Foreign domestic workers queuing at counters at the Immigration Department in Wan Chai Airport.
Imagine traveling to a foreign land to work as a domestic helper, far from your friends and family, just so you can make a decent wage. Imagine you save up your meager wages for years and when you bring them back home, you are immediately robbed of everything you had worked for years to earn.
That nightmarish scenario often plays out at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Domestic workers (TKI) returning home from abroad are often scammed as soon as they return to their homeland by criminals for whom the term “low-life scum of the Earth” is really too polite.
Police were at least able to arrest one of these despicable gangs recently. Led by a 40-year-old man identified as TS, alias Bambang Waluyo, the gang’s modus operandi was to con returning TKI by offering to give them a ride home and then drugging and robbing them.
The head of the Soekarno Hatta Police Crime Division, Commissioner Aszhari Kurniawan, said TS would target TKI who seemed stranded at the airport.
“TS would then pretend to be a migrant worker returning from Borneo,” Aszhari told Tempo.
One of TS many victims was a woman identified as RN, who landed at Soekarno-Hatta on Saturday, August 11. TS befriended RN and offered to give her a ride to Semarang in Central Java as he was headed in that direction.
Once in Semarang and having gained her trust, TS gave RN an herbal drink that was actually spiked with drugs.
“After the victim was willing to drink the concoction of drugs, she became unconscious and was dumped around Temanggung. The perpetrators stole all of the victim’s belongings, “said Aszhari.
Just 10 days later, TS was back in action at Soekarno Hatta. On August 21, he found his next victim, ES, who had just arrived from Qatar. He arranged to meet her in Pangadaran where he robbed her of mobile phone, computer and other valuables.
Fortunately police were finally able to capture TS and his four accomplices. For their crimes, they could face up to 12 years in prison. We just hope the police will continue to crack down on these low-lifes that take advantage of some of Indonesia’s hardest working and most vulnerable citizens.
