Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06JAKARTA13324
2006-11-28 09:18:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Jakarta
Cable title:  

INDONESIA'S INTERIM ASSESSMENT FOR TRAFFICKING IN

Tags:  PHUM PGOV ELAB KWMN SMIG ID 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0007
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #3324/01 3320918
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 280918Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2239
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 013324 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

FOR EAP/RSA, G/TIP, EAP/IET

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ELAB KWMN SMIG ID
SUBJECT: INDONESIA'S INTERIM ASSESSMENT FOR TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS SPECIAL WATCHLIST COUNTRIES

REF: A. STATE 178111- INSTRUCTIONS

B. 06 JAKARTA 2849- 2006 INDONESIA TIP REPORT

C. 05 JAKARTA 12001- 2005 CHILD LABOR REPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 013324

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

FOR EAP/RSA, G/TIP, EAP/IET

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ELAB KWMN SMIG ID
SUBJECT: INDONESIA'S INTERIM ASSESSMENT FOR TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS SPECIAL WATCHLIST COUNTRIES

REF: A. STATE 178111- INSTRUCTIONS

B. 06 JAKARTA 2849- 2006 INDONESIA TIP REPORT

C. 05 JAKARTA 12001- 2005 CHILD LABOR REPORT


1. (U) Embassy Jakarta provides the following interim
assessment of targeted actions by Indonesia on trafficking in
persons (TIP) since the June release of the 2006 TIP report,
as requested in ref A.

Anti-Trafficking Legislation
--------------


2. (SBU) A comprehensive anti-trafficking bill is in the
final stages of consideration by Parliament. Provided that
some important details can be ironed out, the government and
informed NGO observors are cautiously optimistic that the
bill will pass in early 2007. Meanwhile, local governments
in East Java and elsewhere have passed their own
anti-trafficking legislation.

Criminal Investigations, Prosecutions and Convictions
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) A. Police Investigations: The Indonesian National
Police trafficking unit in mid-October reported the following
2006 data on investigations: 90 trafficking suspects
involving 437 victims, compared with 82 suspects and 143
victims for 12 months in 2005. National Police have
submitted 23 cases to prosecutors and are still investigating
24, compared with 12 cases submitted in 2005.


B. Prosecutions: The Attorney General,s Office (AGO) is
currently prosecuting 24 trafficking cases (this figure does
not include cases handled by local prosecutors for which we
have no statistics). We documented 30 prosecutions
nationwide in 2005 based on monitoring of media reports; this
figure included local prosecutions. The AGO provided no
statistics in 2005 but has just begun to collect some 2006
statistics. The AGO,s Transnational Crime Task Force in
October 2006 provided a detailed list of 10 trafficking cases
the task force is pursuing since it started operating in
July, these 10 cases representing nearly half of the task
force,s 21 cases, the remainder being terrorism cases.


C. Convictions: We documented 18 convictions as of November
2006, based on the following two sources: International

Organization for Migration (IOM),working with local NGOs,
assisted 82 victims to take legal action leading to 16
convictions; secondly, an NGO in Medan, Pusaka Indonesia,
tracked two cases that led to conviction. These 18
convictions resulted in an average sentence of 4 years. This
compares with 15 convictions we documented for the 12 months
of 2005, with an average sentence of 27 months. (Our 2004 and
2005 conviction data was based on a different methodology of
following media reports and calling police). Passage of the
comprehensive TIP law would improve data collection since it
would put all trafficking cases under the same legal
prohibition.

Law Enforcement Against Labor Exploitation Trafficking
-------------- --------------


4. (SBU) Progress this year includes cooperation by
Indonesian embassies and consulates in recipient countries
who work with IOM to restore travel documents and bring
Indonesian victims home. Malaysian authorities inform IOM
when victims are being deported at border points so that IOM
and local partner NGOs can meet victims at border crossings
and escort them to recovery hospitals and rehabilitation
centers, preventing them from being retrafficked. GOI
provides facilities for outpatient victim treatment, assists
in reintegration, and pays for about a third of the cost of
hospital treatment for IOM-assisted victims. IOM has rescued
1500 victims since May 2005. Rescued victims are treated at
police hospitals where police interview victims in order to
pursue investigations both domestically and abroad.
Unfortunately, an MOU between Indonesia and Malaysia on
migrant workers protects the rights of Malaysian employers to
the detriment of Indonesian workers. The Ministry of
Manpower has done little to enforce existing labor laws that
would protect workers against internal and external
trafficking, allowing some employment agencies to traffic
workers through debt bondage. However, some unlicensed
migrant worker holding centers have been raided and victims
rescued. The manpower ministry also signed an MOU with Bank
Rakyat Indonesia to provide private credit assistance
totaling over USD 22 million for poor migrant workers so that
they do not fall into debt bondage. The Minister of Women's
Empowerment held a workshop on debt bondage in September to

JAKARTA 00013324 002 OF 003


raise awareness and shed more light on the problem.


Combating Traffick-Related Corruption
--------------


5. (SBU) The new Director General of Immigration Basyir
Ahmad Barmawi, who took office in September 2006, is a former
high ranking police officer who has a good reputation for
integrity and reportedly wants to clean up corruption and
fight trafficking. He told international NGOs that he has
been instructed by the both the Justice Minister and the
President to clean up rampant corruption among immigration
officials. One result is that two senior immigration
officials working near a trafficking transit point are being
investigated by police for complicity in trafficking by
issuing false passports; another immigration official
committed suicide this year when being investigated; and a
local government official in a trafficking transit area is
being held by police for issuing false documents. The
Anti-Corruption Court in September sentenced a former
Indonesian consul general in Penang, Malaysia, to 20 months
in jail for charging illegal fees to process immigration
documents. The national chief of police is also known to be
tough on corruption and trafficking. This is evidenced in
North Sumatra, where the provincial police chief was chosen
in part to stop trafficking, achieving some early success.
In Riau islands, the provincial police chief is reportedly
cleaning up prostitution. While this type of commitment has
yet to trickle very far into the bureaucracy, President
Yudhoyono,s anti-corruption stance is making inroads.
Still, corruption among immigration officials, police,
military, prosecutors, and manpower officials -- and their
complicity in trafficking -- remains a major impediment.

Addressing Internal Trafficking
--------------


6. (SBU) There is extensive internal trafficking primarily
from rural to urban areas for commercial sexual exploitation
and for other forced labor, especially involuntary domestic
servitude. Poverty, high unemployment and lack of education
fuel internal trafficking. Many trafficking cases go
unnoticed because unlicensed or crooked employment agents
seek victims directly. Forged identification documents
(either fake or with false biodata) makes finding and
rescuing trafficking victims very difficult. There are no
reliable figures on the number of persons, including
children, who are trafficked internally, but there is
continued acceptance of children being employed as domestic
workers. There is a lack of awareness and concern about the
problem of forced domestic servitude and efforts to address
this problem are in their infancy. On the positive side,
programs by Indonesian and international NGOs are reaching
out to local Muslim leaders, educators and community groups
to educate young people, their families and the community
about trafficking. Some programs are reaching the hidden
population of child domestic workers. There is a large
grassroots NGO effort to raise awareness and articles on the
plight of domestic servants and child labor appear regularly
in the media.

Other Significant Developments
--------------


7. (SBU) The GOI budget includes a new line item of nearly
USD 4.8 million in 2006 for anti-trafficking programs.
Training of law enforcement officials greatly increased this
year, with USG and other international support: 70 religious
judges (58 percent of sharia judges) in Aceh are being
trained in adjudicating trafficking cases; the entire
60-member Supreme Court attended a one-day seminar on
trafficking at the request of the chief justice; 450 new
prosecutors (of the nation,s 6,000 prosecutors) attended
intensive anti-trafficking training last summer, with
training curriculum now in place for future courses at the
AGO's Training Center; 150 police and NGO representatives
were trained in joint anti-trafficking classes in East Java;
prosecutors from the newly formed national anti-trafficking
task force and North Sumatra prosecutors, about 60
prosecutors in total, were trained in anti-trafficking; 60
prosecutors and investigators who will work with
international law enforcement targeting foreign pedophiles
who exploit Indonesian children received specialized training
from DOJ and the French Ministry of Interior; and the AGO's
Transnational Crime Task Force has started a series of
training programs for local prosecutors on TIP and other
issues.


JAKARTA 00013324 003 OF 003



8. (SBU) A detailed manual on how trafficking can be
prosecuted under existing law is now used as part of all
police training, with 20,000 copies distributed nationwide.
A 12-person trafficking police unit has been formed at the
national level and DOJ is working with the INP to expand this
unit to hundreds of officers; in addition, 40-50 police
trained in trafficking were recently assigned to train police
nationwide. An integrated effort to rescue, treat and
reintegrate victims into the community is being carried out
nationally and at the local levels. Local task forces are
focusing local government resources and building links with
NGOs to fight trafficking. For example, in both North
Sumatra and East Java, two important hubs for international
and domestic trafficking, a large alliance of government and
NGO leaders is successfully organizing programs to help
victims reintegrate into society and avoid being
retrafficked, and at the same time conducting extensive
outreach programs into the poor, rural communities where many
victims originate.
PASCOE