INDONESIA ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP)

UNCLAS JAKARTA 000700

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EAP/RSP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB
SUBJECT: INDONESIA ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP)
REPORT, March 2005 to March 2006 (PART 3 OF 4)


GOI AGENCIES INVOLVED IN ANTI-TIP EFFORTS
--------------

Update
--------------

In January 2007, the National Agency for the Placement and
Protection of Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI) was established.
The agency tools over the Ministry of Manpower and
TransmigrationQs responsibilities to protect migrant
workers, such as facilitating labor export and providing
legal protection. The agency was established under the
2004 Overseas Labor Placement and Protection Law and was
placed directly under the PresidentQs jurisdiction. The
law also requires the government and the new agency to
supply workers only to countries that have labor agreements
with Indonesia. With this new body, the directorate
general for placement and protection of Indonesian migrant
workers will be abolished. Through this same decree, GOI
will decentralize Migrant Holding Centers to the district
level which will benefit migrant workers because it will
reduce the cost of travel to the centers, facilitate
monitoring of the centers and reduce the potential for
manipulation of the documents. Social controls of abuses
at the local levels are believed to be stronger. The new
body will not start operating until later in 2007, but
coordination meetings between police, immigration, manpower
and other agencies that will assign special personnel to
the agency have begun.

In late 2006 the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia established a medical clinic in its shelter. The
Embassy now has two doctors on call to provide basic
medical services to stranded migrants there, regardless of
whether they are victims of trafficking. Now, each
stranded migrant worker at the embassy is entitled to a
free medical check up and treatment which the embassy pays
for in full. Apart from that, exit documents needed for
victims of trafficking to leave Kuala Lumpur are obtained
more quickly than in the past. Previous victims would be
at the shelter for well over year and this has been cut
back to a few months. The Indonesian consulates (Penang,
Johor Baru, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu) and the Embassy are
actively screening all migrants for victims of trafficking.
The staff is using the IOMQs screening form (based on UN
definition of trafficking). Once migrants are identified
as victims of trafficking, they are immediately referred to
IOM for assistance.

The Ministry began drawing up a plan to revise its Standard
Operating Procedures (SOP) for the return and the
reintegration of trafficked persons for the next five-year
period, beginning in 2008.

The Witness Protection Bill was enacted in August, 2006, a
measure that will allow victims to testify through
videotape and other means, which once implemented should
increase prosecutorsQ ability to obtain convictions.

Local government agencies, for the most part operating
autonomously from central ministries, also played roles in
anti-trafficking. The number of provinces with established
anti-trafficking committees or task forces increased from
12 in 2005 to 17 in 2006 (out of 33 provinces),as follows:
Bali, Central Java, East Java, East Kalimantan, East Nusa
Tenggara, Jakarta, North Sulawesi, North Sumatra, West
Java, West Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, Riau and
Yogyakarta. At least 14 district-level task forces also
operated within 8 provinces: Bali (Buleleng),Central Java
(Cilicap),East Java (Tulungagung, Malang, Ponorogo,
Blitar, Banyuwangi),Riau (Dumai),Riau Island (Tanjung
Balai Karimun),West Java (Indramayu, Bandung, Bekasi),
West Kalimantan (Sambas),and West Nusa Tenggara (Sumbawa).

The effectiveness of the various committees and task forces
varied considerably, and some failed to function
adequately. End update.

Many government agencies at national and sub-national
levels carried out anti-trafficking efforts, some in a
substantive way and others only superficially. The
People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry is the senior most
executive body responsible for TIP. In 2002, the President
identified the Women's Ministry as the focal point for
anti-trafficking efforts, particularly those concerning
women and children. Both the Coordinating Ministry and the
Women's Ministry actively engaged on TIP throughout the
year. Several deputy ministers from both ministries
devoted themselves on an almost full-time basis to anti-
trafficking activities.

The People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry and the Women's
Ministry lead the GOI's National Anti-Trafficking Task
Force, which has formal responsibility for the National
Action Plan to Eliminate Trafficking in Persons. This body
includes 12 other GOI agencies (as well as NGOs and civil
society representatives):

-- Home Affairs Ministry
-- Foreign Affairs Ministry
-- Religious Affairs Ministry
-- Law and Human Rights Ministry
-- Manpower and Transmigration Ministry
-- Social Affairs Ministry
-- Health Ministry
-- Education Ministry
-- Tourism and Culture Ministry
-- Communications Ministry
-- The National Police (POLRI)
-- The National Statistics Bureau

The National Task Force has met four times and has had
limited success as a coordinating body, and less success in
generating concrete actions. In part, this reflects the
relative powerlessness of the Women's Ministry within the
national government, and the fact that neither the People's
Welfare Coordinating Ministry nor the Women's Ministry has
much operational authority. However, interagency
coordination generally is weak or nonexistent everywhere in
the government on almost all issues.

GOI ANTI-TIP CAMPAIGNS
--------------

Update
--------------

The Ministry of WomenQs Empowerment signed an MOU with
Media Net for an anti-trafficking campaign through radio
community in West Java. The campaign was broadcast through
Farmers Voice Radio Network. GOI also broadcast a national
PSA on television and radio, and distributed anti-TIP
educational materials. End update.

During this period, the GOI and NGOs continued anti-
trafficking information and education initiatives, which
were limited in scope and budget, but did raise awareness
among the Indonesian public. GOI-sponsored public
awareness campaigns included television, radio and print
media, and commonly featured senior officials. Indonesia's
National Spokesperson on Trafficking, television
personality Dewi Hughes, continued public awareness
engagements in numerous media events that highlighted the
human cost of trafficking, sought to warn potential
victims, and lobbied for the passage of the anti-
trafficking bill.

In 2005-2006, the Women's Ministry conducted awareness-
raising efforts in 16 provinces. In late 2005, the Women's
Ministry sponsored a televised PSA on private national
television stations, with viewing audiences in the millions
of viewers. The television PSA, the first-ever related to
trafficking, ran for approximately one month. The PSA
depicted a rural girl who, with the promise of a lucrative
job, is trafficked into prostitution in a big Indonesian
city. Manpower Ministry included information on the risk
of trafficking, and other abuses, during mandatory training
of out-going migrant workers. The Manpower Ministry also
launched pilot projects in four sub-districts (two in West
Java, one in Central Java, one in West Nusa Tenggara)
involving activists who reach out to their communities to
raise awareness about trafficking and safe migration.

Some local governments, such as in North Sulawesi, East
Java, and Batam, also conducted education campaigns. The
National Education Ministry incorporated anti-trafficking
materials in some of its training activities. The Ministry
distributed anti-trafficking education kits to 150
administrators responsible for the country's out of school
education services. The National Education Ministry also
funded a local NGO project to assist radio stations in West
Java with the creation and airing of anti-trafficking PSAs.

NGOs remained the most active groups conducting anti-
trafficking campaigns in some areas. For example, in
Surabaya, East Java, NGOs held discussions in prostitution
complexes, sponsored university workshops, conducted
campaigns in bus and railway stations, and distributed
brochures and posters.

There were few efforts that focused on reducing demand for
trafficking. Limited public education material in Bali and
Batam, aimed at stopping child sex tourism, contained
messages for potential clients of prostitutes.

The GOI efforts contributed to increasing public
understanding of the seriousness of the trafficking
problem, but GOI agencies responsible for combating
trafficking did not have funds to conduct extensive,
national education efforts. The national TIP Task Force
called for expanded awareness-raising campaigns.

Media coverage of trafficking, both domestic and
international, expanded over recent years. National
television, radio and print media, and local newspapers
routinely covered TIP issues. Investigative journalism
shows highlighted the crime. Migrant workers who had
become trafficking victims, Indonesian prostitutes in
Malaysia and the Middle East, domestic servants in Saudi
Arabia, and child prostitutes were among topics that
received significant coverage.

Indonesia's national Scouts organization, which has near
universal representation in public schools, continued and
expanded its anti-trafficking education campaign in West
Java. The on-going campaign targets 25,000 students in 116
schools in 2006. Some Islamic organizations, including
Muslim boarding schools (pesantren) began to take a more
active role in anti-trafficking awareness-raising in parts
of West Java, East Java, and Aceh. In West Java, the
Fahmina Institute and the pesantren of Kyai Husein Muhammad
engaged in active anti-trafficking efforts focused on the
Muslim community.

GOI SUPPORT TO OTHER PREVENTION PROGRAMS
--------------

The GOI supported and administered other national programs
related to the prevention of trafficking, but not designed
specifically as anti-trafficking efforts. These programs

commonly faced serious constraints in terms of GOI limited
funds, institutional capacity, and corruption. Some of the
more relevant programs were:

-- A program to encourage free basic public education
through the first nine years of schooling, including
subsidies for students from poor families. A number of
districts announced their achievement of free public
schooling.

-- School Subsidy Operation providing a subsidy to poor
people who were directly affected by the policy to increase
the price of oil.

-- A program to encourage birth registrations, coupled with
a law that mandates government offices to provide birth
certificates free of charge. At least 21 local governments
began free provision of birth certificates.

-- A national program to eliminate gender inequality in
education.

-- Programs to train female migrant workers.

-- Credit schemes for micro-, small- and medium-sized
businesses, some of which focused on women.

-- Revolving credit schemes for cooperatives and savings
and loan associations.

-- Various cooperative efforts with NGOs to assist women
from poor families.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOI, NGOs AND OTHER ELEMENTS
-------------- --------------

The overall relationship between relevant GOI offices and
NGOs remained cooperative and mutually supportive on TIP-
related issues. Cooperation varied from agency to agency
and location to location. The GOI recognized the
importance of NGO expertise, networks and involvement.
NGOs met regularly with officials and participated in
national and local task forces. The GOI and NGOs
collaborated on many TIP initiatives, including in
protection of victims, public awareness raising, and in
providing assistance to law enforcement officials in
investigations and prosecutions. The police and NGOs
continued to share information on trafficking, although
mutual suspicions between NGOs and police sometimes
prevented their cooperation.

In East Java, the province's Child Protection Commission,
police, city authorities, and NGO representatives in May
2005 launched a network to monitor and prevent trafficking
of children into prostitution. The network monitors
brothels and reports to the social services office and
police if a brothel employs a child prostitute.

The DPR invited NGOs and other civil society groups to
participate in hearings on the pending anti-trafficking
bill. Women's groups worked with the GOI and DPR members
to garner political support for the bill's passage.

MONITORING OF IMMIGRATION/EMIGRATION
--------------

Update
--------------

The Directorate of Immigration, under a new Director
General who has made stopping trafficking a top priority,
particularly of children, has begun training immigration
officers on trafficking awareness. Immigration has begun

efforts to stop trafficking of under-18 persons at
international transit points with some anecdotal evidence
of good early results in late 2006. The implementation of
bio-metric passports should help immigration officials to
stop trafficking of girls as well, since false documents is
one primary way to prevent this. Secondly, immigration
officers have been trained that allowing girls to go abroad
to work is not helping them to find jobs but rather is
contributing to their exploitation by being trafficked, a
concept not taught before. Finally, immigration, police,
prosecutors and judges from migrant worker transit areas
were trained together in late 2006 by IOM, a coordinated
effort that officials from these offices praised as
heightening awareness and cooperation. A recent DOJ visit
to some remote border areas in Kalimantan revealed that
immigration officials in even the most isolated posts were
aware and concerned about trafficking, although they have
few resources to police a long and porous border.

The Transnational Crime Center (TNCC),which includes
trafficking as one focus, began to aggressively tackle
trafficking this year, with nearly half of the TNCCQs 21
cases in 2006 related to trafficking, exceeding even the
number of anti-terrorism cases handled, an indication of
the importance the GOI has given to this crime. This is
even more impressive given that the TNCC did not get off
the ground until July 2006. End update.

While efforts to increase passport integrity began,
Indonesia's passport services, like most other government
services, remained the object of widespread corruption.
Indonesians are able to easily obtain passports in false
and multiple identities. The lack of computerized
nationwide passport and immigration records facilitated the
work of traffickers, and made it difficult to check whether
potential trafficking victims have left Indonesia.
Recruitment agencies routinely falsified birth dates,
including for children, in order to apply for passports and
migrant worker documents.

The GOI, by its own admission, could not adequately monitor
its borders due to the vast size of the country (stretching
some three thousand miles east-west encompassing 17,000
islands),its tens of thousands of miles of coastline, and
its limited naval and border patrol units. While the GOI
increased controls and oversight at some border points in
response to concerns over terrorism and illegal migrant
worker flows to Malaysia, border control in general
remained very inadequate. Field reports from the
Indonesia-Malaysia land border crossing points, such as
Entikong, West Kalimantan, consistently described very
loose and easily corrupted immigration controls.

The GOI did not effectively monitor immigration and
emigration patterns for evidence of trafficking, with some
limited exceptions in areas like the Riau Islands, where
from time to time police and immigration officials utilized
immigration/emigration data to detect and act against
trafficking rings. On the whole, however, immigration
officials and law enforcement agencies did not have the
equipment, capacity or tools to generate useful
information, or did not prioritize such information.

COORDINATION AND COMMUNICATION MECHANISMS
--------------

Update
--------------

Indonesia hosted the international Bali Process ministerial
on trafficking victim support in November 2006.

Indonesia also signed the ASEAN Declaration on the

Protection and Promotion of the Rights and of Migrant
Workers, committing itself to an extensive list of
protections. End update.

At the national level, the Women's Ministry served as the
focal point for GOI actions on TIP. The People's Welfare
Coordinating Ministry, which includes the Women's Ministry
under its umbrella, also played a key role in coordinating
efforts across different agencies. The National Action
Plan to eliminate trafficking created a Task Force led by
the People's Welfare Coordinating Minister and the Women's
Minister, and included some 28 government and law
enforcement agencies, NGOs, and civil society groups (see
above). Many provinces and a number of districts operated
task forces for coordinating anti-trafficking efforts.

The GOI actively participated in multilateral and
international coordination efforts to combat trafficking
under UN, ASEAN and regional frameworks. As an example,
the GOI hosted the ASEAN workshop on combating TIP in
November 2005. The results for Indonesia of such
multinational efforts have been mixed, in part because they
often do not involve GOI agencies that are responsible for
TIP and are knowledgeable about the issue. For example,
the Bali Ministerial process appears to have had little
discernable impact on GOI anti-trafficking efforts inside
the country thus far.

NATIONAL PLANS OF ACTION
--------------

In 2002, then President Megawati approved three five-year
national action plans related to trafficking, one each to
eliminate the worst forms of child labor, to combat
trafficking in women and children, and to eliminate the
commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). The
People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry and the Women's
Ministry led the development of the anti-trafficking action
plan, beginning in March 2002. A number of NGOs and civil
society groups actively joined in the drafting and
discussion of the plans. NGOs and civil society groups sit
on the steering committee for implementing the action plan.
Following its adoption, the GOI has disseminated the action
plans to GOI offices, provincial officials, NGOs and civil
society groups, often through workshops, seminars and the
travel of Jakarta officials to the provinces.

East Java Province approved a provincial action plan in

2005. Other provinces and districts also have developed
action plans, including West Kalimantan.

The GOI has given responsibility for developing anti-
trafficking programs to the National Anti-Trafficking Task
Force, created by the National Action Plan, and led by the
People's Welfare Coordinating Minister and the Women's
Minister, which includes other government and law
enforcement agencies, NGOs, and civil society groups (see
above). Responsibility for provincial and district-level
programs varies from location to location. A growing
number of provinces and districts (26 in total) have their
own task forces or committees.

-------------- --------------
III. INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS
-------------- --------------

UPDATE
--------------

The DPR completed the final draft of a comprehensive anti-
trafficking bill in February 2007 and scheduled it for
final consideration and hopefully passage for March 20.
The government and the DPR strengthened the bill during the

final months, taking on board all the major suggestions
from NGOs and the international community, including
internationally accepted definitions of debt bondage and
sexual exploitation, as well as clauses on trafficking of
children and immunity of victims from prosecution.

Law enforcement against traffickers increased sharply in
2006 over 2005, with arrests up 29 percent from 110 to 142,
prosecutions up 87 percent from 30 to 56, and convictions
up 112 percent from 17 to 36. The average sentence in
these cases was 54 months in prison compared to 30 months
in 2005, a 55 percent increase. The longest sentence
handed down by a court in 2006 in a trafficking case was
fifteen years, under the Child Protection Act. These
statistics were based on case descriptions given by the
police and prosecutors national anti-trafficking officials,
plus cases tracked by IOM, with a few cases tracked in the
media that could be verified with authorities. No cases
were counted that could not be verified to be actual
trafficking cases; i.e., we did not count cases reported in
the media which might have been illegal adoption cases but
could not be verified.

In the 94 cases for which relevant information was
available, police and prosecutors used the Child Protection
Act against traffickers in 61 cases; the Penal Code in 47
cases; the Migrant Worker Protection Act in 32 cases.

Arrests and prosecutions should increase as the number of
law enforcement officials assigned to trafficking continues
to increase. In the last few months of 2006 alone, the
anti-trafficking desk of the national police force expanded
from 12 officers to 20. There are now 237 womenQs police
units nationwide with 10 police officers each, focusing
mainly on trafficking cases. Police trainers have gone to
the provinces to conduct six training courses with 30-40
police at each course, and have done joint training with
prosecutors.

One piece of anecdotal evidence of effectiveness was a
testimonial from a police officer assigned to the Jakarta
international airport, who said as a result of recent
training, he has caught 18 cases of child trafficking and
trafficking related to document fraud that he would not
have caught before.

Further progress has been reported by the American
consulates in Medan and Surabaya (see below) which are not
included in the above statistics because we were unable to
cross reference the cases to ensure we did not double count
cases.

It is almost impossible for police, prosecutors and the
courts to keep accurate statistics without an anti-
trafficking law and a database (which will be years away
given the state of computer and Internet technology in
Indonesia). However, police made great efforts to keep and
provide statistics and the prosecutors with the TNCC also
made an effort, although gathering local prosecution and
conviction statistics remains very difficult. End update.

EXISTING ANTI-TIP LAWS
--------------

Update:

The National Plan of Action encourages provincial and local
governments to do their own anti-trafficking regulations
and a number have done so. Notable are strong anti-
trafficking or women and child protection laws which are
local reactions to the trafficking problem and are being
used vigorously. Some of these laws include:

-- North Sulawesi with Regional Regulation No. 1 of 2004 on
Prevention and Elimination of Trafficking of Women and
Children;
-- North Sumatra with Regional Regulation No. 6 of 2004 on
Prevention and Elimination of Trafficking of Women and
Children;
--Indramayu District with Local Regulation No. 14 of 2005
on Prevention and Prohibition of Trafficking for Child
Commercial Sexual Exploitation;
--East Java Province with its Local Regulation No. 9 of
2005 on Provision of Protection for Women and Children
Victims of Abuse; and
--Sumbawa District with its Local Regulation No. 11 of 2003
on Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers originating
from Sumbawa.
End update.

Current Indonesian law criminalizes trafficking in persons,
although the country does not yet have comprehensive anti-
trafficking legislation. Existing laws have important
limitations, such as the lack of a clear legal definition
of trafficking. The Penal Code's Article 297 stipulates
that "trafficking of females (age not specified) and
trafficking in underage males" constitute a criminal
offense and provides for penalties. Law No. 30/1999 on
Human Rights also asserts children's rights to enjoy
protection against trafficking. The October 2002 Child
Protection Act (Chapter 12) includes specific and serious
penalties for child trafficking and related offenses. As
pertains to trafficking, however, the act is general in
nature and without a comprehensive definition of the crime.
While the GOI can and did prosecute TIP cases under
existing laws, including those for related
criminal violations (e.g., rape, illegal confinement, abuse
of women for immoral purposes, etc.),the lack of a
comprehensive law with adequate legal definitions
constitutes an impediment for law enforcement. Police and
prosecutors have increasingly turned to the Child
Protection Act, and its tougher sanctions, in cases of
child trafficking. This trend continued over the past
year, with at least 38 traffickers charged under the act.

At times, police and prosecutors used other sections of the
Penal Code to jail traffickers, including provisions
against abductions (Article 332).

STATUS OF NEW LEGISLATION
--------------

The 2002-2007 National Action Plan on anti-trafficking
notes that the enactment of a comprehensive anti-
trafficking law is an important goal and called for passage
of the law by 2004. GOI began research for the law in
2002, completed an initial draft in 2003, and submitted the
bill to the House of Representatives (DPR) following
presidential endorsement in July 2004. The bill
criminalizes all forms of trafficking, provides
compensation for victims, and protection for victims,
witnesses and others involved in legal proceedings. It
also includes stiff penalties for perpetrators and
officials involved in trafficking (see below).

In 2004, the DPR passed Law 39/2004 on the protection of
migrant workers abroad. The law provides greater
regulation of the migrant worker recruiting and placement
process. It establishes jail sentences of 2 to 15 years
for unlicensed labor recruitment agencies. Over the past
year, Jakarta police and Manpower Ministry officials began
shutting down some illegal and abusive recruiting agencies,
and arresting their operators using the migrant worker
protection law.

OTHER LAWS USED AGAINST TRAFFICKERS

--------------

A myriad of other laws exists in Indonesia that the GOI can
use to prosecute trafficking-related offenses. These
include laws against sexual exploitation, labor
exploitation, child labor, abduction, rape, unlawful
detention, and immigration offenses. At times, the GOI
used these laws in conjunction with anti-trafficking
charges to prosecute traffickers.

ICMC/ACILS conducted a review of existing legislation and
concluded that, "although (existing laws) can and should be
used to act now against those who traffic in people, there
are many gaps in the existing legislation."

PENALTIES FOR TRAFFICKING
--------------

Under the Criminal Code, Article 297, those "trafficking in
females and trafficking in underage males are threatened by
a penalty of up to six years in jail." The Child
Protection Act, Article 83, provides for a jail sentence of
3 to 15 years, plus fines, for child traffickers. In
addition, there are separate sanctions for related crimes
against children such as: sexual exploitation (10 years
maximum imprisonment plus fine),involving a child in
narcotics trade (5 years in jail to life imprisonment, or
death penalty, plus fine),and exposure of children to
trafficking situations (5 years maximum imprisonment, plus
fine).

The anti-trafficking bill, pending before the legislature,
provides for jail sentences ranging from 4 to 15 years for
trafficking acts. The bill provides for increased
sentences for trafficking under certain circumstances, for
example: trafficking by parents (increased sentence by one-
third); trafficking resulting in serious injury (5 to 20
years); and trafficking resulting in death (life in
prison).

PENALTIES FOR RAPE OR FORCIBLE SEXUAL ASSAULT
--------------

The Criminal Code, Article 285, stipulates a maximum of 12
years imprisonment for rape committed outside of marriage.
Other generally less severe criminal sanctions apply for
sexual intercourse with a minor, forcing a person to commit
an act of sexual abuse of a minor, facilitating minors to
perform acts of obscenity, and other related offenses. The
12-year maximum jail sentence for rape exceeds the 6-year
maximum for trafficking under the Criminal Code, but is
similar to the 15-year maximum penalty for trafficking of
children under the Child Protection Act.

PROSTITUTION NOT LEGAL, BUT WIDESPREAD
--------------

As a matter of national law, Indonesia has not legalized
prostitution. Indonesia's Penal Code does not explicitly
mention prostitution, but the Code's Chapter 14 refers to
"crimes against decency/morality," which many within
national and local governments interpret to apply to
prostitution. Central government officials contacted by
the Embassy agreed in their interpretation that the Penal
Code renders prostitution illegal. The prostitution of
children is clearly illegal under the Penal Code and the
2002 Child Protection Act.

The Penal Code can be used to prosecute the acts of pimps,
brothel owners and enforcers on the basis of various
crimes, including: using violence or threats of violence
to force persons to conduct indecent acts (Article 289,
with a maximum penalty of nine years in jail); facilitating

indecent acts (Article 296, with a possible jail term of 16
months); conducing/facilitating public indecency (Article
281); and making profits from the indecent acts of a woman
(Article 506, with a possible one-year jail sentence). In
practice, authorities rarely pursued such charges against
those involved in prostitution.

Clients of child prostitutes can be charged under the Penal
Code and the Child Protection Act. In theory, married
persons who are clients of prostitutes can be charged for
engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage (Penal
Code Article 284). In general, police did not arrest and
pursue charges against clients of prostitutes.

While contrary to societal and religious norms in
Indonesia, the practice of prostitution is widespread and
largely tolerated in many areas of the country,
particularly when it is not a matter of public display.
Although contrary to national interpretations that the
Penal Code prohibits prostitution, authorities in some
localities have formally or informally regulated
prostitution in response to community pressure. Drawing on
precedents from the Dutch colonial era, beginning in 1960,
some cities and other areas, including eventually Jakarta,
Surabaya, and Batam, adopted a policy of "localization"
(concentration in a particular locale) for prostitution.
Often supported by elements of civil society,
"localization" was justified as an attempt to isolate vice
and thereby preserve the morals of the wider community, as
well as an effort to better monitor the activity and
provide health and rehabilitation services. In recent
years, some local governments (Jakarta among them) closed
down the "localization" areas because of protests from
religious groups, a trend that continues.

In November 2005, the city of Tanggerang, near Jakarta,
passed a public morality ordinance which, in part, forbids
persuading or coercing others into acts of prostitution, as
well as against acts of physical intimacy in public, such
as kissing. Other local governments are considering
ordinances against prostitution in the context of broader,
and possibly intrusive, regulations of public morality.

According to a media report, in February 2006 the social
services agency in Batam announced a plan to issue
identification cards to prostitutes, with the stated
objective of preventing children from being engaged in
prostitution. The plan met with opposition from local
legislators and religious leaders, who objected to the
measure believing it to constitute legalization of
prostitution.

In some areas, including certain locations in Papua,
brothel owners registered prostitutes with the police with
a view to demonstrating that the prostitutes are not
coerced or underage.

Some local governments gained important tax revenues from
otherwise legal entertainment businesses, such as karaoke
bars, that also offer prostitution. Individual police and
other officials also gained illegal income as a result of
prostitution. These factors encouraged the tendency to
tolerate prostitution, according to observers.

ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS
--------------

Update
--------------

(See above for update on total investigations, prosecutions
and convictions.)

Police and prosecutors often filed charges under multiple
laws. Police and Manpower Ministry officials conducted
raids on 32 illegal migrant worker holding centers and 6
illegal migrant worker holding centers in Jakarta from
January to June 2006. The raids resulted in the release of
3,438 prospective workers and the arrest of 8 suspects.
The police used the 2004 migrant worker protection law as
the basis for the arrests. According to GOI officials, the
raids targeted unlicensed holding centers some of which
forcibly held prospective female workers (adults and some
children) under inhumane conditions. However, they did not
reflect a change in the GOI's tacit acceptance of debt
bondage, which, while not recognized in law, is largely
institutionalized in Indonesia's migrant worker system.

East Java Law Enforcement
--------------

During 2006, 14 people were arrested for human trafficking
in East Java, up from four the previous year. Two of those
traffickers, Imam Syaifii and Sumi, from Lumajang, East
Java admitted they sold two girls to a brothel in
Kalimantan for $44 each. Seven of the suspected
traffickers were arrested and five other investigations
with names of suspects were announced during the last two
months of 2006. According to police contacts, East Java
police are stepping up anti-human trafficking efforts by
targeting trafficking rings operating in the province. All
suspected traffickers were arrested under the East Java
Woman and Child Protection Act, a provincial law passed in
2005, or under the National Overseas Employment Law,
protecting overseas bound workers from fraud and abuse.

Seven people in East Java were convicted of human
trafficking during 2006 and received prison sentences from
6 months up to 7 years. Two of the cases were notable for
instigating local public outcry against human trafficking.
Lamretta Situmeang, an East Java attorney, was tried in
December 2006 for trafficking 293 people, 41 of the victims
to England and France to be employed as commercial sex
workers. Activists from the Anti-Trafficking Task Force
(ATTF),a civil society group consisting of human rights
NGO leaders, local government officials, police and
prosecutors, together with the Airlangga University Human
Rights Center publicly lodged formal complaints with the
police that Situmeang could not have worked alone in such a
complex operation. Public pressure forced police to reopen
the investigation, looking for accomplices in the crime.
Situmeang was recently convicted of fraud under overseas
employment laws and received a sentence of only 1 year 3
months in prison. Local anti-trafficking advocates are
disappointed with the light sentence.

In Krukah, East Lombok Regency, two 12-year old girls
escaped involuntary captivity by an overseas employment
agency, which promised them jobs as domestic workers
abroad. They reported to police through the Lombok Legal
Aid Society that while in captivity they were raped and
beaten and that the agents had many other girls. When the
police raided the facility they found 55 other girls
subject to the same conditions. The perpetrators were
arrested, eventually convicted of defrauding the girlQs
parents of the $330 placement fees and sentenced to only
nine months in prison. The local community responded to
the abuses this crime highlighted and the lack of
governmental response with indignation and calls for
action. The East Lombok Regency parliament passed 27 local
regulations during 2006 specifically to protect local
residents from human trafficking by overseas employment
agents. End update.

The law enforcement data available to the Embassy
represents incomplete and imperfect information. Despite

standing instructions from National Police Headquarters,
not all police districts reported anti-trafficking
statistics and some district reports were incomplete. The
national police data collection effort for anti-trafficking
statistics remained inadequate and did not demonstrate
improvement over the previous year. This also reflects a
general weakness in law enforcement data collection, which
applies not only to the issue of trafficking in persons.
In addition, police data would not necessarily capture some
cases that did not involve trafficking charges, such as
cases in which traffickers are charged with rape or
abduction instead of trafficking.

Relative to the police, the AGO had even more difficulty in
providing anti-trafficking data. AGO attention to data
collection on TIP appeared very limited. Central
government officials often relied upon contacts with
province and district level courts and prosecutors to
gather data on legal proceedings against traffickers.

The GOI's difficulties in collecting data are not unique to
TIP, but are endemic to the Indonesian Government and have
been particularly acute following decentralization. Local
authorities are no longer compelled to provide data to
central authorities in many instances.

Police and other GOI officials stated that almost all of
the convicted traffickers served their sentences in jail,
but no details were available.

THOSE BEHIND TRAFFICKING
--------------

Many traffickers arrested during this period appeared to be
lower level operators and/or members of small crime groups.
In a few cases, like that of the Jakarta-based traffickers
who sent women to Japan as "cultural entertainers," police
appeared to arrest more senior members of trafficking
syndicates. Most observers suspected the involvement of
larger crime syndicates and international criminal rings,
particularly for some overseas trafficking of prostitutes.
Large organized crime gangs commonly operated brothels in
major prostitution zones, normally with the involvement of
individual security force members. Traffickers also took
on the form of migrant worker recruiting agencies, both
licensed and unlicensed. Marriage brokers were involved in
trafficking using false marriages.

Some government officials and individual members of the
security forces indirectly or directly assist traffickers,
and in some cases themselves fit the definition of
traffickers.

No information was available on the channeling of profits
from trafficking in persons.

HEFFERN