HUMAN TRAFFICKING -- INDONESIA ESCALATES LAW

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 003408 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR PGOV, PREL, SMIG, ID NSC FOR EPHU DOL FOR ILAB BSASSER E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2017 TAGS: PGOV SMIG PHUM EAID ID SUBJECT: HUMAN TRAFFICKING -- INDONESIA ESCALATES LAW ENFORCEMENT EFFORT REF: A. JAKARTA 1560 ¶B. JAKARTA 1130 JAKARTA 00003408 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Pol/C Joseph Legend Novak, reasons 1.4 (b+d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Indonesian law enforcement agencies are escalating the war against human trafficking, armed with the robust new anti-trafficking in persons (TIP) law and invigorated political will. Arrest and prosecution is at a record pace and corrupt officials who facilitate trafficking are being put behind bars. To support momentum in this area, Mission will continue to press for enhanced GOI action. END SUMMARY. ARRESTS AT BRISK PACE ¶2. (C) Trafficking-linked arrests are coming at an increasingly fast pace. In a meeting with Labatt and visiting G/TIP official Sally Newman, the head of the Indonesian National Police (INP) TIP Task Force Anton Charliyan reviewed the success of "Operations Flower" One and Two carried out over the previous six months. To date, police had arrested 123 suspects and rescued 210 victims, including 71 children, he said. ¶3. (C) Continuing, Charliyan discussed the following two large-scale cases: -- He related that on October 19 police had arrested two traffickers smuggling 60 males--including six boys--from Lombok Island in southeastern Indonesia allegedly destined for Malaysian plantations. The agent, still at large, charged fees of over USD 300 and forged documents for the underage males; and, -- In another operation, police arrested eight brokers smuggling 25 males and females--eight underage--at the Jakarta international airport. They charged exorbitant fees of over USD 500 per worker, thus putting the workers into a situation of debt bondage. ¶4. (C) Other recent raids included rescuing children forced into prostitution in Jakarta and arrest of the pimps, Charliyan related. These operations are giving priority to rescuing children for now because of lack of officers to pursue all cases, he said. Director General of Immigration Basyir Ahmad Barmari told us that immigration has also worked with police to arrest 17 traffickers at border points. Basyir said immigration has stopped several smuggling operations with Indonesia as the destination, including one involving Chinese arriving in Indonesia from Russia using false Indonesian passports. ¶5. (C) Charliyan said police have also broken up international syndicates using Indonesia as a transit point for trafficking. They broke up one very complex operation that for seven years had been smuggling Sri Lankan Tamils to Australia via Indonesia and Malaysia/Singapore, arresting an Indonesian and two Sri Lankans. APPLYING THE NEW TIP LAW ¶6. (C) Police, prosecutors and immigration officials told us that authorities have been using the tough new anti-TIP law (ref B) along with other laws to bring traffickers to justice. Thomson Siagian, head of the Attorney General Office's Transnational Task Force, told us that his office alone was now prosecuting 30 TIP cases and this figure does not include cases being prosecuted locally across Indonesia. Police, prosecutors and the immigration office also said they have been closely cooperating with each other and with the Department of Foreign Affairs, under the auspices of the National Task Force. Police and immigration have set up a special border agency to better interdict trafficking at border points, according to Charliyan. JAKARTA 00003408 002.2 OF 002 FIGHTING CORRUPTION ¶7. (C) Officials said they are focused on pursuing corrupt officials complicit in trafficking. The former Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia is now on trial for corruption for the alleged processing of travel documents for migrant workers. The Anti-Corruption Commission put one former consul general in Malaysia behind bars for 20 months in September 2006 and--in May 2007--sentenced a second former consul general to two years, plus heavy fines. ¶8. (C) The head of immigration at the consulate in Johor was sentenced to four years in April by the Anti-Corruption Court and six other immigration officials who had been based in Malaysia were also sent to jail, while six more immigration officials were recalled from duty. Charliyan told Labatt in June that police have started an undercover operation to investigate possible trafficking-related corruption by the head of immigration at the West Kalimantan border with Malaysia because of a possible smuggling incident that Labatt witnessed and reported to him (ref A). NEED FOR MORE PROGRESS ¶9. (C) To support momentum in this area, Mission will continue to press for enhanced GOI action. Police and prosecutors credit the USG Department of Justice and other international training programs with giving them the tools and awareness to enforce the law. Law enforcement officials also cite the clear political will conveyed from President Yudhoyono to stop trafficking. ¶10. (C) More progress is clearly needed. Police and prosecutors told us that immigration officials often are still failing to interview migrant workers as they cross the border, allowing children with forged documents to slip through. Also, none of the law enforcement agencies we spoke with has had much success in working with the Ministry of Manpower, which oversees the manpower agencies that are believed to be responsible for luring many victims into trafficking. Mission will review programs to see how they can be more effectively targeted to deal with these problematic areas. HUME