KUPANG, KOMPAS — Children who have become victims of smuggling and human trafficking are often recruited as migrant workers by neighbors or relatives. Because of these close ties, the families of victims are often reluctant to report the recruiters to police, despite the disappearance of underage children.
During its investigation in Meusin village of Boking district, South Central Timor regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Kompas discovered that one recruiter of illegal migrant workers, Arimatia Tahe, is a teacher. Among the children Arimatia has “recruited” from the village is O.K., who was only 14 when she was smuggled to Malaysia in 2012. O.K.’s family still has no clue as to her whereabouts.
Alfiana Taniu, a cousin, said that O.K. was recruited by a neighbor who was a teacher. “In 2012, Pak Arimatia persuaded O.K. to leave for Malaysia. He is a teacher. We once asked him where O.K. was, but he said ‘O.K. never calls’,” Alfiana explained.
When asked, Arimatia denied that he recruited O.K. as a migrant worker in Malaysia. He said that he merely gave O.K. and her mother a ride from the village to Camplong, near Kupang.
“At the time, I was traveling to Kupang so I offered them to ride with me,” he said.
Local recruiters are known to have networks to Malaysia. They are in direct contact with middlemen who transport migrant workers to Malaysia, who pay them up to Rp 1 million (US$71.27) per child.
Funding
Recruiters also get money to be handed to the families of children who are smuggled to Malaysia. It is said to be up to Rp 2.5 million per child. However, several parents said that the amount of money they received was not that big.
Meusin villager Yuliana Baunsele, 60, said that a recruiter gave her Rp 260,000 when her daughter Yohana Kamlasi departed the village in 2013 to become a migrant worker. Yuliana has no idea where Yohana is today.
Lawyer and anti-human trafficking activist Yunus Benu said that the recruitment of potential migrant workers in Meusin and other villages in East Nusa Tenggara often involved human trafficking. Yunus said that families of victims of the scheme were often reluctant to report the disappearances, as the recruiters had close ties with them.
Identity document forgery is also typically involved when trafficking children as illegal migrant workers. The East Nusa Tenggara Police once raided a trafficking halfway house in Kupang, after one migrant worker escaped when she discovered that she would be given a new identity.
False identities
Labse Dorita Maramba, 19, of East Sumba regency said that she decided to escape the halfway house when she discovered that her birthdate had been changed on her travel document, and she became worried for her own safety if she left for Malaysia. “My identity was changed. If something bad happened, the government would not be able to find us,” Labse said at a safe house in East Nusa Tenggara.
Forging identity documents for human trafficking is also common in Indramayu, West Java. Kenidah, a former migrant worker from Indramayu, said that a middleman falsified her personal data so she could get to Taiwan. Her birth year was changed from 1999 to 1995, making her 23 to match the requirement to work in Taiwan.
The head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), Nusron Wahid, said that the Migrant Workers Computerized System was integrated with the Home Ministry’s civil registration system, to prevent children from being registered as migrant workers. However, Nusron said that the system could not detect falsified personal data, such as changes to an individual’s birth year. (MDN/ADY/SPW)