18 underage girls rescued from prostitution ring in West Jakarta

Authorities have arrest two men for their alleged roles in an online prostitution ring involving over a dozen teenagers in West Jakarta.

In a raid conducted on Wednesday and Friday last week, police apprehended at least 75 people from two hotels in the area. Among them were 18 underage girls, who the pimps (pictured) took in after going on dates with them. Photo: Istimewa
Authorities have arrest two men for their alleged roles in an online prostitution ring involving over a dozen teenagers in West Jakarta. In a raid conducted on Wednesday and Friday last week, police apprehended at least 75 people from two hotels in the area. Among them were 18 underage girls, who the pimps (pictured) took in after going on dates with them. Photo: Istimewa

Authorities have arresteded two men for their alleged roles in an online prostitution ring involving over a dozen teenagers in West Jakarta.

In a raid conducted on Wednesday and Friday last week, police apprehended at least 75 people from two hotels in the area. Among them were 18 underage girls, who the pimps took in after going on dates with them. 

“The total number of people apprehended from the two locations are 75 people, be it the pimps, the sex workers, guests, as well as employees at the hotels,” Pujiyarto, who heads the Youth, Children, and Women Directorate of Jakarta Metro Police, said in a statement yesterday

The pimps were identified as 27-year-old AD and 24-year-old AP. Jakarta Metro Police’s spokesman Yusri Yunus said that the pimps looked for girls through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and MiChat⁠ — the latter of which is a messaging app that has been associated with online sex work in Indonesia. The victims and suspects would meet at a hangout or dining place, where the latter would then offer them to be their girlfriends and take them to hotel rooms to spend a few days together.

In these instances, Yusri said that the suspects would have sex with them ⁠— which counted as statutory rape ⁠— while also offering them up for prostitution via MiChat.

“The suspects offered the victims to potential male clients through the MiChat app as ‘BO’ women with charges ranging from IDR300,000 to IDR500,000 (US$21 to US$34.90),” Yusri said, referring to booking online, a term widely used for people who offer sex work on social media. 

“With each transaction, the pimps would get a share from IDR50,000 to IDR100,000 (US$3.49 to US$6.97).”

The victims reportedly used their share of the money to pay for the rooms and their daily needs.

Both AD and AP are currently detained, while the underage victims have been taken to a shelter operated by the Integrated Center for Women and Children Empowerment office (P2TP2A) and Handayani Social Rehabilitation Center for Endangered Children in East Jakarta, which is operated by the Social Affairs Ministry.

The suspects have been charged with multiple violations, including sexual exploitation of children, distributing lewd content under the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), and prostitution under the country’s Criminal Code (KUHP) which could see them imprisoned for up to 10 years. 

The Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children (KPAI) suggested that MiChat should be closely monitored, as the chat platform has been the medium for pimps to offer illicit services with underage children in recent years. KPAI also pointed out that there’s a disturbing rise in child prostitution cases since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which children usually fall for promises of easy money without being aware of the risks.

 

Also Read:

Son of Bekasi politician accused of rape surrenders to police

Tebet budget hotel shut over underage prostitution

Indonesian adult model Cynthiara Alona arrested over ‘prostitution hotel’

Police bust prostitution ring based in Central Jakarta apartment, 12 underage girls rescued



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on