Trafficking in Persons in Indonesia: A Review on Current Anti-Trafficking Legislation Development
Trafficking in persons has become a global phenomena, including within Indonesia. Even now, Indonesia is identified as a source, transit, and destination country for victims of trafficking in persons for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. The victims include women, children, and men. However, Indonesia is committed to preventing trafficking in persons, punishing offenders, and protecting victims of trafficking. Towards this end, Indonesia is taking many strategic and practical steps to eradicate trafficking in persons; including enacting current specific anti-trafficking law to cope with this type of crime; i.e., Law No. 21 of 2007 on the Eradication of Criminal Act of Trafficking in Persons. This article examines the development of anti trafficking legislation in Indonesia, including international instruments, prior legislation, and current legislation adopted in coping with the criminal act of trafficking in persons. The results would provide more undertsnading pertaining to trafficking in persons in Indonesia and the development of acts adopted by the country in adressing this criminal act. Keywords: Indonesia, trafficking in persons, legislation development
Experiences of exploitation and human trafficking among a sample of Indonesian migrant domestic workers
Significant growth in the economies of some Asian countries has led to a strong demand for low-skilled labour, which is largely being filled by migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries. Live-in migrant domestic workers are in particularly high demand, as the recruitment of migrants enables women in less developed countries to seek employment in skilled positions, instead of performing care-related and household tasks full-time (Lan 2003; Salazar Parrenas 2000). Yet, migrants are particularly vulnerable to labour exploitation and human exploitation and human rights abuses, which in some cases involve human trafficking (Anti-Slavery Internal 2006; Human Rights Watch 2010, 2006, 2004; ILO 2006a, 2006b; IOM 2010; OSCE 2010). Labour exploitation can involve abusive working conditions where an employee is forced to work and is not free to cease proving services, as well as wage manipulation, excessive working days or hours, low or no salary and a general disregard for labour laws ( such as the absence or substitution of an employee contract; ILO 2009). Labour exploitation can result from human trafficking where a person has been recruited, transferred or received, by means of threat, coercion or deception, for the purpose of exploitation. The vulnerability of migrants to these human rights abuses can be partly attributed to high levels of undocumented labour migration and unscrupulous practices by labour agents, as well as an apparent 'normalisation' or 'invisibilisation' of exploitation and abuse among employers of domestic workers in some countries (GATW 2011:57).
Experiences of trafficked persons: An Indonesian sample
Much has been written about the paucity of data on trafficking in persons, including barriers to collecting information and the lack of reliable and standardised collection methodologies. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has sought to address this through the development of the Counter Trafficking Module (CTM) Database. In 1999, IOM developed and implemented the CTM, which is the largest global database of its kind, containing primary data on victims of trafficking. The CTM facilitates the management of lOM's direct assistance work, specifically the Return, Recovery and Reintegration Program. In doing so, it maps the trafficking experience of victims and contains a wealth of information regarding the characteristics and histories of trafficked persons, the nature of the trafficking process (including recruitment and transportation methods), patterns of exploitation and abuse, instances of re-trafficking and the nature of assistance provided by IOM. As such, it strengthens the research capacity and knowledge about the causes, processes, trends and consequences of trafficking.At a global level, IOM has provided assistance to more than 20,000 trafficked persons from over 85 different nationalities trafficked to more than 100 destination countries. Given that the majority of persons trafficked into Australia are known to originate from southeast Asia, examining trafficking patterns in this region will provide valuable insight for more targeted government responses. To this end, the Australian Institute of Criminology has worked collaboratively with IOM Indonesia to analyse the CTM Indonesia database. This is the first of four papers arising from that analysis.In this paper, the literature regarding trafficking trends and processes in southeast Asia is examined (with a focus on Indonesia) and compares this with an analysis of the IOM Indonesia CTM database. Other papers in the series will examine the support needs of trafficked persons, barriers to involvement in criminal justice proceedings and the experiences of Indonesians trafficked for domestic service, who make up a large proportion of victims in the CTM Indonesia database.The Indonesian sampleThe IOM Indonesia CTM database holds qualitative and quantitative information relating to 3,701 trafficked Indonesians (1 person was Cambodian by nationality) identified between January 2005 and January 2010. Among this group, Javanese was the most common ethnicity (35%; n=1,300), followed by Sundanese (19%; n=716). The overwhelming majority of trafficked persons were female (90%; n=3,343).Most trafficked persons were aged 1 8 to 24 years (34%; n=1 ,256), followed by those aged 25 to 34 years (26%; n=977). Almost one in four were children aged less than 18years(24%;n=887).Half (50%; n=1 ,863) of the sample identified their marital status as single, followed by those who were married (28%; n=1 ,053). The largest proportion (39%; n=1,445) identified elementary schooling as their highest level of education. Prior to having been trafficked, most (30%; n=1 ,093) had been employed as domestic workers and the overwhelming majority nominated economic problems/job seeking as their primary reason for leaving their home village (88%; n=3,263). Selected demographic characteristics are presented in Table 1 .Migration, labour exploitation and trafficking in southeast AsiaThere is significant migration within and out of the southeast Asian region that is influenced by a range of factors, but a specific motivator is the desire for better work (and life) opportunities (Joudo Larsen 2010). Migrants are known to travel via both regular and irregular pathways (Joudo Larsen, U'ndley & Putt 2009; UNODC 2009). Where migration is via irregular means, migrants may be particularly vulnerable to exploitative labour due to their illegal work status in the destination country. Such exploitative labour is not necessarily people trafficking (see definition in Box 1), where trafficking exists at the extreme end of a spectrum of exploitative labour practices. …