The National Police’s Crime Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) yesterday announced their capture of eight suspects in an alleged human trafficking scheme which they say smuggled more than 1,000 domestic workers to the Middle East and North Africa.
In a press conference in Jakarta yesterday, the police said the eight suspects had their own trafficking networks into four countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Syria and Turkey.
“The victims exceeded 1,000 people. There were four destination countries. We will continue developing this case,” National Police Spokesperson Dedi Prasetyo said yesterday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
The police said they had been investigating the case since March after being tipped off to the scheme by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had received reports about it from some of its victims.
In 2015, the Indonesian government introduced a moratorium on sending domestic workers to 21 Middle Eastern nations due to widespread reports of abuse, ranging from many being withheld their basic rights, such as pay, when abroad, to physical and sexual violence.
The police said that the eight suspects circumvented the moratorium by flying the victims — many of whom hailed from West Nusa Tenggara province — via Malaysia.
Between them, the alleged traffickers are suspected to have sent some 500 victims to work as domestic helpers in Morocco, 220 to Turkey, 300 more to Syria and another 200 to Saudi Arabia between 2018 and this year.
All of the victims have been repatriated to Indonesia, with some of them telling the police that they worked for no pay and had been sexually abused.
The eight suspects were charged with human trafficking and violation of domestic worker protection laws, each carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years and 10 years respectively.
Additional reporting by AFP
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