TIP UPDATE: POLICE RAIDS FREE CHILD PROSTITUTES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 003680 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/IET, EAP/RSP, G/TIP ALSO FOR USAID ANE/SPOTS, ANE/SEA, IGAT/WID, DCHA/DG DEPT OF JUSTICE FOR ICITAP AND OPDAT DEPT PASS TO DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL EAID KJUS KCRM ID SUBJECT: TIP UPDATE: POLICE RAIDS FREE CHILD PROSTITUTES AND MIGRANT WORKERS; GOI STUDIES CHANGES IN MIGRANT LABOR SYSTEM REF: A. JAKARTA 2979 - 2006 TIP REPORT ¶B. JAKARTA 3490 - ANTI-CORRUPTION MOVES FORWARD Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The new head of Indonesia's national police anti-trafficking unit (Unit III) has targeted removal of children from prostitution as his first operational priority. Unit III's chief reports that police units in Surabaya, Batam and Jakarta have freed some 37 child victims in these locations and arrested 38 suspected traffickers in these operations over the past two months. Anti-corruption efforts stopped dishonest officials from interfering in these law enforcement actions against child prostitution, according to Unit III's leader. Separately, police and Manpower Ministry officials have raided five migrant worker holding centers since January, freeing 946 female migrant workers and making 8 arrests, including one suspected trafficker from Lebanon and a notorious Indonesian recruiter. A senior Manpower Ministry official described attempts to improve the migrant worker system to better protect workers and address debt bondage, including examination of private credit schemes and the proposal for an independent authority to oversee the migrant worker process. While much hard work lies ahead, new police actions against child prostitution and continued official raids on migrant worker centers relate directly to priorities we have identified for Indonesia, namely combating internal child trafficking and stopping abuses in the migrant worker system. End Summary. New Anti-Trafficking Chief in Police Force -------------- ¶2. (SBU) We met on March 17 with Anton Charliyan, the new head of the National Police Headquarters' anti-trafficking unit (Unit III) located in the Criminal Investigative Division (CID). With a reputation as a tough investigator who rose to prominence in the ongoing murder case of human rights activist Munir, Anton explained that he had taken up his new role at the beginning of 2006. Anton stated that he had increased Unit III's focus on actual investigations of traffickers, whether carried out by Unit III or, as is more common, by police officials at the local levels. To this end, Anton had drafted and sent out a National Police Headquarters bulletin to all provincial police offices (POLDA),highlighting the need for more police action and instructing POLDAs to report on their anti-trafficking activities. Unit III has called a coordination meeting of provincial police representatives for April to discuss anti-trafficking efforts, he explained. Anton invited the Embassy to address this internal police meeting. Police Free 37 Children, Arrest 38 Suspects -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Anton stated that the national police, with his advice, had chosen to prioritize the rescue of children from prostitution during an initial operational phase. (Comment: The 2005 TIP report urges Indonesia to better address internal trafficking, and we have urged steps to combat child prostitution in major prostitution areas. End Comment.) In this context, since January police had carried out raids to identify, rescue and release children from brothels in four locales: Jakarta, Surabaya's Dolly area, Batam and Tanjung Pinang. As a deterrent measure, Anton advocated maximum sentencing of the suspects found guilty. ¶4. (SBU) Unit III and other sources provided data on the Jakarta and Surabaya operations, and additional Jakarta raids as follows. We have not received data on the Batam and Tanjung Pinang police operations: -- Jakarta, January 24: A January 24 raid by Unit III personnel on Jakarta's Sariayu brothel area uncovered and rescued 10 girls below the age of 18, resulting in 9 arrests JAKARTA 00003680 002 OF 003 of pimps and business front owners. Police charged suspects under the 2002 Child Protection Act and the criminal code, and delivered their reports to the prosecutors on March 1. Police took an additional 140 women and male prostitutes to the Social Affairs Ministry's social rehabilitation center. -- Surabaya, March 1: According to Anton, AmCon Surabaya police contacts and press sources, a March 1 raid by Surabaya police in the Dolly brothel area resulted in police identifying and rescuing 19 or 20 child prostitutes. Police quickly handed the children into the care of local NGO and IOM shelters. The raid followed a day-long ILO training seminar on combating child prostitution. Police had difficulties in determining the ages of prostitutes due to the prevalence of false identity cards. Police arrested 5 persons for violating the Child Protection Act and the criminal code, and have sent their reports to prosecutors. -- Jakarta, March 11, 13 and 14: West Jakarta police raided three brothels on these dates, releasing over 180 adult prostitutes and 2 children, according to Unit III summary data. The police arrested 24 persons for pimping, chargeable under the criminal code. Corrupt Officials Could Not Stop Raids -------------- ¶5. (SBU) We asked Anton about police actions against individual police force members who involved themselves in prostitution or trafficking, noting the frequent reports of individual police officers who provide protection to brothels or take protection payments. (Note: We do not have specific reports of security force members, police or military, acting as traffickers. The reports and observations available normally highlight payoffs to corrupt individual police officers or their employment as security personnel. End Note.) Anton said that the current unprecedented national anti-corruption drive (ref B) and anti-trafficking directives from the national police leadership have resulted in a changed operating environment for police actions. In police operations this year targeted at freeing child prostitutes, corrupt officials were not willing or able to turn off police raids and protect brothel owners from arrest. Individual police officers have grown more aware that child prostitution is a serious crime that cannot be tolerated. While falling short of criminal prosecution of corrupt officials, Anton viewed this as a sign of an important shift. ¶6. (SBU) Anton noted that while initial actions this year have focused on internal child trafficking for prostitution (a step the Jakarta Mission has advocated and welcomed),Unit III would not neglect international trafficking. He explained that he would depart Jakarta March 18 on a mission to Malaysia to help establish better law enforcement cooperation there, and then to the Middle East, a major trafficking destination for Indonesian victims. Manpower Ministry on Migrant Worker Protection -------------- - ¶7. (SBU) On March 20 we called on the Manpower Ministry's Director General for Overseas Manpower Placement and Development, I Gede Arka, and noted continued concerns over the practice of debt bondage in Indonesia's migrant worker system. While the vast majority of Indonesian migrant workers are not trafficked, debt bondage increased the vulnerability of migrant workers to trafficking and other abuse. We also raised the conditions in migrant worker holding centers, operated by licensed and unlicensed migrant worker recruiting agencies (PJTKI). ¶8. (SBU) Arka responded that the holding centers, when operated according to GOI standards, serve a legitimate purpose, namely to provide basic training and orientation to unskilled and poorly educated workers before they are sent overseas, and to conduct visa and document processing for the JAKARTA 00003680 003 OF 003 migrant workers. Arka admitted that there are abuses in some centers, particularly in unlicensed locations. Following passage of the 2004 Migrant Worker Protection Act, the Manpower Ministry and police had conducted raids against abusive migrant worker holding centers in the greater Jakarta area, Surabaya, Batam and Tanjung Pinang. Allowing us to examine his computer records, Arka demonstrated that since late 2004 these actions had resulted in raids on 34 centers (7 unlicensed),the arrest of 36 PJTKI managers, the conviction of 4 suspects, and the release of 3,443 female migrant workers. The data revealed the following annual breakdown: 2006 2004 2005 to date Total -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- PJTKI raided 10 19 5 34 licensed 8 15 4 27 unlicensed 2 4 1 7 Arrests 12 16 8 36 Victims Rescued 1093 1404 946 3443 ¶9. (SBU) According to Arka, recent arrests included a Lebanese national who reportedly sold women to Syria, Egypt and Turkey. Another recent arrestee was Jimmy Chandra, an abusive migrant worker recruiter originally arrested in December 2002, but not successfully prosecuted. Arka said the Ministry was pressing prosecutors to demand a ten-year jail sentence for Chandra. Exploring Alternatives to PJTKI Debts, Other Reforms -------------- -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Arka explained that the Ministry was exploring alternatives to the current practice in which most migrant workers are indebted to the PJTKI. The Ministry had worked with three Indonesian banks and one Taiwanese bank to find private credit schemes for poor migrant workers. In general, the banks had balked at taking risks associated with lending to impoverished individuals without repayment guarantees and lacking a clear system for periodic repayments from workers abroad. ¶11. (SBU) The Ministry also has proposed the establishment of an independent body to better administer and monitor the migrant worker recruiting system, tentatively called the Indonesian Migrant Worker Placement and Protection Agency. The proposal is under consideration by the President's office and would need funding by the legislature. Arka compared this proposed body to the independent authority functioning in the Philippines. ¶12. (SBU) Arka's staff noted the recent creation of migrant worker service centers in 12 districts located in Java, West Kalimantan and eastern Indonesia. The Ministry has tasked the centers with public dissemination of information on the migrant worker system, ways to identify and avoid illegal recruiters, and raising awareness of trafficking related to migrant labor. PASCOE