1 | INDONESIA Break the Chains

Break the Chains

By Melvin Abasolo and Lyle Villegas

Human trafficking in Indonesia is the chain that binds people to oppression. This serves
as the economic source of some Indonesian to survive from poverty and oppresses the majority
of the masses.

Even though Indonesia is one of the richest country in terms of natural resources which is
vital for the development of national industrialization, but the majority of the Indonesian people
are living like a chicken kakha-toka because their natural wealth are concentrated only by the
few which resulted to massive unemployment, lack of education and poverty.

Moreover, Indonesia is classified as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
According to Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index 2002, Indonesia ranks
96 of 102 countries, or in other words, the seventh most corrupt country in the world
(Transparency International, 2002).

Corruption and poverty are both leading factors of the rampancy of human trafficking in
Indonesia.

Government Response

In order to solve human trafficking, the Indonesian government created the National Plan
of Action for the Elimination of Trafficking in Women and Children (NPA) enacted on December
30, 2002 through Presidential Decree Number 88, 2002.

The NPA is the foundation and guidance for the government and the public in the
implementation of the elimination of trafficking in women and children. (KPP, 2002, 4). It is
designed to be implemented over a five-year period and then reviewed and revised every five
years thereafter. At the General Assembly session of the Indonesian Peoples Consultative
Assembly ( MPR) in August 2001, the representatives tasked President Megawati Soekarnoputri
with developing policies and programs to combat trafficking of Indonesian women and children.

President Megawati assigned the Ministry of Womens Empowerment (PP) as the lead
focal point agency for policy-making and implementation of counter-trafficking programs. The
President designated the Coordinating Ministry for Social Welfare (Menkokesra) as the
coordinating body for the counter-trafficking policies and programs among the different
ministries.

The NPA was developed through the leadership of the Ministry of Womens
Empowerment as its first major activity in its role as the focal point on counter trafficking
initiatives for the government of Indonesia. To ensure broad input and acceptance into the NPA,
the Ministry organized a task force (later referred to as the Small Team) to assist in the drafting
and to solicit input for the draft NPA. The Small Team was composed of representatives from
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various government ministries and civil society. After working together to develop a draft NPA,
the Ministry and the Small Team coordinated efforts to hold a series of workshops in Jakarta,
West Kalimantan, North Sumatra, and East Java to get reaction and input from local stakeholders
(local government, academics, NGOs, trade unions, etc.) Together, they also were able to solicit
input for the NPA from a wide variety of sources throughout Indonesia, as well as comments
from international experts on the NPAs compliance with international standards on counter
trafficking. As such, the NPA was launched at the end of December 2002 with broad-based input.

One of the most important tasks for the Small Team was to develop a working definition
of trafficking within the NPA to be used to guide counter trafficking initiatives in Indonesia. As
discussed earlier in this report in Chapter II on the Definition of Trafficking, there has been a
shift in international discourse on defining trafficking only in terms of sexual exploitation to
defining trafficking in terms of other forms of forced labor and slavery-like practices. In
addition, more recent and widely accepted definitions of trafficking, such as the one in the UN
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, highlight not only the
recruitment and transportation process that is pivotal to trafficking, but also the associated
exploitative conditions into which people are trafficked. Recognizing the broad scope of
trafficking of Indonesian women and children, the NPA accepts these international norms in
defining trafficking by stating, Until now, trafficking has been considered confined only to
forms of prostitution; whereas in reality it encompasses many forms of forced labor (KPP, 2002:
1, Lampiran I, Bab I).

Furthermore, the NPA defines trafficking as follows: Trafficking in women and children
within the meaning of this National Plan of Action encompasses all forms of actions undertaken
by perpetrators of trafficking that have one or more of the elements of recruiting, transporting
between regions and countries, transferring, sending, receiving and temporary placement or
placement at their destination of women and children. It includes using threats, verbal and
physical abuse, abduction, fraud, deception, misuse of vulnerability (e.g. if someone has no
alternative, is isolated, addicted to drugs, trapped in debt), giving or receiving payments or
profits in cases involving women and children who are used for prostitution and sexual
exploitation (including pedophilia), legal or illegal migrant workers, child adoptions, fishing
platform work, mail order brides, domestic helpers, begging, pornography, drug dealing, selling
of body organs as well as other forms of exploitation. (KPP, 2002: 8, Lampiran I, Bab I).

The definition above tracks closely the types of trafficking prevalent in Indonesia, including
trafficking for purposes other than sexual exploitation such as contract marriages, work on
fishing platforms (jermal), on plantations, and for domestic help. The definition also highlights
the exploitative conditions of trafficking along with the recruitment and transportation process.
The definition shows the government of Indonesias acceptance of international norms on
trafficking in persons. The overall objectives of the NPA are:
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To guarantee improvement and advancement in efforts to protect the victims of

trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
To formulate preventive as well as punitive measures in the campaign to prevent and
combat trafficking in persons, especially trafficking involving women and children.
To encourage development and/or improvement in the laws dealing with trafficking in
persons activities, especially such activities that involve women and children.

In order to meet these objectives, the NPA is divided into five themes, based on the main
interventions to counter trafficking:

Legislation and Law Enforcement: establishing legal norms and empowering law
enforcers against traffickers
Prevention of all forms of trafficking
Protection and Victims Assistance: providing rehabilitation and social reintegration for
victims of trafficking
Participation of Women and Children (Empowerment)
Building Cooperation and Coordination (National, Provincial, Local, and International
and Regional: Bilateral and Multilateral)

Each theme contains a list of activities to be conducted by government at the national,

provincial, district and local levels. The NPA effectively lays out the opportunities and challenges
that Indonesia faces in addressing the problem of trafficking, recognizing that significant efforts
were not taken in the past to address the issues. It also provides an outline for actions that must
be implemented by the government and other stakeholders.

The NPA recognizes that to develop and implement [the] NPA, an integrated approach is
to be taken between agencies, across sectors, and between and across regions and that a
bottom-up approach is also to be taken that accommodates aspirations from below by
constructing genuine pillars of openness, transparency, and access to information and by
developing civil society-based management in dealing with trafficking in women and children.
(KPP, 2002: 15, Lampiran I, Bab II). Together with the broad structure of the NPA, such
language provides civil society, especially NGOs, trade unions, academics, and activists, with an
opportunity to impact the more specific initiatives, activities, policies, and laws that arise in
implementing the NPA. It also requires that the revised NPA that must be developed in 2007 to
build on these new initiatives and to highlight areas for improvement and further action by being
more specific and detailed about activities, timelines, budgets, and responsibilities.

Child Labour

Indonesia in 1949 prohibited children under 15 from working. But in 1987, to attract
more investment, the country abolished this prohibition for children forced to work for social or
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economic reasons. By 1991 there were 2.8 million children bonded to factories that is,
mortgaged by parents to employers(Rothstein 1994)

International concern has been a key factor in shaping Indonesians response to child
labour over time. The International Labour Organization (ILO) established the International
Program for the Elimination on Child Labour (IPEC) which focuses on child labour around the
world, where Indonesia is one of the signatories.

Following the ratifications of the key ILO Conventions on child labour, Indonesian
government has ratified several international conventions concerning child labour, including the
ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, the ILO Minimum Age Convention, and the
United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The ILO Worst Forms of
Child Labour Convention requires member states to take immediate action to prevent children
from engaging in the worst forms of child labour and to provide direct assistance for the removal
of children already engaged in the worst forms of child labour.1

However, gaps in the legal and regulatory framework and inadequate enforcement of
child labour laws and regulations leave children at risk. The Indonesian governments hazardous
work list does not specify that the prohibition on childrens work with harmful chemical
substances. This ambiguity leaves children vulnerable.

In addition, the government of Indonesia does not effectively enforce child labour laws
and regulations in the small-scale farming sector. The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration
the agency responsible for the enforcement of child labour laws and regulationshas about
2,000 inspectors carrying out labour inspections nationwide, in all sectors, far too few for
effective labour enforcement in a country of more than 250 million people. In a meeting with
Human Rights Watch, a ministry representative explained that labor inspections are done only in
large-scale agro-industry, not in the small-scale agricultural sector where the vast majority of
children interviewed for this report worked.1

Child Labor Elimination Program

Indonesia together with the International Labor Organization (ILO) is planning to

implement the Child Labor Elimination Program (PPA) across 21 provinces and 89 cities or
districts in Indonesia, with the assistance of 503 mentors in 336 shelters with the hopes of
completely eradicating child labor by 2020. The program would especially focus on the worst
areas of child labor with the most dangerous situations. By setting the minimum age for work at
15, and minimum age of 18 for hazardous work, the child laborers will be removed from their
workplaces and temporarily placed in shelters in order to undergo a special mentoring program
for four months while being given an allowance.
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After undergoing the program, a child will be returned to formal education, whether that
be elementary, middle school, high school, or to an Islamic boarding school (Muhaimin
Iscandar, Manpower Minister)

Minister Muhaimin stated that the program will not only focus on child laborers, but on
parents and businesses as well. Businesses and parents need to be aware that the Child
Protection Law prohibits child labor practices. Parents who insist on forcing their children to
work face criminal charges,. (Muhaimin Iscandar, Manpower Minister)

Recognizing that there is currently not a comprehensive and specific trafficking law in
Indonesia, the NPA lists amongst its objectives the passage of laws to punish trafficking and
traffickers and to protect victims of violence, witnesses, and migrant workers. It also outlines the
need to ratify the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime of 2000 and two associated
international protocols related to trafficking in persons in order to meet international standards.
The NPA also states among its objectives to synchronize international standards on trafficking
with national laws through revision of the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedural Code, Marriage
Law, Immigration Law, and the Law on the Human Rights Tribunal.

The government of Indonesia, through both the Ministry of Womens Empowerment and
the National Legislature (DPR), has accepted the mandate in the NPA to develop and pass more
comprehensive laws to punish traffickers and trafficking activities. As its first major activity after
developing the NPA, the Ministry of Womens Empowerment is currently working with various
other ministries and civil society to develop a draft law on countering and criminalizing
trafficking in persons.

Another factor of trafficking are their corrupt law enforcers and weak enforcement of
laws in dealing with trafficking cases discourage victims from seeking protection and the
prosecution of their traffickers ( Rosenberg, 2003). The enforcement of laws against human
trafficking in Indonesia is quietly not impressive as the U.S. Department of States Trafficking in
Persons Report in 2011 that Indonesian government didnt fully comply with the Trafficking
Victims Protection Acts minimum standards; however they are taking significant steps to reach
these standards. Furthermore, there are many non-governmental organizations involved with this
issue, as it is a violation of human right. The fight against human trafficking of Indonesia is such
a struggle because their laws itself is not strong enough to prevent these incidents that
perpetuated large scale cases of human trafficking.

UNICEFS ROLE

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is playing important role in the issue of
child labour practice. UNICEF are working to protect Indonesian children from trafficking is
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linked to its wider efforts to address the issue of abuse, violence and exploitation against
children.

UNICEF advocating for the provision of technical and financial support for the adoption
and implementation of Law no. 21 year 2007 and the NPA, as well as local regulations and sub-
national plans of action and also for the ratification of the Optional Protocol on the Sale of
Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.2

They supported the new approach in social services for children to ensure suitable
prevention mechanisms and a well-equipped response and help strengthening the capacity of
Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, the
Ministry of Health, and the Indonesian police for better response to victims of trafficking.2

They help the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection to develop
awareness raising materials (Including posters and booklets) and encourage the community to
get involved in the prevention and response initiatives; and changing attitudes and awareness
about the perils of human trafficking through communication initiatives.2

The government should need to continue strengthened social workers capacity to promote
family and community care, promote positive child care practices, identify vulnerable
households and children to provide pre-emptive service and provide case management for
families and children in need. Family preventive service must be strengthened, including
through access to cash transfer to improve the household economic security of vulnerable
families.

For the long term, these efforts of the government and International organization will not
be a success if the government cannot provide decent jobs and give free education to the people.
By changing the patriarchal culture into gender equal culture, the government must intensify its
education program to raise the political consciousness of the masses and empower them.

REFERENCES

Books

Rothstein, Richard. The Global Hiring Hall: Why We Need Worldwide Labor Standards.
American Prospect, no. 17 (Spring 1994). Pp. 55-56

Internet Sources

KPP (2002). Keputusan Presiden Republik Indonesia Nomor 88 Tahun 2002 Tentang Rencana
Aksi Nasional Penghapusan Perdagangan (Traffiking) Perempuan Dan Anak. Kementerian
Pemberdayaan Perempuan: Jakarta, Indonesia. Retrieved from:
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https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/05/24/harvest-my-blood/hazardous-child-labor-tobacco-
farming-indonesia

Routledge, 2014, The World of Child Labor; An Historical and Regional Survey, Hugh
D.Hindman, Hugh Hindman. Retrieved from:
http://www.unicef.org/indonesia/UNICEF_Indonesia_Child_Trafficking_Fact_Sheet_-
_July_2010.pdf