2007 CHILD LABOR UPDATE FOR INDONESIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 JAKARTA 003359 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS STATE FOR DEPT OF LABOR/ILAB - TINA MCCARTER STATE FOR DRL/IL - TU DANG NSC FOR EPH SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ELAB PREL PHUM ID SUBJECT: 2007 CHILD LABOR UPDATE FOR INDONESIA REF: STATE 158223 ¶1. SUMMARY. The GOI has a strong legal framework to prevent the Worst Form of Child Labor. Implementation of these safeguards is lacking but improving. Passage of a robust anti-trafficking law in 2007 represented a step forward. Issues that need to be addressed include: child exploitation in domestic servitude and forced prostitution through debt bondage. Decentralization has resulted in increased exploitation of some children. There are an estimated 2.1 million child laborers in Indonesia, according to official figures, but civil society suspects the numbers are higher. END SUMMARY. PROBLEM AREAS ¶2. The majority of child work in Indonesia occurs in rural areas. Children work in agriculture primarily on palm oil, tobacco, rubber, tea, and marijuana plantations. Children also work in fisheries, construction, manufacturing (such as footwear production, textiles, and food processing),and small-scale mining sector. Other children work in the informal sector selling newspapers, shining shoes, street vending, scavenging, and working beside their parents in family businesses or cottage industries. There are also large numbers of street children. Children, primarily females, also are exploited in domestic service and are often subject to forced labor, as well as prostitution. There were 2.1 million child domestic workers in 2007, according to the National Statistical Bureau, although the National Child Protection Commission believes that this figure understates the magnitude of the problem. DOMESTIC SERVITUDE ¶3. Many girls under age 18 and even under age 15 work long hours at low wages as domestic servants, according to reliable NGO studies underway in 2007. They are oftentimes under perpetual debt bondage due to pay advances given to the children's families by brokers. The problem is hidden because children work under lock and key. So-called "foundations" are commonly used as fronts for trafficking children as domestic servants. One NGO identified 285 child domestic workers in Bandung and 305 in Surabaya under age 17 -- mostly under age 15. From November 2006 to October 2007, another NGO rescued 313 boys and girls aged 7 to 17, including 107 aged 15 and under. They had been trafficked to Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Indonesia. FISHING AND FARMING ¶4. The exploitation of boys aged 15 to 17 on fishing platforms in North Sumatra, which had been reduced to less than 10 boys in 2006 under a now-completed ILO project, crept up to 14 in 2007, according to monitoring by an Indonesian NGO. Children age 15 to 17 work in small workshops producing footwear, generally in unsafe environments. Child labor is used in small-scale family and community tobacco farms. Children also are recruited from families living on large palm oil plantations to work on nearby small-scale oil plantations in slash-and-burn agriculture, oftentimes at low or no pay. The Child Protection Commission in December 2007 uncovered children employed in the birds' nest processing industry in West Jakarta, involving what they suspect will be thousands of children aged 15 and under. The commission rescued six children from one of the homes where this activity took place and are attempting to rescue other children. ILLICIT ACTIVITIES ¶5. Children also are exploited in the production of pornography and in the sex industry. ILO in 2002/2003 estimated that about 21,000 girls under 18 were in prostitution in Java island alone, many under debt bondage. Trafficking of young girls from one urban area to another across the archipelago by syndicates is a common practice and aided and abetted by officials. Children also are trafficked internally for begging activities. Children also are known to be involved in the production, trafficking, and/or sale of drugs, both manufactured drugs and marijuana, according to reliable NGO studies. TRAFFICKING ¶6. Indonesia is primarily a source, and to a lesser extent destination, country for individuals trafficked internationally and JAKARTA 00003359 002 OF 005 internally, including children. Children, primarily girls, are trafficked internationally from Indonesia primarily to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and a number of other countries in the Middle East and Asia, as well as to Europe and the U.S., according to 2007 NGO and official findings. They are trafficked internally mainly from rural to urban areas. Girls also are trafficked into Indonesia, mainly from China and Eastern Europe. Girls are primarily trafficked both internationally and domestically for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic work and in restaurants and hotels, whereas boys are trafficked to work in construction and on plantations. Children are also trafficked to work in organized begging rings. LAWS AND CONVENTIONS ¶7. In 1989, Indonesia adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In March 2000, Indonesia ratified ILO Convention No. 182 (Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor). Indonesia has also ratified the main ILO Conventions relating to child labor. ILO Convention No. 138 (Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment),was ratified in June 1999. The minimum age for work is ¶15. The law contains an exception for employing children from 13 up to 15 years to perform light work that does not disrupt their physical, mental, and social development. A set of requirements is outlined for employment of children in this age range, including a maximum of 3 hours of work per day, parental permission, and no disruption of schooling. ¶8. Indonesia has ratified ILO Convention 182 and Law No. 13 of 2003 reiterates the convention's articles on hazardous labor while Minister of Manpower Decree No. 235 of 2003 defines types of work that are hazardous to children. Under Law No. 235 of 2003, employing and involving children under 18 in the worst forms of child labor (WFCL) or economic exploitation are prohibited under the law; failure to comply can result in criminal sanctions of 2 to 5 years of imprisonment. The law defines WFCL as slavery; use of children in prostitution, pornography and gambling; use of children for the production and trade of alcohol, narcotics, and addictive substances; and all types of work harmful to the health, safety and morals of children. The law identifies a list of such harmful activities and provides detailed descriptions and examples of these activities. These include jobs requiring children to work with machines; jobs where physical, chemical, or biological hazards are present; jobs with inherent hazards such as construction, offshore fishing, lifting heavy loads etc; and jobs that harm the morals of the children including working in bars, massage parlors, discotheques, or promoting alcohol or drugs to arouse sexual desire. Persons who expose children to such hazardous activities are liable to terms of up to 5 years of imprisonment or a fine. ¶9. An Indonesian decree calls for general programs to ban and abolish WFCL and improve family income, and for specific programs for non-formal education and returning children to school by providing scholarships. Additional specific legal sanctions are laid out against offenses of commercial sexual exploitation, child trafficking, involving children in the production or distribution of alcohol or narcotics, and involving children in armed conflict. Anyone exercising legal custody of a child under 12 years for the purpose of providing that child to another person, knowing that the child will be used for the purposes of begging, harmful work, or work that affects the child's health, face a maximum sentence of 4 years imprisonment. The law also prohibits sexual intercourse outside of marriage with a female recognized to be less than 15 years, engaging in an obscene act with a person under 15 years, and forcing or allowing sexual abuse of a child, with maximum penalties ranging from 7 to 12 years of imprisonment. NEW ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAW ¶10. The GOI passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking law in March ¶2007. The law meets international standards to prevent and outlaw trafficking, and includes a comprehensive legal mandate for rescue and rehabilitation of victims. The law outlaws all forms of trafficking including debt bondage and sexual exploitation. It also provides stiff penalties for complicity in trafficking by officials and labor agents, which include harsh prison sentences. Penalties for trafficking of a child, under 18 years, range from three to 15 years in prison, with penalties for officials higher by one-third, and fines of between $12,000 and $60,000. JAKARTA 00003359 003 OF 005 ¶11. The minimum age for recruitment or enlistment into the armed forces is 18 years. The law protects children in emergencies, including natural disasters. ¶12. Indonesia has also ratified almost all major conventions relating to trafficking. In addition to those referred to above, Indonesia has ratified ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor, the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and has signed the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. Indonesia has also signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its supplemental Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. STRONG LEGAL FRAMEWORK ¶13. The legal framework relating to working children has changed significantly in recent years and a number of important pieces of legislation have either been enacted or are presently in the pipeline. Taken together this new body of law represents an important step forward. The reforms in part constitute part of a wider process underway in Indonesia in which the GOI has indicated its commitment to an approach to labor policy consistent with ILO standards. The major challenge now facing the GOI is to effectively socialize and enforce the new legal framework. CHILD LABOR INSPECTIONS ¶14. Ministry of Manpower authorities at the provincial and district levels enforce child labor laws. However, Indonesia's Child Protection law is oftentimes not enforced; for example, there have been no documented cases of prosecution for exploitation of child domestic workers. Labor inspectors' involvement in child labor issues is limited. Inspectors work with inadequate human and financial resources. As they cannot inspect all workplaces, they give priority to large enterprises and consequently leave out the unregulated informal sector where most child laborers are found. There also are indications that decentralization has had a negative impact on the overall effectiveness of the labor inspectorate. However, Parliament recently ratified ILO Convention 81 in 2007 on Labor Inspection. This Convention includes provisions on the need for inspection services to cover children and young workers which, when implemented, could improve enforcement of child work protection laws. LAW ENFORCEMENT ¶15. The national police's anti-trafficking unit and other law enforcement bodies have increased efforts to combat trafficking of children. Law enforcement against traffickers increased in 2006 over 2005, according to the most recent data gathered by the USG data: arrests increased 29 percent; prosecutions increased 87 percent; and convictions increased 112 percent. High rates of arrest continued in 2007. The GOI has trained over a thousand law enforcement officials on fighting trafficking. The numbers of special anti-trafficking police and prosecutors increased. Police targeted operations trafficking children domestically and internationally, breaking up several large syndicates, rescuing dozens of children and arresting officials complicit in falsifying the age of children in documents. NEEDED POLICY REFORMS ¶16. As the above cited case of children working in the birds' nest processing industry illustrates, lack of Ministry of Manpower oversight and police enforcement allow such situations to persist, according to the Child Protection Commission. There is a need to establish a comprehensive national enforcement policy including clear policy instructions on labor inspection and child labor, which would include: --Establishing priorities for the most hazardous or abusive situations; --Defining clear objectives for interventions, including elimination of illegal employment of children; --Preventive measures to improve the conditions of children who are legally employed and to extend intervention to all types of JAKARTA 00003359 004 OF 005 workplaces. PENAL CODE INADEQUATE ¶17. The Penal Code fails to provide protection for children involved in some of the WFCL, such as sexual exploitation and involvement in the drug business. The main issues with the articles in the Penal Code are that different definitions of a child complicates implementation of the law; the statutory age for criminal responsibility of 8 years old does not offer children the special protection they need; and prosecution for sexual exploitation is dependent on the victim's report, while victims are often too ashamed or scared to report. CHILD BRIDES ¶18. The marriage law allows early marriages which technically makes a child into an adult. The law can be misused for fake marriages to make a child enter into prostitution or migrant work 'legally'. A high prevalence of very early marriages (involving persons under 16 years old) occurs in all provinces in Indonesia. DOCUMENT FRAUD ¶19. Lack of free, compulsory birth registration, results in 30 percent of Indonesians being unregistered. For law enforcement purposes, it is often impossible to be certain of a child's age. Ages can be falsified on identity cards, a practice which sometimes involves the cooperation of government officials. The Child Protection Act provides for free registration but it will be a major challenge to give proper effect to the law. MIGRANT PROTECTION ¶20. There is no law or effective service to protect exploitation of Indonesians working abroad although new legislation is currently being considered. The proposed new migrant protection law provides a minimum age of 21 for migration, unless the migrant is married. However, with falsified identity cards or via illegal migration, many children may still work abroad without protection. While police and immigration are beginning to increase enforcement to stop child labor migration, the practice is widely accepted in society as a way of providing a livelihood for the masses of unemployed youth, and officials oftentimes falsify the ages of children on documents in the belief that they are helping them to go abroad and find work. PROTECTION OF TRAFFICKING VICTIMS ¶21. Under the five-year anti-trafficking National Plan of Action (NPA) and Task Force, there was a more coordinated approach to trafficking at the provincial and local levels as 17 NPA local task forces took root in communities across the country. Local task forces resulted in good cooperation among law enforcement agencies, social service providers and NGOs in many communities as these task forces met frequently. The national and local task forces include social services, health and law enforcement agencies, as well as civil society organizations. Trafficking victims are treated at police hospitals where they receive counseling and are interviewed by police so that they can press charges if they so choose. National and local governments expanded services for victims, including medical treatment, shelter, rehabilitation, and reintegration, although the GOI is still dependent on international assistance to provide these services. GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES ¶22. Following are examples of a few of the government efforts to fight WFCL in 2007: -- Sukabumi District, West Java, allocated USD20,000 to raise awareness on trafficking among senior high school students, community members and for the establishment of a district plan of action. -- Medan Municipality signed a new decree on elimination of WFCL in conjunction with the establishment of the Medan Municipality Action Committee on Elimination of WFCL. -- East Kutai District in East Kalimantan established the District Action Committee on WFCL. JAKARTA 00003359 005 OF 005 -- West Java's Provincial Regulation on Child Protection went into effect. -- East Java's Government Initiative No. 22 to prevent child labor, trafficking and child sexual exploitation has since 2005 brought the provincial government together with related NGOs to implement programs to prevent WFCL, including public awareness campaigns, training, shelters, repatriation of child victims. -- National Labor Force Survey conducted by the Central Bureau for Statistics in August 2007 included one question on child labor, with the objective of establishing a sampling framework for a National Child Labor Survey to arrive at a national estimate of the scale of child labor. -- East Java Provincial Action Committee on the Elimination of WFCL allocated funds for mapping of WFCL in 6 districts. --North Sumatra Province passed a law on Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labor; --Central Java Government submitted the Draft Provincial Regulation on the Elimination of Child Labor to the provincial parliament for deliberation. --Ministry of Education programs to provide education for children who have dropped out of school benefited over a half million children through projects providing schooling for tailored for hard-to-reach children. The ministry also implemented education programs for child migrant workers overseas in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia with the goal of giving them the skills to withdraw from exploitive work situations. --The Ministry of Education worked with the World Bank's "Life Skills" project to support scholarships for children to learn employable skills and to fund small enterprises such as motorcycle repair shops. --East Kalimantan provincial government allocated over a million US dollars for the 2008 operation of 32 One Roof elementary/junior high schools targeted to keep vulnerable children in school. ¶23. The 20-year National Plan of Action (NPA) for the Elimination of the WFCL is completing its report on the first 5-year phase (2002-2006) and finalizing its plans for the second phase. The Ministry of Manpower chairs a National Action Committee for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The National Plan of Action of Human Rights in Indonesia (2004-2009) contains a specific objective on protecting the rights of the child. The National Medium Term Development Plan (2004-2009) recognizes the problem of child labor and supports the implementation of the National Plan on the Elimination of the WFCL. The Indonesia Poverty Reduction Strategy (2005-2009) includes objectives of preventing the WFCL, increasing protection for street children and child workers, and preventing child trafficking. The government maintains the Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children. ¶24. Sources for this report include: Ministry of Education, Ministry for Women's Empowerment, Ministry of Manpower, UNICEF, ILO, IOM, Save the Children, American Center for International Labor Solidarity, International Catholic Migration Commission, National Child Protection Commission, local NGOs, and USAID. HUME