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

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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.


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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