi gajinya besar untuk mencukupi kebutuhannya
yang sesuai dengan lingkungannya. Sedangkan dia tidak mencukupi dari taraf pendidikan (Lawyer
#1)
In English:
Sometimes she wanted an easy job but with a high income that could meet her standards.
Meanwhile her education level does not support that. (Lawyer #1)
In another case, a lawyer explained why an offender would prefer to traffic, rather than
undertake other forms of more laborious work:
Kemungkinan dia sudah keenakan karena tidak merasa capek melakukan hal itu (Lawyer #9)
In English:
158
Possibly he felt comfortable as he was not feeling physically tired from doing that. (Lawyer #9)
Similarly, the traffickers in domestic labour also committed their offenses because they could
get money easily rather than by working hard.
Ketika mereka memperkerjakan, apalagi memalsukan data, mereka tau bahwa itu adalah unsur
tindak pidana. Mereka mau melakukan karena tergiur dengan gampangnya mereka menganggap
cari uang. Mereka tidak mau kerja yang legal. (Lawyer #5)
In English: When they employed the people and falsified their data, they knew that it was a criminal offense.
They were willing to do that because they were tempted by the idea of gaining money easily. They
don’t want a legitimate job. (Lawyer #5).
Further, he also informed that:
Mereka tertarik dengan gampangnya mendapatkan uang dengan merekrut. Tinggal mengiming-
imingi, mencari orang, dan menyerahkan, mereka sudah mendapat sekian. (Lawyer #5).
In English:
They were tempted by the ease of gaining money by recruiting others. They just induced people,
got people who needed a job, and handed them over. They already earned money by doing that.
(Lawyer #5).
These examples above reveal that some people were inspired to take up human trafficking
because it allows them to gain money easily. As one interview participant said, all the people
committing trafficking had to do to earn some money was recruit the victims and hand them
over to someone else. They are happy to do this, as they do not need to do any hard work
(Lawyer #9).
7.2.4. Big Profits
As a serious crime, it has been reported that human trafficking has generated billions in profit
for the traffickers (Keo 2011; Belser 2005; FATF-APG 2018; Kara 2009; Aronowitz,
Theuermann & Tyurykanova 2010). While some academics and practitioners dispute that this
applies in all cases (Keo 2011; Molland 2014; Bouhours et al. 2012), in some cases the amounts
of money to be earned still make it an attractive choice. For example, research by Levrenkon
& Codish (2007) shows that some traffickers chose to commit trafficking because they wanted
to be rich (Levrenkon & Codish 2007, p. 76). The same thing also happens in Indonesia where
the large amounts of money, far beyond the average wage, encourage people to participate in
trafficking. However, as explained in the previous chapter, in Indonesia the higher rates of
income from trafficking are mostly received by people from trafficking for domestic labour,
and the people trafficking in the sex industry normally earn less money. Therefore, the
159
temptations of big profits do not appear to be the main reason for them to traffic others for the
sex industry.
Some participants revealed how people were attracted by the amount of money they would
earn if they were involved in trafficking for domestic labour.
Kembali lagi ke masalah ekonomi. Dengan uang 2200 USD, itu sangat menggiurkan bagi dia.
Mungkin itu yang melatarbelakangi. (Lawyer #4)
In English: Back to the economic problem. 2200 USD is very tempting for her. Maybe that is the underlying
reason. (Lawyer #4)
Others described how big a profit the traffickers make by calculating how many people they
have successfully recruited. For example:
Kalau dia bisa meyakinkan orang yang mau pergi, dia mendapat 500 ribu. Kalau dapat sepuluh
kira-kira dia akan mendapat lima juta. Jadi berfikirnya seperti itu. (ORG #7)
In English: If he can convince a person to go, he will get 500 thousand rupiahs. If he gets ten, that means he
will get five million rupiahs. So that is the way he thinks. (ORG #7)
As described in the previous chapter, the traffickers earn a significant amount of money for
successfully recruiting people, as they get paid for each person they are able to recruit. Another
participant expressed the opinion that the profit they earn makes them forgot that they are
trading a human being:
Beberapa orang masa bodoh, yang penting keuntungan besar. Karena bisa kami simpulkan, ini
adalah sebuah bisnis yang menggiurkan. Tapi dia lupa yang diperdagangkan itu siapa, yang
dibawa itu siapa? Manusia. (ORG #3)
In English: Some people just don’t care as long as they can earn a big profit. Because we can see that this is a
lucrative business. However, do they forgot what they are trading, the one they are transporting?
A human. (ORG #3)
The statements above describe people becoming involved in human trafficking for domestic
labour with the intention of earning a big profit. On the other hand, it is rare to see people in
human trafficking for the sex industry in Indonesia with the aim of earning big money. Most
of those engaged in trafficking for the sex industry are driven by poverty and the need to secure
a livelihood.
160
7.3. Socio-Cultural Influences
In Indonesia, there are socio-cultural conditions within the society that have influenced
individuals to participate in human trafficking. People were inspired to become involved and
participate in this crime due to a particular perception in their society which made trafficking
somehow seen as a non-harmful act and even in some cases a good deed. The socio-cultural
factors leading to trafficking appear in the majority of the interviews, and apply to both forms
of human trafficking. In this chapter, how social and cultural influences affect the decision of
people to become involved in trafficking will be explained in four aspects: a lack of legal
knowledge so that many people were not aware that their actions constitute human trafficking;
helping others to get a job; to be seen as a champion; and a situation only found in West Java
where the daughter is seen as a breadwinner and a source of family pride.
Lack of legal awareness as an influence on people committing human trafficking apparently
happens in both human trafficking for domestic labour and for the sex industry. The motivation
to help others find work, and to be seen as a saviour are also equally applicable to those who
are involved in human trafficking in domestic labour and for the sex industry. The perspective
that a girl is a breadwinner in the family also brings people, even family members, to put the
girl in the family into trafficking for domestic labour and the sex industry. However, the other
motivation, that of pride in the daughter’s beauty, is only a consideration for trafficking in the
sex industry. The perception of a girl as a breadwinner in the family, and a girl as a matter of
pride in the family because they are in demand and beautiful are considered as major factors in
why people in West Java are particularly involved in trafficking for the sex industry.
7.3.1. Lack of Legal Awareness
Lack of legal awareness has brought people to commit human trafficking offenses in Indonesia.
In this case, a lack of legal awareness is defined as a situation where the traffickers did not
realise that what they did constituted a human trafficking offense. Similarly, a study of
convicted human traffickers in the US by Shively et al. (2017) reveals that the vast majority of
offenders did not believe that their actions constituted human trafficking, and the traffickers
sought to justify what they had done by blaming others and rationalising their own behaviour
(Shively 2017, p. 18).
161
The majority of interview participants were of the opinion that many traffickers did not know
or may not have known the action they did was an act of human trafficking or that they were a
participant in that crime. This lack of awareness regarding human trafficking was apparent in
both forms of trafficking, for domestic labour as well as for the sex industry.
Some participants expressed the view that lack of education among the traffickers has led to
misinformation and a lack of understanding of what it is meant by human trafficking. As one
NGO representative explained:
Si pelaku kadang sadar atau tidak bahwa dia adalah pelaku trafficking, karena keterbatasan sumber
daya manusia. Kadang-kadang dia tidak mengetahui bahwa dia adalah pelaku trafficking. (ORG
#11)
In English:
The perpetrators were sometimes unaware that they were committing a trafficking offense, because
of their limited knowledge and capacity. Sometimes they did not know that they are trafficking
perpetrators (ORG #11)
Although there is still a general lack of understanding about human trafficking among people,
one organisation representative felt that people had gained a greater understanding of what
constitutes human trafficking than before:
Jadi untuk saat ini sudah mulai muncul kesadaran itu. Kalau dulu-dulu mereka mungkin belum
melihat itu sebagai suatu kejahatan, ya. Dua atau tiga tahun lalu itu mungkin masih banyak yang
belum paham dengan hal itu. (ORG #4)
In English:
So nowadays awareness (about human trafficking) has increased. Before, they probably did not see
it as an offense. Two or three years ago maybe many people still did not understand about it. (ORG
#4)
According to one participant the trafficking offenders in the sex industry were likely to think
that their action did not constitute human trafficking, because it was mutually beneficial for
both them and the victims. They claimed that the victims also enjoy what they are doing (suka
sama suka) and there was no coercion placed on the victims (Lawyer #10). In another case,
another offender justified their actions in that they were only looking for a person to work in
their own business and so did not think that it was human trafficking (Lawyer #3). One lawyer
said that his client who worked in a red-light industry area as a brothel manager never thought
that he was committing a human trafficking offense because he thinks that what he did is legal
in that area (Lawyer #9). Other offenders claimed that they did not traffic people, but only
“offered” them to those who wanted to use their services (Lawyer #2).
162
Two lawyers told about a situation where the trafficker thought that she had not trafficked a
girl because the trafficker also enjoyed the work:
Dia melakukan praktek itu, karena pengalaman dia dulu seperti itu. Nggak maksa orang, nggak ada
unsur pemaksaan. Suka sama suka ya sudah. Nggak ada komplain, nggak ada pemaksaan.
Dipikirnya sesuatu yang tidak melalui pemaksaan itu tidak melanggar hukum. Pemahamannya rata-
rata seperti itu. (Lawyer #10)
In English: She committed that practice (recruiting others to sex industry) because she has experienced it before
(as a prostitute). She did not coerce the victim, there is no coercion element. She thought that the
victim was also enjoying it. There is no complain from the victim, there is no coercion. She thought
that something that is not using coercion does not break the law. That kind of understanding is what
most people have. (Lawyer #10)
The offender's own experience in sex industry has made her decide to traffic a girl. As the
lawyer said, the offender confessed that she trafficked the girl without coercion and because
she did not use any coercion during the trafficking process, she thought that her actions were
not illegal.
In another case, an offender offered the justification that she was only looking for a girl who
wanted to work and had no intention to traffic her. As her lawyer said:
Klien saya sebenarnya tidak tahu menahu. Dia hanya mencari saja sebenarnya. Begitu. (Lawyer #3)
In English: My client did not know the problem. She was only looking for someone to work. That’s it.(Lawyer
#3)
Further, the lawyer also said that she did not realise she had done anything illegal until the
police came to her house and apprehended her. So far the offender had only been looking for
someone who could be a sex worker in the café, as asked for by the café owner. Little did she
know that her actions constituted human trafficking. Similarly, another lawyer said that two
trafficking offenders justified their actions and explained that they only “offer” a girl to the
clients who want to use her services. One of the offenders explained it like this:
“Maaf ya bu, saya tidak tahu tindak pidana perdagangan orang itu apa. Yang saya tau saya tidak
menjual, hanya menawarkan.” kata klien saya. (Lawyer #2)
In English: “Sorry mam, I do not know what human trafficking is. What I know is I did not sell, I only offered
them to the people who wanted their services” said my client. (Lawyer #2)
This lack of understanding of the rule of law among sex traffickers can also happen as they live
in the sex industry area or sometimes called a red-light district. A lawyer explained that his
client felt that he had not committed an offense because that kind of activity that exploits
163
women and girls is common in that area. Therefore, he did not feel that he broke the law, as he
thought that it was something that was perfectly acceptable to people in that area. The lawyer
explains why his client engaged in trafficking, making reference to a well-known red-light
district in Surabaya, known as Dolly:
Karena di sana sudah dianggap legal kalau menurut pemahaman mereka. Sudah jadi budaya untuk
di sana. Karena di situ lingkungan prostitusi, sama seperti Dolly. (Lawyer #9)
In English:
Because according to their understanding, that activity is considered legal in that area. It is already
entrenched there. Because that is a prostitution area like Dolly. (Lawyer #9)
From his explanation, it seems that to recruit a girl or woman and pay them very little in return
is common in that red-light area. Therefore, the trafficker did not feel that he had committed a
trafficking offense. Instead, he thought that what he had done was legal because that activity
was well entrenched and had been the custom in that area for a long time.
The area or complex where the trafficker ran his business was in the Tretes area of Malang city
in East Java. Tretes has been a place where many young girls work in the sex industry, which
means it has also been a destination for young girls who have been trafficked for the sex
industry. Because the prostituted workers are young, this area has been famous for charging
high tariffs (ILO 2004, p. 36). Trafficking for the sex industry is a common occurrence in East
Java. The prostituted workers in the sex industry complexes in East Java are often on rotation
from one place to another, perhaps even being sent to another province. One of the reasons for
this is to diversify the options for the buyers (Dasgupta et al. 2006, p. 179 - 182).
According to the law, prostitution is illegal in Indonesia. However, implementation of the law
is often regionally specific. The policy response in regard to the prostitution tends to be left in
the hands of local government on the assumption that local government can better understand
the complexity of the sex industry in their area than the national government. Hence, national
guidance is not utilised in the policy action and decision making process (Riswanda, McIntyre-
Mills & Corcoran-Nantes 2017, p. 535). Also, the strict letter of the law to criminalise
prostitution conflicts with its tacit acceptance by society in areas where the prostitution
complexes are located (Riswanda 2015, p. 29).
To complicate matters the New Order government had also promoted the establishment of sex
industry complexes, the so-called lokalisasi. Lokalisasi were set up in the early 1960s as a way
164
to promote social discipline and control. In those complexes, large number of brothels lined
the streets and were maintained by the local government (Hull 2017, p. 79), These became an
important aspect of the sex industry in Indonesia (Rosenberg et al. 2013, p. 64), and at the same
time supported the emergence of human trafficking of women and young girls. Many girls have
plied their trade in these kinds of sex industry complexes since they were 15 or 16 years old
and are subject to debt bondage (Rosenberg et al. 2013, p. 84). The government has been
closing down lokalisasi throughout the country since 2014 and returning thousands of
prostituted workers to their families in line with the government plan to be free from lokalisasi
by 2019.
As in trafficking for the sex industry, people participating or involved in trafficking for
domestic labour often felt that they had not committed a human trafficking offense, because of
their lack of legal awareness and their limited understanding of human trafficking. Likewise
those involved in trafficking for domestic labour often said that they only "employ", or "help"
the process to allow the victims to work overseas or in other provinces. A lawyer’s view, from
a lawyer who handled trafficking cases like this:
Beberapa orang bilang, “saya hanya mencari pembantu rumah tangga. Saya carikan dan saya kasih
(ke agent).” Mereka berfikir hanya menunjukan atau mencari, padahal mereka masuk dalam
pelanggaran hukum. (Lawyer #7)
In English: Some people said, "I just sought for a domestic worker. I tried to find and handed them over (to the
agent)." They think only showing or finding someone who wanted to work was okay, but in fact it
was a violation of the law. (Lawyer #7)
The statement from the lawyer above shows that some of those who participated as recruiters
in trafficking for domestic labour think that they are only trying to search out a person who
intends to work as a domestic worker. In many cases, they did not realise that they are involved
in or participating in a human trafficking offense. Other justifications are given such as
employing people instead of trafficking them:
“Saya tidak menjual, hanya memperkerjakan.”, kata mereka. Padahal itu mengekspoitasi. (Lawyer
#7)
In English:
“I did not traffic, I only employ them," they said. But actually, that was exploitation. (Lawyer #7)
A lawyer did say that the recruiters too are sometimes the victims, when the person who
engaged them knows that what is being asked for is illegal but the recruiter doesn’t know that
they are participating in trafficking and committing an offense. This lawyer gave an example
165
of a situation where her client did not know that what she did was a human trafficking offense.
The only thing she knew was how much money she got if she could recruit a person.
Dia adalah korban ketidaktahuan dari orang yang tau, dari orang yang menyuruh. Ya dia nggak
tau apakah pekerjaan yang saya lakukan ini melanggar hukum, melanggar undang-undang atau
bahkan ketika bahkan mereka tidak tau sangsinya. Tapi yang mereka tahu adalah berapa hasil
yang saya dapat ketika merekrut satu orang. Hal tersebut dijadikan sumber penghasilan tapi dia
nggak tau resikonya. Itu yang kemudian menjadi penilaian kita. (Lawyer #4)
In English: She was a victim of lack of knowledge while the people who asked her to do that were aware it
was human trafficking,. She did not know whether her job was legal or not, whether it breaks the
law or not, she did not even know the consequence. The only thing she knew was how much
money she will receive if she can recruit one person. That finally became her income, but she did
not know the risk. So, it is important for our assessment. (Lawyer #4)
In conclusion, a lack of legal awareness that led people to traffic others occurred in both forms
of trafficking in Indonesia. Hence, it is important that in the future there is an attempt to
improve people’s legal awareness and understanding of human trafficking, not just to prevent
people from being the victims but also to discourage participation of people in the offense.
In criminal law, there are two elements in a crime, the actus reus, and the mens rea. These
originate from the Latin phrase, ‘Actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea' which means that
a man is not liable for his guilty acts unless he also acts with a guilty mind (Carr & Johnson
2013, p. 33). Both elements, the actus reus (the physical elements) and the mens rea (the mental
elements) are needed for an accused to be found responsible for a criminal offense (UNODC
2009, p. 19). In human trafficking, the actions and means elements of human trafficking are
considered as the actus reus of the offense, while the purpose of exploitation is regarded as the
mens rea (Gallagher 2010; Demetriou 2019). The requirement of a mental element such as the
intent to exploit the other person is needed in prosecution of human trafficking cases. In other
word a person needs to intend to "exploit" the victims to commit an offense. This is what the
lawyer above is referring to when he says “It is important for our assessment.”
The Trafficking Protocol requires that countries only criminalise people for human trafficking
when they did it intentionally as per Article 5(1). However, countries are not hindered from
allowing the mens rea requirement to be established on a lesser standard, such as via criminal
negligence, recklessness, and wilful blindness (UNODC 2009, p. 11). Therefore, in the case of
Indonesia, as long as the perpetrators understand that they are participating in the recruitment
process and getting a benefit from that, and know that their method of recruitment is illegal,
166
they will be considered as ‘understanding’ their participation in trafficking and convicted as
guilty, although they have no understanding on what human trafficking is (Lawyer #7).
7.3.2. Helping Others
The research by Serie et al. (2018) on sex trafficking reveals that the nature of the offender-
victim relationship in the Netherlands can be described as a "helping relationship", in which
the traffickers present themselves as persons who help the victims by providing them protection
with a place to sleep and provide for their needs (Serie et al. 2017, p. 173). Similarly, Molland
(2011) on his study on sex traffickers in Laos, also describes that the personal engagement
between the traffickers and victims allows the recruitment to occur in the form of helping. For
the traffickers, recruiting a girl or woman into the sex industry is a way to help them to escape
from poverty (Molland 2011, p. 244). Cases where the traffickers were involved in trafficking
because their intention was to help the victims can also be found in the studies of Rijken,
Muraszkiewicz and Van de Ven (2015), David, Bryant and Larsen (2019), David (2012),
Antonopoulos and Winterdyk (2005), and Shively et al. (2017).
These situations in previous studies where the traffickers claim their actions are helping the
victims have similarities to the situation in Indonesia. Some traffickers said that they were
helping others find a job, not trafficking others. In Indonesia this perspective of helping others
is mainly put forward by human traffickers in domestic labour. This is the opposite result to
the research by Serie et al. (2017) and Molland (2011) who looked at human trafficking for the
sex industry where the traffickers recruited the victims and rationalised it as a form of helping.
Twelve participants in my study expressed the view that the traffickers were initially aiming to
help someone to get a job by participating in the recruitment process. Eleven of these were
involved in trafficking for domestic labour. How the traffickers aimed to help others was
explained as follows:
Kadang-kadang tetangga minta tolong carikan orang sekian nanti saya kasih uang. Tanpa berfikir
panjang, mereka sudah menjadi pelaku ketika dia merekrut, mengiming imingi dan mendapat
bayaran dari orang yang tadi yang butuh. (ORG #12)
In English: Sometimes, the neighbour ask them to help to find a person who intends to work, and they received
some payment after finding someone. Without really thinking about it, they have already become a
perpetrator when they recruited, induced, and got some payment from that.(ORG #12)
167
A lawyer also explained that these traffickers in domestic labour actually did not know
anything about what human trafficking is. They got involved to help others get a job while also
gaining some benefit from that themselves.
Dia tidak ada sifat jahat sebetulnya. Dia tidak tau perdagangan manusia itu seperti apa, dia hanya
mencari jalan pintas untuk membantu seseorang yang mana dia juga mencari keuntungan dari itu.
(Lawyer #10)
In English: They did not have any evil characteristics actually. They did not know what human trafficking is.
They only tried to help others while also looking to benefit from that activity. (Lawyer #10)
This attempt to help others normally happened within a community, where people wanted to
help their neighbour find work overseas in domestic labour. As mentioned in the statements
above, the intent to help was accompanied by a desire to get compensation from doing that. So
in many cases, the traffickers were also involved in the falsification of documents, to hide the
age, address, or other important information about the victims. The traffickers expected that by
falsifying the documents they were accelerating and simplifying the process to “help” their
neighbour start work overseas. They took the view that “it is not a big problem as long as you
can go overseas and work there” and falsifying documents was part of helping their neighbour
(Lawyer #10). In justifying what they did as helping others, they did not think that they might
be breaking the law (ORG #10), or even becoming involved with dangerous international
syndicates (ORG #11).
The impulse to help also came from people who have a defined role in the society, such as
religious leaders. They naturally wanted to help people in the community or their congregation
find work:
Dulu, dua atau tiga tahun lalu, tokoh-tokoh agama di Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) secara finansial
juga terlibat karena awalnya mereka berfikir mereka membantu. Membantu orang-orang di sana,
tetapi karena awalnya mereka nggak paham situasinya, akhirnya banyak yang menyesalkan karena
mereka mengirim atau menyuruh orang ke tempat salah atau berbahaya. (ORG #4)
In English: Previously, two or three years ago, religious leaders in East Nusa Tenggara were also involved
financially because they thought that they were helping. Helping people in there. But because
initially they did not understand what’s happening, they regretted that they sent or asked people to
go to wrong or dangerous places. (ORG #4)
Community leaders or religious leaders would often participate in the trafficking process
because fo the lack of job opportunities in their community. Being empathetic with the people
in the village or the members of their church, those community and religious leaders were
168
trying to find a way to help and unfortunately often got trapped themselves into aiding human
trafficking activity (ORG #4; ORG #7; ORG #14).
Some of the ex-domestic workers overseas who returned to Indonesia also claimed that they
were just helping others to work overseas as they had when they were convicted of human
trafficking. A woman who worked for many years in one of the Middle Eastern country wanted
to help people in her village to working there, due to the good experience she had had when
working in that country. However, as she was working with people who had bad intentions,
what she did was a trafficking offense without her realising it (Lawyer #4).
On the other hand, there is only a little amount of proof that any of the people who supported
trafficking in the sex industry did so purely with an intention to help others get a job. As stated
by a lawyer who assisted a client on sex trafficking charges, it is difficult to say that an offender
in sex trafficking had good intentions, because they should have known that putting someone
into the sex industry in this way would not be in the victim’s best interests. He explained that:
Perdagangan orang untuk tenaga kerja imigran tidak sama dengan kasus mak Tuti ya. Kalau kasus
mak Tuti jelas permasalahannya. Kalau yang ini bisa dikatakan punya sifat jahat, karena dia sudah
tau kalau yang dia jalani itu adalah pekerjaan yang dilarang, apalagi dia menyuruh anak kecil
melakukan hal itu. Tapi kalau trafficking bentuk lain mungkin karena ketidaktahuan. (Lawyer #10)
In English:
Trafficking for the purpose of migrant labour is not the same with the case of madam Tuti. The
Madam Tuti case is clear. We can say that she has a bad intention, because she knew that what she
did is an unlawful act. Moreover she did that to a minor. In contrary, trafficking in other forms might
be because of ignorance. (Lawyer #10)
Nevertheless, a participant admitted that one sex trafficking offender had actually intended to
help someone get a job and finished by participating in human trafficking. Knowing that the
victim needed a job, she helped her find work at a café which turned into making the girl
participate in providing sex services. As her lawyer described:
Karena dia sebenarnya hanya menolong korban. Menurut korban, dia tidak ada pekerjaan, dia
broken dikeluarganya, dan baru putus sama pacarnya. Jadi dia hanya memerantarakan sebenarnya.
(Lawyer #3).
In English: Because she actually just helped the victims. According to the victim, she did not have a job, she
was the product of a broken home, and she just broke up with her boyfriend. So my client actually
just connected her to (café owner) to get a job. (Lawyer #3)
Therefore, although it is rare, it is still possible to find an offender in a case of sex trafficking
whose initial intention was to help others get a job. Those who intended to help others either
169
did not realise that the persons they helped would end up working in a situation involving sex
work, or because the victim herself was pushing strongly for it to happen..
On the other side, the victims and their families would often start out feeling very much helped
by the traffickers. As the traffickers use a gentle approach with inducements and giving false
hope, and also giving some money, they feel that the traffickers are helping them. As an
organisation representative said, the victims and the family felt comfortable with this approach
because the traffickers offered some help such as giving money, even on the first time they met
(ORG #11).
7.3.3. Seen as a Champion
Where people commit human trafficking offenses with an initial intent of helping others get a
job, that intent can be strengthened because the community then believes that the trafficker is
now their champion; the word in Indonesia is pahlawan, which is not straightforward to
translate, and the closest English word is something like champion or hero. This word was
used to describe some traffickers who believe that they are saving other people’s lives or saving
people from poverty. The traffickers, instead of feeling bad because they are leading people
into a trafficking situation, feel like they are a champion who can help others get a job. Three
participants in this research talked about this phenomenon where the community sees the
traffickers as their champions because they help people to get a job even though it may lead to
trafficking, and in the same way the traffickers also feel like they are champions because they
can “help” people. The interview participants who identified this phenomenon are those who
have dealt with human trafficking for the sex industry and domestic labour in West Java.
Although there is some indication that traffickers are more motivated to commit trafficking
due to this perception as a champion, it is not the main or even an important factor in why they
engage in trafficking. It is worth noting that this phenomenon applies both for those who are
trafficking for domestic labour as well as those trafficking for the sex industry. To the best of
my knowledge, there is no research on trafficking perpetrators in other countries that talks
about traffickers feeling motivated to engage in trafficking because they get perceived as a
champion.
One organisation representative in Cirebon, West Java said that in his area traffickers normally
used a subtle approach to attract their victims. They see the situation in an area or village where
170
people are in a vulnerable position due to unemployment or lack of economic opportunities.
When they come and offer some help, they will automatically be seen as a champion. The
representative explained how the traffickers think:
Kalau saya datang menawarkan sesuatu itu pasti dianggap pahlawan. Misal saya datang ke desa lalu
saya bilang “ada nggak orang-orang yang mau bekerja untuk ini?” Nah sementara kan banyak sekali
yang menganggur. Jadi kalau saya datang itu bukan dianggap dicurigai. Kebanyakan tidak. “Ya
sudah kerjanya di mana, siapkan ketentuannya apa.” Paling begitu. Jadi ketika datang ke desa itu,
saya jadi pahlawan kalau merekrut. Hampir tidak berfikir untuk curiga atau apa. Mungkin yang
berfikir curiga adalah orang-orang yang yang berpendidikan. (ORG #7)
In English:
If I were to come and offer something, I would be seen as a champion. For example, I come to the
village and ask if anybody in this village wants to work. Meanwhile, there are plenty of people
jobless there. So if I come, I would not be suspected. But they will ask me: “Where is the working
place, and what do we need to do to prepare?” Just like that. So, if I come to the village, I will be a
champion if I recruit people. Nobody suspects me. Maybe those who are better educated might
suspect me.” (ORG #7)
So the traffickers are looking for situations where people in a village desperately need work.
As mentioned before, the community sees them as a champion because they have brought hope
to the people in the form of job offers, and they in turn feel that they have done a good deed by
saving people from their lack of opportunity. While most people did not think twice about the
job offer because they need it, those who are more educated might be able to see it as a
something that is not right. Those educated people would normally give advice to the particular
families who got an offer. They might ask them to think twice about the job offer, figure out
the nature of the job, the employer, contracts, and other essential things to avoid the possibility
of fraud (ORG #7).
The feeling of being a champion was also experienced by the traffickers in Bongas village,
Indramayu, West Java, a regular source of trafficking for the sex industry. A participant from
an NGO there who was himself an ex-trafficker explained that a recruiter was considered a
good job and that’s why people wanted to do it. When he was working as a recruiter he was
able to find the girls work in the sex industry, which made him very happy because he could
offer them a job and this made him feel like a champion. Becoming a trafficker there was
equated with being a government officer because they felt they were doing a worthwhile job
from being able to help people while also earning a good amount of money. Hence, being a
trafficker was something that some people were proud of in that community (ORG #6). This
statement from one of the NGO representatives describes how a trafficker feels like a champion
because they can help the girls and their families:
171
Dulu, ketika Pak Sugi bisa mengajak mereka ke Jakarta untuk menjadi pekerja seks komersial
(PSK), sangat senang dan bangga karena bisa memberikan pekerjaan dengan penghasilan yang
lumayan bagus sehingga merasa dirinya menjadi pahlawan atas keluarga mereka. Begitupun
sebaliknya, keluarga para PSK berterima kasih karena telah mencarikan pekerjaan terhadap anaknya
dengan penghasilan yang lumayan bagus dan bisa menghidupi keluarga di rumah.(ORG #6)
In English:
Before, when Mr Sugi (the former trafficker) was able to bring girls to Jakarta to work as prostitutes,
he was happy and proud because he can arrange a job that according to him would also bring in
enough money for them. Therefore, he felt like he is a champion for the girls’ families, and vice
versa the girls’ families were also thankful to him because he helped them to find a job for the girl
that gave her the ability to support her family. (ORG #6)
The case above describes the situation in Indramayu area, where the families were eager to
‘sell’ their daughters into sex industry as it is a belief within the community there that when
people want to “buy” their daughters, it means that the daughters are beautiful and in demand.
Hence, they will see the work of the recruiters or traffickers as an heroic act as they are helping
the girls find work in the sex industry.
A similar thing was also asserted by an NGO participant in Sukabumi. Some traffickers would
feel that they are champions because they can offer people a job somewhere else, even if it is
in domestic labour or forced labour. On the other hand, the victims too think that the traffickers
are champions because they feel they were helped by them. Often, because the victims are
closely related to the traffickers and feel indebted to them for their help, they will protect these
traffickers from prosecution and think that what they experience was only a case of bad luck
(ORG #11). This situation was described by her as follows:
Para perekrut mula-mula merasa seperti pahlawan. Namun, ketika terungkap bahwa itu kasus
trafficking, mereka akan berkilah bahwa mereka hanya menolong. Korban juga biasanya merasa
tertolong dan menganggap perekrut adalah pahlawan. Bahkan saat terungkap bahwa itu adalah
kasus trafficking, tidak jarang korban melindungi trafficker dan cenderung menganggap bahwa apa
yang dialaminya adalah nasib buruk yang harus diterima. Apalagi banyak trafficker yang memiliki
hubungan dekat dengan korban. (ORG #11)
In English:
The recruiters initially felt like champions. But when it is revealed that it is a trafficking case, they
will justify that they were only helping them. The victims normally also had the feeling of being
helped and assumed that the traffickers are champions. Even, when it is revealed that what happened
is a trafficking case, some victims protected the traffickers instead and assumed that what happened
to them was bad luck that should be accepted. This is exacerbated by the fact that victims often have
a close relationship with the traffickers. (ORG #11)
172
7.3.4. Daughter as a Breadwinner and Source of Family Pride in West Java
One of the unique aspects among the motivations and perspectives of traffickers in Indonesia
when compared to other places is the belief in some places that a beautiful daughter is a source
of pride to the family, as well as a breadwinner that can support the family. These beliefs have
become a strong influence for family members particularly parents to put their daughter into
trafficking. There may be similar cases in other developing countries but so far there is a very
little research on human traffickers in other countries that addresses an issue like this. Poverty
and gender injustice in West Java have brought young girls into the sex industry, and make
their families active participants in human trafficking.
In some areas in West Java, a girl can be considered as an important family breadwinner whose
role it to fulfil the needs of the family, including her siblings (ORG #16). Iqbal and Gusman
(2015) stated that this perception of girls as a family asset is a driver for women working abroad
as migrant labour. In parts of West Java such as the Indramayu regency it is common for young
girls to become female migrant workers to support their families financially. This has been
explained by one interview participant, who said that the daughter has to serve the family and
become the backbone of the family. Therefore, every time a family has a baby girl, they are
happier than if they had a baby boy. The girl is considered ready to serve the family after she
has had her first menstruation (ORG #16). One unfortunate situation was described by my
participant as follows:
Ada satu kasus yang kita sebut dia ‘A’. Dia ini di paksa dijual sama neneknya dari usia 12-13 tahun
selama berapa tahun, untuk melayani laki – laki, 10 sampai 15 laki – laki. Salah satu tujuannya
apa? Untuk menyekolahkan kakaknya dan adiknya yang laki-laki. (ORG #16)
In English:
There is one case of a girl, just call her ‘A’. She was sold by her grandmother since she was 12 – 13
years old for a year to serve men sexually, to around 10 to 15 men. One of the reasons was that she
had to pay the school fees for her older and younger brothers. (ORG #16)
Further, the research by Iqbal and Gusman (2015) on Indonesian women migrant workers from
Indramayu, West Java also confirms that although the majority of young girls work in domestic
labour abroad, a significant number of them are sent to work in the sex industry and that
sometimes they are committed to this by their family. The family would normally go to a lot
of effort including conducting a prayer session with their community members so that their
children could be taken easily (Iqbal & Gusman 2015, p. 172). As noted previously in Chapter
173
6, an NGO representative in Bongas village, Indramayu Regency who was a former trafficker
describes how the parents feel proud of their daughter working in the sex industry:
Iya, orang tuanya merasa bangga. Ibunya ga marah “Kurang ajar, saya pukul kamu.” Tidak, mereka
bangga. Mereka ga bangga kalau anaknya sekolah dengan benar. Kalau anaknya nganggur dibiarkan
dibawa orang dan dia dapat 1 juta. (ORG #6)
In English: The parents feel proud if their daughter is sold or works in the sex industry. There are no words
such as “Do not do that or I’ll beat you” No! the only feeling is contentment. There is no pride when
their kids are successful in their study or become a smart person. If they see their daughter is jobless,
they would freely to give her to the recruiter and get 1,000,000 rupiahs as payment. (ORG #6)
The above statement describes the situation in Indramayu, West Java where many parents are
proud and happy if their daughters are recruited to work in the sex industry. The parents feel
proud because it means that their children are beautiful and wanted. The organisation
representative explained how the culture in that community supports people going to work in
the sex industry. There is a particular pride if the young girls find work in the sex industry even
if it means that they become victims of trafficking. This leads to the parents contacting
traffickers and offering their daughter to them (ORG #6).
Even if their conditions are bad, those who have become the victims of trafficking sometimes
did not realise that they are a victim. Many of them may even feel proud because they can work
outside their hometown, regardless of the conditions they are facing. This phenomenon is
strongly supported by the belief in those communities that anyone who gets work elsewhere
whether in other cities or overseas, regardless of their job has gained in prestige. A typical
situation was described by one NGO participant as follows:
Iya ada kebanggaan tersendiri. Bangga sekali meski memiliki hutang yang banyak. Kalau datang
dari Mabes (Mangga Besar) bangga dan sudah berubah wujud dengan rambut merah, terlihat kaya.
Orang-orang akan berkumpul dan melakukan hajatan ketika dia pulang. Seperti kemaren, dia
mengadakan pesta dan menyewa organ mahal sekitar 25 juta. Penduduk di sini datang semua. (ORG
#6)
In English:
There is a particular pride for them (the victims). They are proud although they may have a lot of
debt. If they came back from Mabes (Mangga Besar), they look proud and their appearance has
changed. Their hair has been dyed red and they look like rich people. People will gather to celebrate
them when they come back. Like yesterday, they threw a party and hired musical instruments for
around 25 million rupiahs. Then, people came and gathered. (ORG #6)
The NGO representative has described what people look like when they have gone away as
victims of trafficking to work in the sex industry in Mangga Besar, Jakarta, and then come back
to their home in Bongas village, Indramayu regency. They come back looking different and
174
successful even though they may have large amounts of debt. As a result they are normally
warmly welcomed back by the people in the town, maybe with an expensive party. According
to the interviewee who is also an ex-trafficker, Mangga Besar is a prostitution hotspot in Jakarta
where people from Indramayu work or are trafficked for the sex industry.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to change this practice of working out of town for people in
Indramayu. Although there have been some campaigns and training support provided there, the
perception remains for many in that community that working for the sex industry in the big
city is better than gaining an education. This has been one of the challenges encountered by
organisations working in that area (ORG #6).
During the interviews, participants also expressed their concern that HIV has become prevalent
in that area. The young girls who were sent to the sex industry have become infected and then
brought it back to the community (ORG #6; ORG #16). However, instead of learning from
experience, any such incidents of disease or even death are not seen as things that the
community might avoid or prevent in the future. For the majority of people if someone is
infected with HIV or has any bad experience, it is seen as a part of destiny (Mulyana, Oktavianti
& Bajari 2016, p. 106).
The practice in Indramayu society where many young girls end up working in the sex industry
is called luruh duit. This term refers to an activity to earn money (Bajari 2013; Soekarba &
Kenyowati 2011). The aim of luruh duit has been explained as seeking to gain prosperity in
order to increase your social status in the society, to meet the needs of your family, and to gain
appreciation from people around you. Luruh duit is an inherited practice, one that has been
accepted, learned and practiced from generation to generation (Imelda 2014, p. 64).
Trafficking for the sex industry in the locations mentioned above has also involved parents or
family as perpetrators. There have been stories in some local news outlets in Indonesia of young
girls participating in the sex industry and engaging in sexual activity in their own house. For
example, the story of Sabila in Kampung Cinta, Subang regency who has been providing sexual
services since she was 15 years old. She dropped out of school and since then has been working
to service men in her house to support her family’s living costs. She works outside or in the
same house that her family including her parents live in (Gunadha 2019). A similar story was
also provided by a lawyer who tells the story of a village in Sumedang regency where almost
175
all the families put their children into prostitution at home. As explained by her, the parents
help their daughters to service their customers in the family home.
Kalau di Sumedang ada desa yang semua menjual anaknya. Jadi orang tua ngobrol di bawah,
anaknya melakukan prostitusi di atas. Sehari bisa melayani lima laki - laki. Nanti bayar ke ibunya
di bawah. Jadi ibunya sebagai kasir. (Lawyer #2)
In English: In Sumedang, there is a village where its people sell their children. So in their house, the parents do
their activity downstairs, while the daughter gives sexual service upstairs. In one day she can serve
five guys. Then the guests will pay for the service to her mother downstairs. So the mother had a
role as a cashier. (Lawyer #2)
Her statement describes the situation within a family where the children give sexual services
at home. Not only do the parents provide their full support, and they may even have deliberately
put their children into this situation, but they also have a role in managing the activity – the
mother as cashier for example. When a practice like this is deeply embedded in a community,
it becomes difficult to tackle.
The perception in Indramayu and other places in West Java that a daughter is an asset and the
parents should be proud of them if they take work in the sex industry cannnot be separated
from the historical background where young girls from West Java were sent to the sultanate to
become a member of the sultan’s harem. The parents at that time felt honoured if their daughter
was chosen to become a member of the harem and so the parents would hope for a beautiful
daughter and seek to preserve that beauty. For them, physical beauty is more important than
education (Hidayat & Syamsuddin 2019, p. 19).
As explained in Chapter 4, the sex industry grew rapidly during Dutch colonisation, when the
numbers of Dutch men who were brought by the Dutch government to Indonesia created a
great demand for sex services. Unfortunately, this phenomenon was also supported by the local
society in which many families would sell their daughters to be mistresses of those Dutch men
and earn substantial recompense from them (Hull, Sulistyaningsih & Jones 1997, p. 4). As the
research in this thesis shows, this practice of parents giving away their daughter into the sex
industry has continued to today.
The various socio-cultural aspects that supports people committing human trafficking has made
the crime difficult to define and influences how the prosecution of the traffickers take place.
For example, in Indonesia, there are traffickers who acted as recruiters aiming to “help” others
176
never experienced police investigation, even after years of doing so. Or in cases where parents
were involved in trafficking their children, police have also not taken action.
7.4. Victim’s Behaviour
Without suggesting in any way that victims are responsible for the harms they encounter as a
result of trafficking, it is important to note the findings from my research relating to the
complex relationships between traffickers and victims. In some cases, the attitude of the
victims has facilitated the perpetrators in their trafficking. Some interview participants
expressed the opinion that victims and traffickers need each other and support each other’s
actions and aims, and that is what makes human trafficking happen. From the victims' side,
they need a job either as a domestic worker or working in the sex industry and in many cases
they initiated the approach to the traffickers. This situation obviously is to the traffickers’
benefit and eases their work in the trafficking process. In some studies (Shively et al. 2017;
Rijken, Muraszkiewicz & Van de Ven 2015), some traffickers justified their actions in
trafficking others by claiming that the victims engaged voluntarily or wanted themselves to be
trafficked. In similar vein, Serie et al. (2018) also state that some traffickers were initially
contacted by the girls who wanted to earn some money, or because those girls needed help
(Serie et al. 2018, p. 173).
Some organisations and lawyers said that normally the victims already know the nature of the
job and had asked the traffickers for that job. This happens in both forms of trafficking. An
example from a participants who had dealt with trafficking cases for the sex industry:
Si korban memang mencari (pekerjaan) dan mau. Dia sudah dikasih tahu. Dia sendiri ga ada
paksaan, bahkan dia yang meminta. (Lawyer #3)
In English: The victim also looked for a job and willing (to accept that job). She was told about the job
condition. She accepted without any force. She was even the first to ask. (Lawyer #3)
In some cases, the victim even knew where she would be sent and the work she would be doing.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, there are cases when the victims also had prior
experience in the sex industry. Hence, there was no coercion involved in getting them to work
in the sex industry.
Karena menurut terdakwa, korban sudah tahu mau diantar kemana, mau dipekerjakan seperti.
Sebelumnya juga sama, korban bekerja sebagai PSK. (Lawyer #9).
In English:
177
Because according to my client, the victim already knew where she will be sent, and what kind of
job she will do. It was the same with her previous job, she was working in the sex industry. (Lawyer
#9)
The victims might be looking to help their family out, perhaps because of unforeseen
circumstances such as harvest failure, and this would be the reason why the victims would
approach the traffickers, even going so far as to demand work from them. The two statements
below reveal how the victims approached the traffickers due to their desire to help their family.
Klien saya bilang tidak boleh, tapi dia memaksa karena dia ingin membantu orang tua. Ketika
ditanya apa ada ijin dari orang tua, dia bilang ada. Jadi dia datang sendiri ke rumah klien saya.
(Lawyer #8)
In English:
My client said no to (the victim) coming with her, but she insisted because she wanted to help her
parents. When my client asked if she had permission from her parents, she said yes. She came by
herself to my client’s house. (Lawyer #8)
The above statement describes how an offender refused to give the victim an opportunity to
work with her in Bali, as the offender knew that the victim was still underage. However, the
victim insisted and lied that she already had permission from her parents.
A similar situation:
Anak-anak terjun ke dunia hitam. Namun apa dikata, alasannya selalu membantu ekonomi orang
tua. Karena hutangnya banyak, sawah ga panen. (ORG #6)
In English:
The kids fell into the dark world. But what we can say, they always had the same reason, to help
their parents economically. Because their parents had a lot of debt, because the harvest failed. (ORG
#6)
Similar cases when victims came to the traffickers for a job was also common in trafficking
for domestic labour. The victims were insistent that the traffickers let them go and work either
in another city or another country. One of the examples was given by a lawyer who described
how her client was asked by people to help them find a job as a domestic.
Katanya sih banyak orang yang datang ke dia untuk membantu mereka karena ingin bekerja ke luar
negeri. Gara-gara desakan itu dia akhirnya memutuskan untuk mengirim orang. Menurut dia,
kenapa tidak, karena menurutnya dia membantu dan dan juga mendapat uang. (Lawyer #4)
In English:
She said, there were many people came to her and asked her to help them to work in overseas.
Because of those pressures, finally she decided to send people. She argued that there is nothing
wrong with that because she was helping them while also getting money from that. (Lawyer #4)
178
Some of the interview participants said that even though the victims would be put into a bad
situation, they actually already knew beforehand what the situation would be. In some cases
they were previous victims of trafficking who had returned home but found life at home so bad
that they felt that were better off working overseas again to escape the economic problems at
home. As an example, one lawyer explained the situation as follows:
Korban sebenarnya sudah tahu kondisinya, tetapi karena secara ekonomi terhimpit, mereka
berfikir mending kembali bekerja di sana. Mereka sudah pernah sekali atau dua kali bekerja di
negara lain. Jadi mereka berfikir yang penting pergi ke negara lain, karena tidak mungkin di sana
tidak bekerja. Apalagi di sana ada agentnya. Mau kerja di mana atau seperti apa, meskipun jadi
karyawan gelap mereka pikir itu adalah resiko. (Lawyer #7).
In English:
The victims actually knew the conditions, but because of economic pressure, they thought that it is
better to return there. They had been working overseas once or twice before. So, they thought that
they need to return because it is impossible for them to not be working. Moreover, there is an agent
there who will help. They did not care where they are going to work or what kind of job they will
do, even if they will be an illegal worker, they think that it is part of the risk of working overseas.
(Lawyer #7)
His statement implies that many victims actually know that they might end up in a bad situation
when working as domestic labour overseas. However, they think that it is part of the risk that
everybody faces if they decide to work overseas. Another NGO representative also agreed that
many people think that bad conditions are part of the risk when working anywhere, and people
prefer to take the risk.
Karena dia berfikir setiap kerjaan pasti beresiko. Jangankan ke luar negeri, di dalam negeri saja
kalau bekerja pasti ada resiko. Jadi dia akan ambil resiko itu, yang penting dia mempunyai mimpi
seperti orang-orang itu. (ORG #7)
In English:
Because she (the victim) thought that every job has its own risk. Even a job inside the country is
risky, let alone overseas. So she will take that risk, as long as she can have a dream like others
(working in overseas). (ORG #7)
One representative from an organisation even considers the behaviour of those victims as
ignorant. Although there are a lot of warnings around on the danger of being a migrant worker
overseas and human trafficking, they choose to ignore the warnings.
Masyarakat itu sebenarnya memilih bekerja yang tidak tahu sebenarnya seperti apa, atau mau hidup
di mana. Mereka berfikir apapun akan di lakukan. Informasi bekerja yang aman di luar kota memang
tidak dianggap sebagai informasi yang harus disikapi. Jadi mungkin mereka tahu, tetapi dalam
perilaku mereka memilih untuk tidak mau tahu. (ORG #4)
In English: The people here actually did not even know what kind of work they would do or where they would work. They were willing to do everything they can in order to work. The information about the
safety to find a job or being a safe migrant was not seen as something that they need to consider. So
179
maybe they knew (the threat of human trafficking), but as shown in their behaviour they chose to
ignore that. (ORG #4)
The victims persist in trying to find domestic work away from their hometown or overseas
because they can see the success of their neighbours who had a successful experience as
domestic workers overseas. According to one organisation representative people are of the
mindset that if you want to be rich or successful, one of the ways is by being migrant labour
(ORG #1). So they do not think it through carefully and just want any work they can get, even
just as a domestic worker, as long as they can go overseas or somewhere else in Indonesia.
They ignore the fact that they might find themselves in a difficult situation once they are there
or the big possibility that they might be exploited by untrustworthy people.
Some organisation representatives said that the people who were successful working as migrant
labour abroad made a stronger impression than those who had a hard time working overseas.
As mentioned above, those who were unsuccessful or experienced bad conditions are merely
seen as having had bad luck (ORG #4; ORG #8).
Mindset orang untuk menjadi buruh migran di sana sudah cukup kuat. Masyarakat lebih melihat
mereka yang berhasil daripada yang bermasalah. Orang kalau sudah menjadi buruh migran bisa
membeli sawah, rumah, tapi itu contoh suksesnya. Mereka melihat dari sisi itu. Mereka tidak
melihat bahwa yang menjadi buruh migran bermasalah itu banyak sekali. Tapi mereka tidak melihat
itu dan tidak menganggapnya sebagai sebuah kendala. (ORG #8)
In English:
The people’s mindset to become a migrant labour is quite strong there. The community only looks
at those who were successful rather than those who had a problem. They think that by becoming a
migrant labourer, people can buy a house or rice field. But those are just the successful examples.
They only see it from that side. They don’t see that a lot of people encounter problems while working
as migrant labour. People do not consider it and do not see it as a challenge. (ORG #8)
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to stop the desire of people in Indonesia to become migrant
labour and to make them aware of the threat of human trafficking. Since they do not have many
options available to them, and with the strong perception that working outside the country or
their province provides a better life, people will do anything they can to get work. This
certainly simplifies their path to becoming victims of trafficking and it also makes the
perpetrators’ work easier. In this sort of environment even people who initially might not think
about participating in trafficking would be encouraged to become traffickers as the conditions
and the demands within their community for work abroad influence their actions and decision.
180
Therefore, although human trafficking is seen as a major crime, a deeper understanding of the
behaviour of perpetrators and the behaviour of victims is essential in seeking out the causes of
the crime. In this regard, this research has highlighted that the behaviour of the victims
contributes to the factors that influence people to commit human trafficking. It is wiser to
understand the rationalisations of perpetrators and victims as they come together into
trafficking rather than only looking through the narrow lens of evil perpetrators and innocent
victims.
7.5. Inadvertently Involved in Trafficking
The interviewees identified the influence of other people as one of the main ways that people
become involved in committing human trafficking offenses. Two participants shared
information on how some offenders became involved in human trafficking without even
realising that their actions were considered as a human trafficking offense. Most of them
claimed that they only wanted to help the traffickers who needed their help to recruit people.
They did not realise that by helping them they were participating in a human trafficking
offense. Unlike situations where people became involved in human trafficking due to the
influence of their peers or friends, as documented in the research of Rijken, Muraszkiewicz
and Van de Ven (2015), Warren (2012) and Asbill (2017), this situation happens when the
offenders have no previous relationship with the other traffickers and their involvement is
mostly by accident.
There are different examples of how people inadvertently became participants in both forms of
human trafficking, for domestic labour and for the sex industry. One example of inadvertent
involvement is the driver in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara who helped people (victims of
trafficking) go to the airport. The driver did not know that he was taking victims of trafficking
to the airport but he was still convicted of human trafficking because he was seen as having
been involved in that offense (Lawyer #11).
In another case, a person who worked at a recruitment company was convicted of human
trafficking. This women tried to recruit women from East Nusa Tenggara to work as domestic
workers in Medan, North Sumatra. Her lawyers said that she did not intend to commit
trafficking and was just doing her usual job, but some contacts of hers insisted that she help
181
some underage girls from their village in East Nusa Tenggara find work in Medan. As
explained by her lawyers:
Yang memperkenalkan mereka (korban) ke Ibu Ana adalah para calo. Calo-calo tersebut
memalsukan KTP dan surat kesehatan. (Lawyer #6)
In English:
The ones that introduced them (the victims) to Ms Ana were the recruiters. Those recruiters falsified
their identity, such as national ID and medical certificate. (Lawyer #6)
This piece of the story above shows the recruiters as being the ones actually trafficking and
involving Ms Ana (the owner of the manpower agency) in the trafficking by providing falsified
identity documents for the victims and giving wrong information to Ms Ana.
In another story, a girl became involved in human trafficking for sex industry because a café
owner in Bali asked for her help.
Dia itu sebagai penyalur saja. Kemungkinan dia diperalat oleh pemilik café di Bali tersebut. (Lawyer
#8)
In English: She was only acted as a channel. There is a possibility that she was manipulated by the café owner
in Bali. (Lawyer #8)
7.6. Conclusion
This chapter has noted some findings on the motivations and perspectives, as well as the key
factors that lead to the involvement of people in human trafficking in Indonesia for domestic
labour and the sex industry. Although there are many similarities, this chapter found a few
distinctions in the reasons why people in Indonesia commit or are involved in human
trafficking for domestic labour and for the sex industry. The first difference is in the motivation
to earn money. Although people in both trafficking forms expect to obtain some economic
benefit, the people involved in trafficking for domestic labour are more likely inclined to do
that due to because of the relatively large amounts of money on offer. This is different in
trafficking for the sex industry, where people became involved to earn a little money to live
on, often because they are in poverty and/or unemployed, to maintain their lifestyle, and the
easiness to do the job and getting some incentives.
A second major distinction can be seen among the people who committed trafficking for the
sex industry in West Java. Those people even though family members trafficked their daughters
due to pride and the prestige that they will receive in the community. If the girls are able to get
182
a job in the sex industry it shows that they are beautiful and in demand. Hence, it raises their
parents’ prestige in these communities in West Java. The people involved in human trafficking
for domestic labour also tended be more likely to commit trafficking from a perception that
they were helping others find a job than those who participated in sex trafficking. Apart from
those differences, the motivations, the perspectives, and the key factors that influenced people
into committing human trafficking are quite similar for domestic labour and the sex industry.
From the factors listed in this chapter as to why people committed human trafficking for
domestic labour, it is possible to establish a hierarchy of how significant these factors were in
influencing people to become traffickers. This hierarchy is made based on the proportions on
how common the factors have influenced people to commit trafficking. On the first level are
the main factors. The main factors inducing people to commit trafficking for domestic labour
are the temptation of big money to be earned; lack of alternative job opportunities; how easy it
is to gain money by recruiting other people; and in the case of West Java, that a daughter is
seen as a bread winner for the family. Likewise the main factors why people participate in
trafficking for the sex industry are the lack of job opportunities; how easy it is to gain money
only by recruiting other people; in a case of West Java, that a beautiful daughter is seen as a
matter of pride that then compels the parents to put them into the sex industry; and again in
West Java that a daughter is seen as a bread winner for the family.
The second tier are the supporting factors that also influence people to commit trafficking
whether for domestic labour or the sex industry: a general lack of legal understanding and
knowledge about human trafficking; the desire to help others find a job; at the insistence of the
victims; and to earn enough money to maintain a certain lifestyle.
Last come the least significant factors. One of these is the ability to be seen as a champion by
recruiting others and helping them get a job, and another is an external factor where they
become inadvertently involved in trafficking due to the influence of or on request from other
people.
The research findings presented in this chapter make new contributions to our understanding
of trafficking in Indonesia. When compared to other countries, there are factors that are peculiar
to the Indonesian context. First is the perception of a daughter as a breadwinner that compels
families to send the daughters into the hands of traffickers; second, the perception that it is a
183
source of pride to the family to have a daughter working in the sex business; and third, the
desire to be perceived as a champion by recruiting others to work overseas or elsewhere in
Indonesia that makes people more motivated to recruit others and become recruiters without
any of the guilt associated with that role in other countries. Those three factors can be
considered new knowledge, rarely to be found in other research, if at all.
On the other hand, this chapter also noted that from the interviews with lawyers and
organisation representatives there is little evidence that people commit trafficking for domestic
labour and the sex industry in Indonesia due to the influence of friends or peers. In the research
by Asbill (2017), Rijken, Muraszkiewicz and Van de Ven (2015), and Warren (2012) people
get the opportunity to participate in trafficking primarily through peer and friend relationships.
For example, Asbill (2017) states that traffickers in Bulgaria learn about, consider, and decide
to engage in sex trafficking offenses when they associate more with those who habitually
commit the offense and gain profits from it (Asbill 2017, p. 130). Or there is the situation in
Colombia, where people participate in trafficking as an activity performed by all family
members and it is considered a family business (Warren 2012, p. 114). These situations are not
so clear and obvious in the case of Indonesia. However, although no information came from
the interview participants on this phenomenon, this does not close out the possibility that it is
also happens in Indonesia.
Based on this explanation of the motivations, perspectives, and factors influencing people to
participate in human trafficking in domestic labour and the sex industry, and the characteristics
and modus operandi of the traffickers as described in Chapter 6, the next chapter will provide
suggestions on best practice to prevent people committing trafficking in Indonesia. Following
those suggestions, some recommendations to improve Indonesian policy and the related
international practices to counter human trafficking will also be presented.
184
Chapter 8: Improving the Response: Preventing Human
Trafficking by Understanding Traffickers
8.1. Introduction
Chapters 6 and 7 of this thesis examined the socio-demographics and the modus operandi of
human traffickers, and the key factors, perspectives, and motivations that make people become
involved in human trafficking for the sex industry and domestic labour in Indonesia. Having
reached conclusions on the characteristics of people involved in human trafficking in
Indonesia, and the factors, perspectives, and motivations that make them get involved in this
crime, this study goes on to make some recommendations on the best strategies to prevent
people from committing trafficking for the sex industry and domestic labour in Indonesia.
Finally, at the end of this chapter, some proposals are put forward to improve current
Indonesian law and the related international regulations on human trafficking, the UN
Trafficking Protocol and the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children (ACTIP).
The beginning of this chapter describes how the current global efforts and Indonesian efforts
deal with human traffickers mostly through punitive measures, such as prosecution, asset
freezing, and restitution. Although various prevention measures have been applied in the
attempt to reduce human trafficking, the measures to prevent people from becoming traffickers
are still limited. Therefore, this chapter outlines recommendations to prevent people from
committing or being involved in human trafficking in Indonesia based on the characteristics
and key factors that make people become involved in human trafficking, as described in the
previous chapters. In making these recommendations, I draw from policy or programs in other
fields (such as drug trafficking, terrorism, conflict resolution), human trafficking prevention
programs in other countries, economic development programs, the trafficking prevention
literature, the result of the interviews for this research, and my own personal ideas.
The efforts to prevent people from committing human trafficking in Indonesia so far have not
been differentiated according to the type of trafficking, whether for domestic labour for
instance or the sex industry. Most of the efforts made by campaigns and awareness raising
programs in the community are about the potential for becoming a trafficker in general. This
185
chapter however will make these distinctions and thus make more nuanced recommendations
for action.
In explaining the measures to prevent people becoming involved in human trafficking in
Indonesia, I will be drawing on the model of violence prevention by Brantingham and Faust
(1976) in which the measures are developed based on three stages of prevention approach -
primary, secondary and tertiary. Although Brantingham and Faust has developed this
framework based on a public health model, this framework is analogous and useful and
similarly conceived as intervention at different developmental level (Brantingham & Faust
1976, p. 287-288). This model has been seen as one of most common employed approaches
for crime prevention (Gilling 2005, p. 3).
The primary approaches to prevent people from becoming human traffickers in Indonesia are
through improving economic opportunity; enhancing the trafficking free village programs;
increasing job opportunities by creating local businesses; delivering human trafficking
education in the school; enhancing women’s empowerment and participation in anti-trafficking
programs; reforming policy on agencies dealing with labour supply abroad; constant
monitoring of and raising awareness in small cafes, spa business, and brothels. The secondary
approaches aim to change the behaviour of the traffickers by addressing and controlling their
activities. Activities might include face-to-face dialogue between traffickers and community
representatives; focus on those areas where many traffickers reside and operate; measures to
reduce or eliminate corruption in police and immigration bodies. Lastly, the tertiary approaches
focus on long-term prevention and preventing recidivism through rehabilitation in prison;
restorative justice in addition to criminal justice; reintegration support; and support for ex-
traffickers to participate in trafficking prevention efforts.
Approaches developed specifically to prevent people from committing or being involved in
domestic labour trafficking are policy reform for agencies dealing with labour supply abroad;
focus on those areas where many traffickers reside and operate; and measures to reduce or
eliminate corruption in police and immigration bodies. Meanwhile, the approach that is
specifically developed to prevent people committing or becoming involved in trafficking for
the sex industry is the work with small cafes, spa businesses, and brothels.
186
As well as these measures to prevent people from becoming involved in human trafficking in
Indonesia, some improvements to current Indonesian law and international law for human
trafficking are proposed. It is recommended that the international regulations and Indonesian
law on human trafficking should include a provision to acknowledge the factors that make
people vulnerable to being involved in human trafficking; a provision to acknowledge the
rights of the accused and the offenders during the criminal justice process; a provision to
prevent reoffending (including the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-offenders), and a
provision to prevent human trafficking based on the form of trafficking. Hence, a trafficker-
centred approach is proposed in this research. This approach does not just aim to prosecute the
perpetrators of trafficking and make them accountable for their behaviour, but more
importantly its goal is to prevent people from committing human trafficking and becoming
human traffickers in the first place.
8.2. Current Efforts to Deter Human Traffickers
This section explains the current global and Indonesian efforts to deter the activities of human
traffickers. As noted in Chapter 2 of this thesis, international attempts to prevent people from
committing human trafficking have been limited so far. After this explanation, current
Indonesian efforts at preventing people from becoming involved in human trafficking in
Indonesia are examined and possible areas for improvement noted. It is noteworthy that the
majority of international and Indonesian efforts still rely on punitive measures, although other
measures such as awareness campaigns that seek to prevent people becoming involved in
human trafficking are finding limited application in certain areas.
8.2.1. Global Efforts
In the current international legislation on human trafficking - the UN Trafficking Protocol, the
ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children,
Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 5 April 2011 on
preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims – in all these
the measures to stop the activities of the traffickers predominantly consist of criminalising the
traffickers and freezing their assets for eventual confiscation. The international regulations
regulate that every country should criminalise every person that attempts to commit trafficking,
that participates as a helper, or that takes part to direct other persons to participate in trafficking
(e.g. Trafficking Protocol 2000). In addition, these regulations also instruct countries to
187
conduct identification, tracing, and confiscation of the proceeds of crime that arise from human
trafficking. (e.g. ACTIP 2015). One interview participant thought that the confiscation of assets
is a good mechanism to stop traffickers. Blocking their economic sources will hinder them in
carrying out their activities in the future (ORG #4). Increasing the risks of engaging in
trafficking through prosecution, long prison sentences, asset freezing, and restitution will make
traffickers sacrifice the rewards they have gained, the money and control, which might make
them have second thoughts before starting in the business (Bouché & Shady 2017, p. 104).
Apart from that, the international legislation is silent about solutions to stop trafficking before
it happens by preventing people from becoming traffickers. There is little effort to prevent
people from committing or being involved in human trafficking through any measures that are
not punitive. It is difficult to find any alternative in the regulations to prevent people becoming
involved in or committing human trafficking apart from prosecution, asset freezing, and
restitution.
However, there are some initiatives already applied by some countries as a way to prevent
individuals participating in human trafficking within their jurisdiction. One example is the
effort by Sweden to criminalise the purchase of sex services. In 1999, a Swedish law that
prohibits the purchase of sexual services came into force. The law makes it a crime to seek to
pay any person for a sexual purpose. It was enacted as part of the strategy to counter human
trafficking in Sweden (Ekberg 2004, p. 1191). According to the Swedish National Criminal
Police, the prohibition on the purchase of sex services discourages human traffickers from
setting up operations in Sweden (Government Offices of Sweden 2015). In a similar vein, the
research by Cho, Dreher and Neumayer (2013) also shows that a scale effect leads from
legalised prostitution to increasing prostitution, and thereby increases the incidence of human
trafficking cases (Cho, Dreher & Neumayer 2013, p. 75).
An article by Reyes (2015) summarises some examples of attempts that have been made by
various countries to prevent people committing or participating in trafficking. One example is
that of a faith-based organisation in the United States, in which its workers approach the
traffickers. Instead of calling the police to have them arrested, the workers approach the
traffickers, build trust, and develop a relationship that leads the traffickers to open up about
themselves and find options to leave their criminal behaviour. The ministry established rapport
and allowed the traffickers access to resources such as employment and counseling services
188
that could help them leave the business. In another example, one organisation in Nepal worked
to approach families about to send their daughters off to work as domestic labour. The
organisation offers a piglet or a goat to the families to replace the money that they would have
received and works with them to send the daughters to school instead. The organisation also
created sustainable opportunities to enable the families to become involved in income
generating projects (Reyes 2015).
Another example is an organisation working against trafficking in children for marriage in
Guinea, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal. The organisation has been
working to address the social norms related to child marriage by working with families and
seeking to create a sustainable solution to end this practice. The organisation considers the root
causes in the trafficking of children for marriage such as lack of proper food, education and
other opportunities. They also support community partnerships so that those involved to
understand the harms of this practice and decide to abandon it (Reyes 2015). These examples
show that although still only a few and mainly from faith-based or non-governmental
organisations there are efforts being made to prevent people from committing trafficking.
Although there are some programs in place around the world to prevent people from becoming
traffickers or stop the activities of the perpetrators, the available data is still limited. There is a
lack of policy guidance and literature on how to prevent people from becoming involved in or
committing human trafficking. This thesis aims to fill that gap, and this chapter in particular
provides some suggestions on what can be done in the Indonesian context to prevent people
becoming involved in human trafficking. These recommendations also take into account the
different forms of trafficking, because so far the efforts to prevent people from committing
human trafficking in Indonesia have not been differentiated according to the type of trafficking.
Hence, this chapter will make these distinctions between forms of trafficking and thus make
more nuanced recommendations for action. These suggestions or recommendations are based
on the research on characteristics, motivations, and perspectives of the individuals involved in
human trafficking in domestic labour and the sex industry in Indonesia as detailed above in
Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.
189
8.2.2. Indonesia’s Efforts
The Law of the Republic of Indonesia number 21/ 2007 on the Eradication of the Criminal Act
of Trafficking in Persons gives no clear instructions on how to prevent people committing and
participating in trafficking offenses. As set out in chapter six of the legislation on the topic of
prevention and treatment, prevention of a trafficking offense should be aimed at preventing the
trafficking offense at the earliest moment possible (Law 21 the Year 2007, art. 56). Further,
the law requires that government including the regional government, together with community
and family members should work to prevent human trafficking offenses and to formulate
policies, programs, and actions to prevent and address human trafficking (Law 21 the Year
2007, art. 57). However, no details are given on how to prevent trafficking. In the same chapter
of the legislation, the Indonesian government is required to form task forces made up of
government, law enforcement agencies, NGOs, professional associations, researchers and civil
organisations to address and prevent trafficking (Law 21 the Year 2007, art. 58). These task
forces have some duties in regards to the prevention efforts: providing advocacy, training,
encouraging cooperation, and raising awareness; monitoring victim protection efforts that
include return, rehabilitation, and social reintegration; monitoring cooperation between law
enforcement agencies; and conducting monitoring and evaluation (Law 21 the Year 2007, art.
58). As we notice, the duties of the task forces in this legislation are broad although there is no
specific mention in the legislation whether those efforts should or should not also include
attempts to prevent people from becoming traffickers.
Law 21 of the Year 2007 regulates the criminalisation of all forms of trafficking and prescribes
penalties of 3 to 15 years imprisonment (US DOS 2019, p. 240), and a fine of at least IDR
120,000,000 (USD 7,951 as at May 2020) (Law 21 the Year 2007, art. 2) as a way to stop the
actions of traffickers. In addition to this, in the event that the trafficking was committed by a
business entity, the government will revoke its business license, confiscate the proceeds,
revoke its legal status, disperse the management, and prohibit them from establishing another
corporate entity for a similar business (Law 21 the Year 2007, art. 15). During the criminal
proceeding, the investigators, prosecutors, or judges can make an order to freeze the assets of
suspects or persons in charge of a human trafficking business (Law 21 the Year 2007, art. 32).
The offenders also need to make restitution to the victims (Law 21 the Year 2007, art. 48). In
the case where the offender fails to act within 14 days of the court announcing that restitution
needs to be paid to the victims, the court will instruct the prosecutor to freeze the assets of the
190
convicted offender. If the offender is not able to pay the restitution, she or he is subject to a
prison sentence of at least one year (Law 21 the Year 2007, art. 50).
While Law 21 of the Year 2007 does not specifically mention efforts to prevent people
committing or participating in trafficking, there are some initiatives made by the government
as a part of its prevention efforts to prevent people becoming involved in trafficking. One
example is the policy from the Ministry of Education and Culture Indonesia that also targets
the perpetrators, as discussed already in Chapter 4. In its Guidelines for Trafficking Prevention
for Central and Regional Governments, it mentions that the target groups for prevention,
besides the victims, also include the various types of perpetrator - individuals (family,
neighbour), pimps, recruiters, agencies that send labour abroad, travel agencies and religious
leaders. Further, in the prevention strategy, the guidelines recommend campaigns, advocacy,
and education in the community to grow their awareness and discourage participation in human
trafficking (Ministry of Education 2017, p. 17-18). Although the guidelines state that the
methodology used should be appropriate to the target group, in reality it is not clear what
approaches to potential perpetrators have actually been implemented. During my fieldwork in
Indonesia in September 2019, I was able to join a campaign event managed by the Ministry of
Culture and Education of Indonesia in collaboration with a local NGO in Trenggalek regency,
West Java. In that campaign, the messages were targeted at groups that were also felt to be
vulnerable to becoming traffickers such as teachers and students in the high schools. The
campaign gave information on how teachers and students might become involved in trafficking
and on how to conduct their activities within the school to prevent this from happening.
Some Indonesian local news outlets also provided information on government efforts to raise
awareness in those vulnerable to becoming involved in human trafficking. For example, in the
news on the Indonesian news portal, berandatimur.com dated 29 October 2019 there was a
story about the local government of Nunukan regency in North Kalimantan province engaging
possible perpetrators such as the agencies or companies that recruit manpower for overseas in
their prevention campaign. A government official from Nunukan said that it is important to
raise awareness of human trafficking among companies and people whose job it is to facilitate
the sending of domestic workers to neighbouring countries such as Malaysia (Rusman 2019).
Apart from the government initiatives to prevent people becoming traffickers, some local
communities in Indonesia have also started their own holistic prevention programs. In the
191
interviews the organisation representatives talked about efforts to prevent people from
participating in human trafficking that involved religious leaders and religious institutions.
Some examples come from West Java and East Java provinces. One NGO representative in
Cirebon regency in West Java said that the NGO has created a book based on Islamic teaching
entitled “Fiqh Anti-Trafficking: Jawaban atas Berbagai Kasus Kejahatan Perdagangan
Manusia dalam Perspektif Hukum Islam” (in English: Fiqh Anti-Trafficking: The Answer on
Various Human Trafficking Offenses from an Islamic Law Perspective). The book was
produced by the NGO for the religious communities within the regency. The book on Fiqh
Anti-Trafficking aims to increase knowledge and provide an understanding of human
trafficking and the prohibition of human trafficking based on the Quran and Islamic teaching.
It is expected that the book would be used by Islamic leaders to share the message in their
community that human trafficking is an act that is prohibited in Islam. The Islamic leaders are
expected to share this message in their activities, such as at the Friday mass prayer or at prayer
sessions in the community. The messages aim to teach the community that a deceptive act such
as human trafficking, although if committed by family members, neighbours, or even village
leaders is against Islamic teaching and has bad outcomes for the victims and their families.
However it requires an understanding of trafficking and cooperation from the community
members to tackle the problem (ORG #7).
In the same way, religious organisations in Indonesia such as Majelis Taklim2 have also taken
a role in sharing the message on human trafficking. An NGO representative who is also a
member of Majelis Taklim Indonesia explained that through this organisation she can always
make public important messages on the dangers of human trafficking and how people should
be aware that they too are at risk of becoming perpetrators by facilitating the sending of a
person to another place. She is also one of the leaders in Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI)3 (the
Indonesia Ulema Council) within Sukabumi regency and she is aware that at present Islamic
leaders such as the ulema are being encouraged to share a message on human trafficking and
ots perpetrators in the mass prayers such as the Friday prayers. Islamic leaders like the ulema
are a group of people who command great respect in Muslim communities. Therefore, their
messages are generally accepted and obeyed by the Muslims in Indonesia. The interview
participant said that there are 7,000 or more mosques in Sukabumi which people attend
2 Majelis Taklim is a regular gathering for Islamic learning and activity that is widespread among contemporary
Muslim in Indonesia (Winn 2012). 3 Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) is the leading Indonesian Muslim clerical body.
192
regularly (ORG #11), and so it is expected that the message from the ulemas will be heard
extensively.
The role of Islamic leaders is also claimed as very important in other places such as in East
Java province where there is a majority of Muslim communities. The Muslim leaders not only
help to prevent people from becoming involved in human trafficking but also provide support
in the rehabilitation process for those who have been sentenced. According to an NGO
representative in Jember regency, there were pimps who used to work in the large sex industry
area in Surabaya who repented while in jail and are now dedicating their life for social service.
Before repenting they received religious instruction from Islamic leaders with lessons about
death and punishment after death. The same thing also happened to traffickers in jail in other
places in East Java (ORG #14).
8.2.3. Improving Indonesia’s Efforts
As described above, besides the criminal justice process, which prosecutes the human
traffickers and freezes their assets, the efforts to prevent people from becoming trafficking
perpetrators in Indonesia are based on raising awareness and sharing knowledge. The
awareness campaigns are normally conducted by central government (e.g. through the Ministry
of Education and Culture), local government and religious institutions. The awareness
campaign, however, has not been fully implemented across Indonesia, as most of the anti-
trafficking campaigns in Indonesia have only targeted the places that are known as sources of
migrant workers for overseas (Djaja, Gyamirti & Irawan 2016; ILO 2011). In addition to that,
some interview participants felt that the anti-trafficking campaigns in Indonesia often did not
target the right groups. In many cases, instead of being more usefully directed, the campaigns
are targeted at government officials or civil organisations in respective regencies or villages.
Hence, the community is not directly receiving messages about the threats of human trafficking
(Lawyer #7; Lawyer #10; ORG #11; ORG #12).
Besides the awareness campaign, it is unclear whether there are any other efforts aiming to
prevent people becoming involved in human trafficking. Therefore, it can be said that there are
various aspects of prevention that need to look into to prevent human trafficking by
discouraging people involved in that crime. As mentioned before, Brantingham and Faust
(1976) have created a crime prevention model that is based on the public health model, and has
193
been seen as one of most common employed approaches for crime prevention (Gilling 2005,
p. 3).
1. Primary prevention: an approach to preventing violence before it happens. It identifies the
physical and social environments that provide opportunities for crime;
2. Secondary prevention: approach to change behaviours, such as by addressing barriers and
controlling behaviours;
3. Tertiary prevention: an approach that focuses on the long-term intervention, such as by
rehabilitation, reintegration, or therapeutic interventions that will help to prevent future
offenses.
From that description, it can be said that currently Indonesia is still lacking in all the three areas
of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. In primary prevention, Indonesia’s effort is still
limited to awareness campaigns and knowledge sharing. Moreover, these campaigns and
knowledge sharing are geographically limited to areas in Java where many trafficked victims
for domestic labour have come from. In general, the campaign has only been shared with local
government officials and the members of civil society organisations so the campaign messages
are not well publicised in the wider community where those who may unwittingly become
traffickers are to be found.
Likewise secondary prevention to date in Indonesia has focused on prosecuting the offenders,
freezing assets and revoking business licenses (for the company) as the ways to control the
behavior of those who commit trafficking. However, more needs to be done to involve the
community in controlling the behaviour of traffickers. Shelley asserts that human trafficking
exists because of the legitimate community’s complicity (Shelley 2007). The media, apartment
owners, and hotels provide places to support sex trafficking, while factories cooperate with
traffickers to provide them with cheap and exploitable workers (Shelley 2007, p. 133).
Moreover, we have learned in Chapter 3 of this thesis and in Chapter 6 on the characteristics
of human traffickers in Indonesia, that many cases of human trafficking were committed by
community members, by relatives, neighbours, friends, even religious leaders, with the tacit
support of local government. Hence, greater involvement of the community is deemed in this
thesis as important to redress the situation and control the behaviour of those who are involved
in the crime.
194
In addition to that, it is still difficult to tell if currently there is any effort made to prevent people
from starting trafficking again after conviction. As mentioned by some interview participants,
some people for various reasons go back to trafficking after they are released from prison
(Lawyer #2; Lawyer #5). Hence, a tertiary prevention method that focuses on long term
interventions such as rehabilitation in prison, restorative justice, and other efforts that will have
a long-term effect needs to be considered for traffickers during and after the sentence period.
8.3. Recommendations to Prevent People Becoming Traffickers
Through the analysis above, we have gained an understanding regarding the extent of current
efforts to prevent people becoming involved in human trafficking in Indonesia. As the current
efforts to prevent people from becoming perpetrators are very limited, some recommendations
to better prevent people’s participation in human trafficking, taking into consideration the
characteristics and motivations as outlined in Chapters 7 and 8, will be given in this section.
8.3.1. Primary Prevention
Primary prevention aims to prevent people from becoming traffickers or to intervene before
they are involved in or commit human trafficking. According to Brantingham and Faust (1976),
it identifies social and environmental conditions that give people opportunity to generate
criminal acts (Brantingham and Faust 1976, p. 290). This section will elaborate on some
recommendations to prevent people from participating in human trafficking in Indonesia
whether for domestic labour and for the sex industry. It includes recommendations to improve
current methods of sharing knowledge on human trafficking; to enhance the trafficking free
village programs; to improve job opportunities by creating local businesses; human trafficking
education at school; women’s empowerment and participation; new regulations for agencies
dealing in labour supply abroad; and approaches to small cafes, spa business, and brothels.
8.3.1.1. Improving the Understanding of Human Trafficking and Increasing the Awareness
in Society of the Risks of Becoming Perpertrators
As explained before, the Indonesian government and community and faith-based organisations
have implemented anti-trafficking campaigns with knowledge sharing as a means of preventing
human trafficking in Indonesia. However, there are a number of known limitations in the
government campaigns: first, the messages focus on preventing people from becoming victims;
second, the messages are only delivered to government officials and organisation members;
195
and lastly, the campaigns only cover 20 regencies or cities in Indonesia, admittedly those where
the majority of trafficking victims come from. What follows are recommendations to improve
the efforts to prevent and counter human trafficking in the community in Indonesia.
First, awareness raising or knowledge sharing on human trafficking should also include
messages on the risk of becoming traffickers. To prevent people from being traffickers or
participating in human trafficking, the anti-trafficking campaigns and knowledge sharing
should also target individuals at risk of becoming perpetrators or traffickers. As seen in the
previous chapter, it is common in Indonesia that people lack legal awareness and a lack of
knowledge on human trafficking has contributed to them committing that crime (ORG #1;
ORG #4). The majority of interview participants in my research expressed the view that the
traffickers did not realise or may not have known that what they did was human trafficking or
that they were participating in an offense (see Chapter 7). Therefore, a message about human
trafficking should also be given clearly to those who are vulnerable to becoming traffickers.
Some efforts to give the message on the possibility of people becoming traffickers, however,
have been made during anti-trafficking campaigns. One example is a campaign that I attended
in Trenggalek regency, East Java. However, the messages on how the people might become a
trafficker were brief and not well explained. Thus, there needs to be greater clarity in the
campaign’s explanation on how people can become involved in human trafficking. People need
to be encouraged just as strongly to avoid actions that might make them participate in or
commit human trafficking as they are encouraged to avoid the possibility of becoming victims
of trafficking. It is important to give the message clearly to all members of the community, so
it also reaches those who also are at risk of being involved in committing trafficking.
Second, the messages should be received by a wider community. So far, the messages of the
campaign by the Indonesian government have been delivered only to the government officials
or civil societies in the respective regencies or villages, instead of to community members
(Lawyer #7; Lawyer #10; ORG #11; ORG #12). Therefore, the messages or knowledge on
human trafficking are not well publicised across the wider community (Lawyer #7; Lawyer
#10). Hence, it is necessary to make sure that the messages are delivered to all community
members and reach people who are most at risk of committing trafficking. An NGO
representative also gave the opinion that the government campaign as presented so far is not
sufficient because the local government officials who received the messages and training on
196
trafficking have little commitment and do not have a clue anyway on what to do afterwards.
They do not know how to set up any program to prevent human trafficking let alone one
targeted at preventing people becoming involved. Hence, assistance and coaching are needed
at local government level after the knowledge has been shared (ORG #10).
Third, there should be more programs sharing knowledge and they should reach more places
in the country, especially where the traffickers reside. The campaigns managed by the
Indonesian government itself have only been conducted in around 20 regencies or cities with
around 100 to 150 audience members at each location each year and that is far from enough
(ORG #4). These campaigns have also targeted the places which are the sources of migrant
workers overseas (Djaja, Gyamirti & Irawan 2016; ILO 2011). The extent of the campaign is
of course not enough compared to the magnitude of human trafficking cases in Indonesia.
Hence, the campaign and knowledge sharing needs to be spread further and reach more people
in order to prevent human trafficking and to prevent people becoming victims or perpetrators.
There also need to some consideration given to carrying out not only in the places which are
the sources of victims for trafficking, but also in the places where many traffickers are located
and in the places that are destinations for human trafficking.
Lastly, there needs to be cooperation with other organisations and faith or religious leaders in
delivering the message. Programs to prevent people becoming involved in human trafficking
whether as perpetrators or victims also can be implemented by cooperating with civil society
organisations and religious leaders in Indonesia to spread the message. In Indonesia, religious
leaders have an important role and their voices are heard the most (ORG #7). In some places
such as Java Island, faith-based organisations and non-governmental organisations have
already started to cooperate with religious leaders such as Muslim Ulema to spread the
messages in mass prayers or other important occasions within the community (ORG #11).
Hence, it is expected that this practice of involving religious leaders such as Islamic leaders or
Christian or Catholic preachers could be implemented at many more trafficking sources and
destinations in Indonesia. Various types of cooperative arrangements between community
leaders, civil society organisations and with faith-based organisations and religious leaders
need to be implemented to increase understanding of trafficking in the Indonesian society at
large.
197
8.3.1.2. Increase the Role of the Village
As human trafficking in Indonesia often happens in less populated areas such as a village,
where people really need to work somewhere to support themselves, the capacity of the village
to prevent and counter human trafficking should be enhanced. As mentioned in Chapter 4, in
Indonesia, there are government initiatives for villages that support the safety and wellbeing of
migrant workers abroad – one called Desa Migran Produktif (DESMIGRATIF) or in English
The Productive Migrant Village, and another Desa Buruh Migran (DESBUMI) or in English
The Village that Cares for Migrant Workers.
DESMIGRATIF was initiated by the Ministry of Manpower Indonesia in cooperation with
other ministries or national institutions to empower, improve the services, and give protection
to prospective Indonesian migrant workers abroad, starting from the villages where many
migrant workers come from. According to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Manpower, it
is expected that this program can help the community in some villages understand the
placement process and the protections in place for the labour force overseas. He also added
that this program aims to support the placement process and protect the prospective workers
who plan to work overseas or elsewhere inside the country, with all these processes starting
from their village or place of origin. The goals of DESMIGRATIF are also to empower
Indonesian migrant workers overseas and their families that they have left behind; support the
active role of government and all stakeholders in the areas the migrant workers come from;
and reduce the number of undocumented migrant workers (Kementrian PANRB 2019). Since
its establishment in 2016, DESMIGRATIF has reached around 400 villages. This program is
also expected to boost remittances from migrant labour to increase economic capacity in the
village and improve the management of that income to ensure more useful and productive
outcomes (Kantor Staf Presiden 2017).
A similar program called The Village that Cares for Migrant Workers (DESBUMI) was
established in 2014 by Migrant CARE, an NGO in Indonesia working for the protection and
care of migrants (Hidayah 2018, p. 225). DESBUMI is another initiative that starts in the
village and it aims to enhance migrant workers' protection especially that of women. Through
DESBUMI, it is expected that the village as an institution can protect its members who want
to go overseas to work. This initiative is a collaboration between civil society organisations,
the community of migrant worker families, and the village government (Migrant Care 2016).
In each area, DESBUMI helps with the documentation, maintains a database of migrant
198
workers, runs a complaints mechanism, establishes rules and regulations, and promotes post-
migration economic empowerment to ensure the safety of migrant workers and ensure that they
have a worthwhile migration experience (Hidayah 2018, p. 225; Hamdi 2020).
Looking at these roles and activities, it seems that DESBUMI has put a higher priority on the
safety of migrant workers than DESMIGRATIF which stresses the economic aspects of
migrant work and the establishment of a productive business by their families. This is not
surprising as according to Hidayah (2018) Migrant CARE established the DESBUMI program
to focus mainly on the village as a basis for protecting migrant workers (Hidayah 2018, p. 228),
since many problems with migration starts right from the village (KEMENPPPA 2018, p. 16).
As one of the interview participants exaplined, the DESBUMI program focuses on the village
because the problems that happen to migrant workers abroad, most of which are human
trafficking related, start right from the village (ORG #13).
As the village is seen as the first area where migrant labour problems arise, as well as the place
that can prevent the problem from the very beginning, it is important to support the village to
strongly engage in prevention of human trafficking. There have been major efforts in human
trafficking prevention in Indonesia implemented at village level involving village stakeholders
(village leaders, religious leaders, and civil society organisations). However the village
programs to counter trafficking in migrant workers, most of whom are going to work in
domestic labour, need to be improved to include initiatives around the traffickers themselves.
Hence, for an existing village program such as DESBUMI, it is suggested to add in activities
to prevent people from becoming perpetrators or traffickers, instead of just seeking to protect
the community from the possibility of being trafficked. It is important for the two major
initiatives to include measures in their program to address traffickers and to prevent people
becoming involved in trafficking. Ensuring the protection of people who will go overseas as
domestic labour is necessary, but approaching the traffickers who are spread through the
villages and encouraging them to stop their illegal activities and find other work is also
important.
The village leaders and other village stakeholders such as the civil society organisations and
the faith-based organisations need to work together in a multidisciplinary approach to prevent
people becoming involved in human trafficking for domestic labour. They need to address the
factors that make people more likely to commit trafficking whether from an economic
199
perspective or peer related. There needs to be interaction and dialogue with all kinds of
traffickers - recruiters, brokers and recruitment agencies - to work out how they can stop their
trafficking activities. There needs to be a sustainable program created for those who have
committed trafficking in the past, so they will not commit the same offense again. As
mentioned before, there is the example of a program created by a faith-based organisation, a
Christian ministry, in the United States, in which its workers approach the traffickers (Reyes
2015). Instead of calling the police to have them arrested, they build trust and develop a
relationship that leads the traffickers to be open about themselves and find options to allow
them to stop committing the crime. The ministry established rapport and allowed traffickers to
access resources such as employment and counselling services that help them to leave the
business (Reyes 2015). A similar program could be tried in Indonesia, where the village
committee might approach traffickers, build rapport, and help them to find a way to leave the
business. Perhaps the starting point is a pilot project to test the efficacy of the idea.
The Village Against Human Trafficking needs strong leadership from village leaders and the
village committee. They have an active role to prevent people from becoming perpetrators and
break the current trafficking activities that are committed by some community members. It is
not an easy task, because, as Hidayah (2018) states, there are problems in Indonesia where
village government officials are also involved in trafficking and act as sponsors and migration
brokers. She also argues that the village entities have also indirectly allowed trafficking to
happen by permitting brokers free rein to offer incentives in a vulnerable society (Hidayah
2018, p. 232). One NGO representative claimed that it is common for village government
officials to participate in trafficking and act as brokers or recruiters themselves (ORG #7).
Hence, any change needs to start from the village government officials themselves to ensure
that they have an understanding of human trafficking and will never participate in it.
It may not be easy to remove human trafficking given the vested interests of local village people
already involved in human trafficking. However, it can be started through some coaching and
monitoring from central government. The central government and Indonesia Anti-Trafficking
Task Force (Gugus Tugas PP-TPPO) need to actively monitor village government involvement
or corruption in those villages where trafficking is rampant. After that, they need to empower
those village governments and lead them in executing the anti-human trafficking program in
their areas. According to an interview participant, the village leaders receive general guidance
to prevent human trafficking from the central government, but in many cases the village leaders
200
do not know what to do after they received this information. Hence, the village leaders will
need some assistance and coaching to work on trafficking prevention (ORG #10). It was
reported that some DESMIGRATIF programs have engaged village leaders who used to be
involved in human trafficking as participants in the program. Engaging village leaders who are
ex-traffickers is seen as a way to increase the commitment to build a new system in the village
against trafficking, and it encourages other village leaders to not be involved in trafficking
(Kantor Staf Presiden 2017).
In the same way, it is also important to establish a village program that works to prevent and
counter human trafficking for the sex industry. Because this thesis has found significant
differences between traffickers for domestic labour and for the sex industry, it is important to
ensure that appropriate strategies are used for addressing each form of trafficking. We already
know from Chapter 7 that there are some villages, for example in West Java, where trafficking
in young girls for the sex industry flourishes. In some cases this trafficking involves family
members and neighbours from the village. Hence, the village has a big role to play and it
requires hard work and cooperation between a range of actors to reform the system at village
level and to change the community’s perspective that young girls working in the sex industry
is a normal thing. Cultural approaches may be needed here to overcome the strong culture and
beliefs that make it easy for girls to become victims of trafficking for the sex industry, and
make family members act as perpetrators. It can be done gradually through sharing knowledge
on the dangers and the more usual stigma attached to girls working in the sex industry, through
increased education to raise awareness and provide more opportunities for the young girls, and
through the religious leaders, the most respected people in the community, taking a strong role
in this.
An organisation working to address trafficking in children for marriage in Guinea, Gambia,
Mauritania, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal has addressed the social norms related to child
marriage by working with the family and creating a sustainable solution to end this practice
(Reyes 2015). Some of the programs to strengthen community involvement work on
strengthening community capacity to identify at-risk children; strengthening community
capacity to prevent child migration and trafficking to urban centres; strengthening community
capacity to help children in difficult situations, such as sex abuse and forced marriage;
supporting functional commissions for child protection in the communities (Tostan 2018).
201
Support for communities and villages to stop the practice of child trafficking is vital, and ways
of doing this need to be developed and tested for efficacy. Elements of awareness raising should
include spreading knowledge and awareness of trafficking and its harm to the family along
with providing economic support and increasing the financial capacity of the family and village
members to discourage them from recruiting young girls into the sex industry, educational
support to the children, and moral and religious reinforcement to the family. All these actions
are needed in the villages to end the family practice of sending children to working in the sex
industry in Indonesia.
8.3.1.3. Improve Job Opportunities by Creating and Supporting Local Business
In the previous chapter, we saw that obtaining economic benefit is the most important factor in
why people decide to traffic others. People are encouraged to participate in trafficking for the
sex industry and for domestic labour to maintain a certain lifestyle, because of a lack of job
opportunities, to get money easily, and because they tempted to gain big profits. Therefore,
improving job opportunities so that community members can earn enough to feed themselves
is a necessity to prevent human trafficking for domestic labour and the sex industry.
Some people participated in human trafficking due to the lack of job opportunities, even though
some of them did not even realise that what they were doing was human trafficking. Some
scholars believe that many people commit human trafficking due to their disadvantaged
economic situation, through poverty and lack of job opportunities (Keo 2011; Broad 2013;
Shen 2016; MacCarthy 2016; Asbill 2017; Levenkron 2007). This can be seen as a reality in
Indonesia as well, as many of the traffickers commit the crime because of their disadvantaged
background rather than because they are tempted by the high profits. So it is necessary to
improve economic opportunity to decrease the chance and desire to traffic others.
While it requires sustained long-term efforts to improve economic conditions in a country like
Indonesia at this stage, I argue that strategies need to be put in place to increase job
opportunities in the areas where trafficking is thriving. Some of the areas where trafficking is
rampant in Indonesia are poor areas where people experience severe economic disadvantage.
The province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), for example, where many people are trafficked
for domestic labour, occupies one of the lowest positions on the Human Development Index
(Li 2018, p. 251). The province has a high unemployment rate, and most children drop out of
202
school in the first year of junior secondary school. Most of the population there works in the
agricultural sector, but this provides work for less than four months a year (Li 2018, p. 251).
The region is characterised by a dry climate and crop failure is frequent (Colin 2007). One
interview participant talked about the poor housing in NTT where many houses are made from
wood and straw (ORG #1).
One of the ways to increase job opportunities is by providing training to improve the skills and
ability of society to set up small to medium enterprises. In places like East Nusa Tenggara
(NTT) with a lack of job opportunities and little industry to create jobs, people do not have
many options to earn a living. One interview participant described the local initiatives already
in place that try to promote the idea of developing skills and creating industry locally so that
the people in NTT do not need to chase jobs overseas, but can actually build up the economy
locally and stay there with their family (ORG #9). Training and support (including financial
assistance) to enable people to create local businesses is perhaps what is needed the most for
people in NTT at this time, not just to prevent them going abroad or out of the province, but
also to prevent many of them taking to crime to earn money.
One way to improve economic opportunity is through developing an agricultural industrial
zone. This idea comes from a project in Timor-Leste that I was involved with a few years ago.
Timor-Leste is geographically not far from NTT and has a similar situation in terms of
economic and social conditions. The country there also suffers from a lack of economic
opportunities. The aim of creating an agricultural industrial zone is to develop and promote
agricultural products and build farmers’ entrepreneurial capacity (Krismasari et al. 2018, p.
17). Timor-Leste is abundant in agricultural products, such as cassava and banana. However,
there was a lack of knowledge and skills among people on how to develop those natural plants
into something more valuable. Therefore, the agricultural industrial zone program aims to train
and empower farmers and the local community to turn those plants into a more diverse range
products, such as snacks, sweets, flour, and other food products. In the end the farmers can
develop and produce something valuable that can be sold, and generate a new source of income
for themselves (Krismasari et al. 2018, p. 17).
Another organisation has also created a similar program but one that focuses on women.
Women in rural areas of Timor-Leste are taught to maximise the value of their agricultural
products such as coffee, tea, and herbs. They are provided with support to gain the technical
203
skills to develop agricultural products and the training enables them not only to improve their
technical ability but also to generate new sources of income (PARCIC 2020). Adding value to
agricultural products could be applied in NTT as well. There are natural products that grow
well in NTT and can be developed, such as mango, cashew, coffee, peanut, cocoa, banana,
maize, cassava, sweet potato, grain, legumes, and seaweed (Brown et al. 2012). People in NTT,
as in Timor-Leste, would need to be provided with training to develop their skills to process
the natural resources in their areas to make them into something more valuable.
Economic disadvantage is the fundamental driver of human trafficking in NTT, in the opinion
of one of the organisation representatives. Therefore, improving job opportunities by
supporting local people to develop local products and start local businesses is one step in
preventing human trafficking (ORG #9). People need to gain new skills and create a new way
to support themselves, for instance by creating a simple business that fits the local environment
in NTT, so they no longer have to depend on rice farming or becoming migrant workers in
other areas. Hence, some assistance and support to increase the skills of people in NTT, in line
with what some organisations have done in Timor-Leste, is necessary at this stage, so they can
reach economic independence.
Similarly, the same program should be implemented in regions where sex trafficking is
common, so in selected villages in Indramayu, Sumedang, and Subang, West Java. People in
that area need to gain the necessary skills and be given assistance to set up new businesses.
However before looking to assist people to become entrepreneurs the practices and beliefs
embedded in that culture, where people think that working in commercial sex is normal or even
beneficial, have to be broken. As an NGO representative in Indramayu stated, due to the beliefs
within that society, in some cases people are more interested in working in the sex industry
than in other fields of work (ORG #6). Hence, commercial sex as a cultural manifestation is
deeply rooted in that society and this needs to be changed through education, community-
building, negotiation, and other such approaches before the community is provided with skills
or capital to establish businesses.
8.3.1.4. Planting the Seed (Human Trafficking Education at School)
Preventing people from participating in human trafficking through education is recommended
for both types, trafficking for domestic labour and for the sex industry. The school has a role
204
in providing early education on what human trafficking is and how people get involved as
traffickers, and also to give constant reminders about this issue. Chapter 7 of this thesis has
shown that many people committed human trafficking because they did not know that the
activity they were involved in was in fact human trafficking, and they rationalised their actions
as the right thing to do. Hence, teaching an understanding and awareness of human trafficking
as early as possible at school is important.
This relates to the information provide by an NGO participant that young children still at
elementary school have participated in human trafficking offenses. Those children gained
access to information on commercial sex activities from social media and lured their school
friends to work in commercial sex services (ORG #11). In another case, it appears that in some
cases human trafficking also happens with young girls involved with motorcycle gangs (ORG
#5; ORG #16). This was in big cities such as Bandung and Batam and those involved in the
motorcycle gang were around 13 to 20 years old (ORG #16). Those who joined the motorcycle
gang were influenced by other gang members to participate in the sex industry in places like
cafés or pubs (ORG #5).
Given that in some places it is easy for young people to fall into bad company, the school has
a significant role to play to address this issue at a young age and prevent someone from
committing human trafficking. Research suggests that a special education program could be
implemented in schools to prevent criminal behaviour (Faggiano et al. 2005; Borloti et al. 2017;
Frant 2017; Hahn et al. 2007). Hence, I argue that special programs on human trafficking might
also be tried in the schools in areas which are vulnerable to trafficking, to prevent the younger
generation committing trafficking in the future, and to change the bad culture already rooted
within their society.
Research also shows that in some cases people’s level of education determines their
vulnerability to committing a crime (Frant 2017; E’Agostino, Sironi & Sobbrio 2013). The
correlation between education and crime is undeniable. Increased education level helps to
decrease the risk of individual involvement in criminal activities (Frant 2017, p. 3). Through
education, people can be more adaptable to new social stimuli. Thus, prevention of crime can
be achieved through education (Ciorbaru 2018, p 79). It was explained in Chapter 6 that
offenders in human trafficking in the sex industry and domestic labour often have a low level
of education, perhaps only to lower-secondary school level or even just elementary school.
205
Similarly, Li (2018) also documents that in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) many young people do
not complete junior secondary school and that prevents them from obtaining skilled jobs (Li
2018, p. 252) which then makes it more likely that will get involved in crime. Therefore,
improving education levels and increasing the opportunity to gain an education in those areas
where human trafficking is prevalent is a necessary step towards improving conditions.
8.3.1.5. Women’s Empowerment and Participation in Anti-Trafficking Efforts
As we saw in Chapter 6, in Indonesia women rather than men make up a greater percentage of
human trafficking offenders both for domestic labour and for the sex industry. This applies not
only in Indonesia, as the share of women as female offenders in human trafficking globally is
also exceptionally high (Kangaspunta, Sarrica & Johansen 2016, p. 872). As noted in Chapter
3, it is not a new phenomenon that women play a significant role in the recruitment process of
trafficking for the sex industry and other trafficking forms (Siegel & De Blank 2010, p. 438).
Indeed women more commonly act as recruiters, since they may be more easily trusted by the
victims and so can engage with them (Heuni 2015). Hence, the efforts to prevent human
trafficking need to pay special attention to women as a perpetrators and engage them as a part
of the prevention process.
As discussed in Chapter 3, the involvement of women as traffickers cannot be separated from
their experience as victims (Broad 2015, p. 1065). In Indonesia, some of the women involved
in human trafficking whether for domestic labour or the sex industry have had prior experience
as victims themselves or working as prostitutes or domestic workers. Indeed, their experience
may have encouraged them to set up in the business and bring others to work in those illegal
areas (Lawyer #10; Lawyer #4; Lawyer #7; Lawyer #8). According to one interview
participant, many victims end up recruiting other people because they get an incentive payment
for doing so (Lawyer #7). However, although some women traffickers in Indonesia had
previous experience of being victims, this is not the sole factor why women participate in
trafficking. Other interviews have revealed that women can become involved in trafficking at
the request of or through enticement from others (Lawyer #6; #Lawyer #3) and from economic
pressure (Lawyer #2). So these factors too need to be looked at when seeking to prevent women
from becoming traffickers in the future.
206
To prevent women being involved in or committing trafficking, there need to be empowerment
and awareness raising programs for women about the trafficking issue and how they can be
vulnerable to becoming traffickers. Women should be warned that they are not only vulnerable
to becoming victims of trafficking but also to becoming perpetrators. From the information
provided in Chapters 6 and 7, it seems that some women can become involved in human
trafficking in the sex industry and domestic labour in Indonesia when they become a housewife
who stays at home. One interview participant told the story of her client, a single mother who
was working together with a café owner in Papua looking for women or girls to work in the
sex industry. She was in contact with that café owner and participated in the recruitment
process as she needed additional money to live on. She recruited a girl, a friend of her daughter,
and tried to connect her to the café owner and send her to Papua (Lawyer #3).
The data in Chapter 6 shows that eight of the 20 women convicted of human trafficking in
domestic labour, and five of 20 women convicted of human trafficking in the sex industry were
housewives. Some women who stay home commit trafficking because they need additional
money to live on, and another person gave them the opportunity. In some cases, the women
concerned were separated or divorced from their partner and lived alone (Lawyer #2; Lawyer
#3; Lawyer #4; Lawyer #10).
Campaniello (2014) argues that if women have more and better opportunities in the legal labour
market the number of female criminals can be reduced (Campaniello 2014, p. 2). Often women
in Indonesia, especially those in rural areas, have lower education levels and this prevents them
from gaining access to better jobs. Moreover gender stereotypes and traditional views of the
role of women in Indonesia have continuously put women and girls in a disadvantaged position.
This situation makes it difficult for them to have a full and equal participation in social and
economic life (The Asia Foundation 2012). Hence, given their situation, it is not difficult for
others to influence them to participate in human trafficking.
The remedy is to support and enhance the role of women in the economic and social life of the
community as a way to further prevent them from committing trafficking. Efforts to support
women might include training to enhance their skills, teaching and supporting them to set up
and run a small business or allowing them to become involved in activities or groups with
positive goals. Increasing access to capital through micro-credit may also help them to establish
new small and medium enterprises. As mentioned before, there is the example of supporting
207
women to become micro and small entrepreneurs in Timor-Leste. Women who did not have
the technical capability and resources to build a small business were supported and got access
to micro-finance (State Secretary for the Support and Promotion of the Private Sector Timor-
Leste 2013, p. 23). In Indonesia, implementing faith-based financial assistance initiatives such
as Islamic microfinance could also allow women to borrow money and kick start a small
business. Financial inclusion and access to credit can help people build a business and avoid
the need for them to become involved in crimes of desperation. As mentioned by UNU-CPR
(2019), when individuals and families have access to affordable credit and insurance services,
they are in a better position to protect themselves from economic stress, to build assets, and to
provide capital for the future (UNU-CPR 2019, p. 113).
In addition, it might be beneficial to increase the role of religious and community associations
in supporting women within their community to prevent them from engaging in crime. These
groups should offer support to women who are considered vulnerable to committing or
participating in human trafficking, or whose the situation is such that it might make them decide
to engage in crime. This is a case where the role of the religious leaders is important and they
need to be sensitive to the needs of all the people, women as well as men, in their community.
In the efforts to prevent trafficking, women could be included as actors that can share the
knowledge and improve awareness within the society. Therefore, human trafficking
interventions should be designed with women involved in every plan and activity. Women can
talk or communicate better with other women in the community, so that the desired messages
are understood and well received. Involving women in anti-trafficking interventions is
important because they may have a better understanding and can provide input on how to
prevent women in the local community for being involved in human trafficking, and what the
best ways are to support their life economically and as individuals.
8.3.1.6. Recruitment Agencies dealing with Labour Supply Abroad
The cases of human trafficking for domestic labour in Indonesia cannot be separated from the
involvement of the companies or agencies that recruit and send labour abroad. As documented
by Killias (2018), women enter the recruitment agencies where they are trained to become
maids overseas and wait for their placement (Killias 2018, p. 14). Li (2018) in his article
regarding human trafficking in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) states that the main perpetrators of
208
human trafficking in NTT were the recruitment agencies that send labour supply abroad. These
agencies are registered with the Ministry of Manpower Indonesia, but none of them have been
charged for their illegal activities (Li 2018, p. 256). Thus, it is clear that the government needs
to implement a comprehensive strategy to prevent these agencies from participating in human
trafficking (Li 2018, p. 257).
Article 34 of Law no. 39/2004 on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Workers states that
migrants should be informed of the recruitment process, the documentation requirements, their
rights, and the situation in the destination country. However, in the case of domestic labour, a
special regulation applies, in which they have to stay at training facilities run by the private
recruitment agencies. Despite government regulations, the women who are preparing to be
domestic workers are often kept for an unreasonable time and in difficult circumstances,
sharing accommodation with an excessive number of people in a remote location for example.
These arrangements were made by the agency under the pretext that it prepared them well for
working in another country (Rother 2017, p. 963). When the workers have reached the
destination country and start working, they pay a significant amount from their salary every
month as service fees to the recruitment agency (Bachtiar & Tirtosudarmo 2017, p. 150).
In 2017 the government passed the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers law that
mandates that the provincial government instead of private companies should monitor the pre-
departure training and the placement of workers. The key important provisions written in
Article 30 include a prohibition on any placement costs, and also the creation of a single agency
to license recruitment agencies (US DOS 2020, p. 260). However, until now, although there
are many formally recognised recruitment agencies, the Perusahaan Jasa Tenaga Kerja
Indonesia (PJTKI), agencies still impose placement costs on the workers and use informal ways
of recruitment and commit fraud, such as falsifying the identity documents, all of which places
people into situations where they are trafficked.
At the time I conducted interviews with organisation representatives, those agencies still played
a big role in the recruitment of domestic labour abroad, and undoubtedly, in many cases they
were involved in human trafficking (ORG #2; ORG #3; ORG #4; ORG #7; ORG #13). The
large and formal recruitment agencies or PJTKI who are located in the big cities played a role
in recruiting people from the smaller cities or rural areas. These agencies sometimes work with
smaller agents or have their own channels, perhaps a group of people in the villages who recruit
209
people who want to work. Later on, they will impose a fee on each person they have recruited
after they started working. This situation happens although in reality the employer abroad has
actually already paid a recruitment fee to the agency. Those agencies still include service fees
in the employment contract that must be paid by the workers once they earn their first salary
(Rosenberg 2003, p. 57).
In order to ensure that the migrant workers can work overseas safely, the operation of private
agencies in managing the pre-departure of migrant workers needs to be closely monitored. The
Ministry of Labour or another government body should establish a system that allows them to
monitor every part of the process performed by the agencies that send migrant labour abroad,
to ensure that they are operating according to the set guidelines. The government should
monitor the training provided by the agencies, ensure that the migrant workers are protected
and well treated before departure, ensure their safety with the employer in the country of
destination, and ensure that the migrant worker is receiving an appropriate salary free from any
fee imposed by the agencies in Indonesia. The government should also prohibit the recruitment
companies from employing other parties or persons outside their agencies to recruit people
from rural areas or smaller cities in order to avoid fraud, extortion, and human trafficking of
the workers in the future. This measure would also prevent people from becoming involved in
human trafficking offenses. This will avoid unwanted treatment and exploitation in the sending
countries. In addition, the government should have a list of agencies overseas that are approved
to cooperate with the agencies in Indonesia. This is to prevent the agencies in Indonesia from
working in collaboration with any parties who do not act responsible and who put the migrant
workers into dangerous situations.
An alternative is to minimise the role of these agencies. Wahyu Susilo, the Director of Migrant
Care Indonesia, has stated that formal recruitment agencies such as the PJTKIs are the source
of the problems for Indonesian migrant labour overseas (Wijaya 2013). Therefore, limiting the
role of the PJTKIs might be an option. The sending of unskilled migrant labour overseas would
be done through the government instead of through PJTKIs. The government could create a
single agency in every province in Indonesia to deal with the applications and placement of
migrant labour. In this way, the cases of document fraud, the unwanted service fees normally
imposed by the PJTKIs, debt bondage, and bad treatment during the training might be avoided.
In addition, the government would also vet and guarantee the agencies or employers who will
receive and employ the migrant workers overseas.
210
8.3.1.7. Approaches to Small Cafes, Spa Business, and Brothels
Much of the trafficking to the sex industry in Indonesia happens in small cafés, spas, and
brothels. As frequently mentioned in court documents (CDB #1; CDB #2; CDB #5; CDB #7;