VZCZCXRO6865
OO RUEHJS
DE RUEHC #0445/01 1622036
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112008Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA IMMEDIATE 4071
INFO RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA IMMEDIATE 0667

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 STATE 060445 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAP KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG ID
SUBJECT: INDONESIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of Indonesia of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's 
imminent release.  The text of the TIP Report country 
narrative is provided, both for use in informing the 
Government of Indonesia and in any local media release by 
Post's public affairs section on June 16 or thereafter. 
Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post 
may provide the host government with the text of the TIP 
Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday 
June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local 
time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, 
however, that any public release of the Report's information 
should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 10:00 am 
EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local 
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform 
the appropriate official in the Government of Indonesia of 
the June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the 
points in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the 
text of the country narrative provided in para 8.  For 
countries where the State Department has lowered the tier 
ranking, it is particularly important to advise governments 
prior to the Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of Indonesia,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
INDONESIA (TIER 2) 
-------------------------------- 
 
Indonesia is a major source of women, children, and men 
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial 
sexual exploitation.   To a far lesser extent, it is a 
destination and transit country for foreign trafficking 
victims.  The greatest threat of trafficking facing 
Indonesian men and women is that posed by conditions of 
forced labor and debt bondage in more developed Asian 
 
STATE 00060445  002 OF 007 
 
 
countries ) particularly Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan -- 
and the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, according to 
IOM data.  Indonesia women and girls are also trafficked to 
Malaysia and Singapore for forced prostitution and throughout 
Indonesia for both forced prostitution and forced labor. 
Each of Indonesia,s 33 provinces is a source and destination 
of human trafficking; the most significant sources areas are, 
in descending order:  Java, West Kalimantan, Lampung, North 
Sumatra, South Sumatra, Banten, South Sulawesi, West Nusa 
Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara, and North Sulawesi. 
Trafficking of young girls, mainly from West Kalimantan, to 
Taiwan as false brides, persists; upon arrival, many are 
coerced into prostitution.   A new trend identified during 
the last year was the trafficking of dozens of Indonesian 
women to Iraq,s Kurdistan region for domestic servitude. 
Another trend was the use of abduction by traffickers, 
particularly in trafficking young girls to Malaysia for 
forced prostitution.  Women from the People,s Republic of 
China, Thailand, and Eastern Europe are trafficked to 
Indonesia for commercial sexual exploitation, although the 
numbers are small compared with the number of Indonesians 
trafficked for this purpose. 
 
A significant number of Indonesian men and women who migrate 
overseas each year to work in the construction, agriculture, 
manufacturing, service (hotels, restaurants, and bars), and 
domestic service sectors are subjected to conditions of 
forced labor or debt bondage.  The destinations for such 
trafficking are, in descending order:  Malaysia, Saudi 
Arabia, Singapore, Japan, Syria, Kuwait, Iraq, Taiwan, 
Thailand, Macau, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, 
Mauritius, Yemen, Palestine, Egypt, France, Belgium, Germany, 
Cyprus, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States. 
 
Some labor recruitment companies, known as PJTKIs, operated 
similarly to trafficking rings, luring both male and female 
workers into debt bondage, involuntary servitude, and other 
trafficking situations.  Some workers, often women intending 
to migrate, became victims of trafficking during their 
attempt to find work abroad through licensed and unlicensed 
PJTKIs. These labor recruiters charge workers commission fees 
up to $3,000, which often require workers to incur debt to 
work abroad, leaving some of them vulnerable in some 
instances to situations of debt bondage.  PJTKIs also 
reportedly withheld the documents of some workers, and 
confined them in holding centers, sometimes for periods of 
many months. Some PJTKIs also used threats of violence to 
maintain control over prospective migrant workers. 
Recruitment agencies routinely falsified birth dates, 
including for children, in order to apply for passports and 
migrant worker documents. 
 
Internal trafficking remains a significant problem in 
Indonesia with women and children exploited in domestic 
servitude, commercial sexual exploitation and small 
factories.  Traffickers, sometimes with the cooperation of 
school officials, began to recruit young men and women in 
vocational programs for forced labor in hotels in Malaysia 
through fraudulent &internship8 opportunities. 
Indonesians are recruited with offers of jobs in restaurants, 
factories, or as domestic workers and then forced into the 
sex trade.  A new trend noted this year was the recruitment 
of hundreds of girls and women for work as waitresses in 
extractive industry sites in Papua who were subsequently 
forced into prostitution.  During the year, minor girls were 
rescued in illegal logging camps in West Kalimantan, where 
they were coerced into sexual servitude. 
 
Malaysians and Singaporeans constitute the largest number of 
child sex tourists in Indonesia, and the Riau Islands and 
surrounding areas operate a &prostitution economy,8 
according to local officials.  Child sex tourism is rampant 
in most urban areas and tourist destinations. 
 
The Government of Indonesia does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The 
government improved its law enforcement response to 
trafficking offenses and demonstrated that a significant 
number of its trafficking prosecutions and convictions 
involved labor trafficking offenses, the first time such 
disaggregation in data has been reported.  Moreover, it 
sustained strong efforts to assist victims of trafficking 
through the funding of basic services and referral of victims 
to those services and others provided by NGOs and 
international organizations.  The government showed 
insufficient progress, however, in efforts to confront labor 
trafficking committed through exploitative recruitment 
practices of politically powerful PJTKIs.  Also, there were 
few reported efforts to prosecute, convict, or punish 
Indonesia law enforcement and military officials complicit in 
human trafficking, despite reporting on such 
 
STATE 00060445  003 OF 007 
 
 
trafficking-related corruption. 
 
Recommendations for Indonesia:  Begin using the 2007 law to 
address the country,s largest trafficking problem ) labor 
trafficking, including debt bondage; significantly improve 
record of prosecutions, convictions, and sentences for labor 
trafficking*including against labor recruitment agencies 
involved in trafficking; re-examine existing MOUs with 
destination countries to incorporate victim protection; 
increase efforts to prosecute and convict public officials 
who profit from or are involved in trafficking;  increase 
efforts to combat internal trafficking; enforce existing laws 
to better protect domestic workers; and increase funding for 
law enforcement efforts and for rescue, recovery and 
reintegration of victims. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Indonesian government showed overall progress in 
anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts over the reporting 
period.   Through a comprehensive anti-trafficking law 
enacted in 2007, Indonesia prohibits all forms of trafficking 
in persons, prescribing penalties of 3 to 15 years, 
imprisonment.  These penalties are sufficiently stringent and 
commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, 
such as rape.   Police and prosecutors began using the new 
anti-trafficking law during the reporting period; however, 
other laws were still used in cases pending widespread 
implementation of the new law.  The Indonesian government 
prosecuted 129 suspected trafficking offenders in 2008, an 
increase from 109 prosecuted in 2007.  Similarly, convictions 
in 2008 increased to 55 from 46 convictions in 2007. 
Fifty-eight of the prosecutions and 9 of the convictions in 
2008 were for labor trafficking offenses.  The average 
sentence given to convicted trafficking offenders was 43 
months, similar to the average sentence of 45 months in 2007. 
 Indonesian officials and local NGOs often criticized the 
police as too passive in combating trafficking absent 
specific complaints.   Nevertheless, the 21-man Jakarta-based 
national police anti-trafficking task force worked with local 
police, the Ministry of Manpower, the Migrant Workers 
Protection Agency, Immigration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 
and NGOs to shut down several large trafficking 
organizations.  After receiving training from an 
international donor, the Jakarta police set up an 
anti-trafficking unit and conducted a series of significant 
investigations and arrests.  The ongoing two-part &Operation 
Flower,8 which continued through 2008 in 11 provinces, 
targeted women and children trafficked for commercial sexual 
exploitation.  Exploitation by PJTKIs remained a serious 
problem although several major joint police and Ministry of 
Manpower (MOM) raids resulted in a number of such operations 
shutting down.   Police assigned liaison officers to 
Indonesian embassies in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Australia, 
the Philippines, and Thailand to support law enforcement 
cooperation with host governments, including trafficking 
investigations.   Indonesia,s national police cooperated 
with U.S. law enforcement authorities in the investigation of 
suspected trafficking of Indonesians to the United States for 
the purpose of forced labor and debt bondage. 
 
Progress was noted in the government,s dismissing, 
disciplining or prosecuting officials complicit in 
trafficking.  Some immigration officials, labor officers, and 
local government officials were arrested for activities which 
abetted trafficking.  Complicity in trafficking by members of 
the security forces remained a serious concern during the 
reporting period, and this often took the form of officials 
either engaged directly in trafficking or facilitating it 
through the provision of protection to brothels and 
prostitution fronts in discos, karaoke bars, and hotels, or 
by receiving bribes to ignore the problem.  In addition, some 
local officials facilitated trafficking by certifying false 
information to produce national identity cards and family 
data cards for children to allow them to be recruited for 
work as adults abroad and within the country.  Some MOM 
officials reportedly licensed and protected international 
labor recruiting agencies involved in human trafficking.  In 
return for bribes, some immigration officials turned a blind 
eye to potential trafficking victims, failing to prevent 
out-bound trafficking through due diligence in the processing 
of passports and the application of immigration controls. 
Some immigration officials also directly facilitated 
trafficking by accepting bribes from PJTKIs to pass migrant 
workers to their agents at Jakarta International Airport. 
Members of the police and military were directly involved in 
the operation of brothels and fronts for prostitution, 
including establishments that exploited child sex trafficking 
victims.   Despite the persistence of these reports attesting 
to a serious problem of official complicity in trafficking, 
the Indonesian government did not initiate new prosecutions 
of security or other government personnel for involvement in 
 
STATE 00060445  004 OF 007 
 
 
or facilitation of trafficking during the reporting period, 
though in June 2008 a former national chief of police and an 
Indonesian diplomat were sentenced to two and four years, 
imprisonment, respectively, for their facilitation of 
trafficking-related criminal activity. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
Indonesia demonstrated strong efforts to protect victims of 
trafficking in Indonesia and abroad; however, available 
victim services remain overwhelmed by the large number of 
victims.  The government operated 41 &integrated service 
centers8 providing services to victims of violence, 
including trafficking victims; four of these centers were 
full medical recovery centers specifically for trafficking 
victims.  The government also relied significantly on 
international organizations and NGOs for the provision of 
services to victims.  Although most security personnel did 
not employ formal procedures for the identification and 
referral of victims among vulnerable groups, such as females 
in prostitution, children migrating within the country, and 
workers returning from abroad, some victims were referred on 
an ad hoc basis to service providers.  Throughout 2008, the 
government set up 305 district-level women,s help desks to 
assist women and child victims of violence, including 
trafficking ) an increase from 25 such desks existing in 
¶2006.  Authorities at the Tanjung Priok seaport in Jakarta 
screened travelers in order to identify victims of 
trafficking and refer them to appropriate shelters and 
medical care facilities. The Indonesian government provided 
some funding to domestic NGOs and civil society groups that 
supported services for trafficking victims.      Although the 
government practiced a policy of not detaining or imprisoning 
trafficking victims, some victims reportedly were treated as 
criminals and penalized for prostitution activities.  Some 
government personnel, such as the Jakarta-based police 
anti-trafficking unit, encouraged victims to assist in the 
investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases; others 
were less solicitous of victims, cooperation.  In some 
cases, police reportedly refused to receive trafficking 
complaints from victims. 
 
In mid-2008, the National Agency for the Placement and 
Protection of Overseas Workers (BNP) opened a new terminal at 
Jakarta,s international airport ) Terminal 4 ) dedicated 
to receiving returning Indonesian workers.  BNP and MOM 
officials at this terminal, which replaced the older Terminal 
3, screened returning migrants to identify those in distress, 
though inadequate efforts were made to identify victims of 
trafficking.  Indigent victims returning through Terminal 4 
were sometimes forced to spend several days in the terminal 
until they could find adequate funds for their transportation 
back to their community.  While the Legal Aid Society, an 
NGO, succeeded in curtailing the practice of labor brokers 
picking up trafficking victims at Terminal 4 and forcing them 
back into debt bondage, traffickers adjusted by picking up 
victims at the regular passenger terminal to which victims 
had been diverted by corrupt immigration officials.   Both 
BNP and MOM were largely ineffective in protecting migrant 
workers from trafficking.  Indonesia,s Foreign Ministry 
continued to operate shelters for trafficking victims and 
migrant workers at some of its embassies and consulates 
abroad.  During the past year, these diplomatic 
establishments sheltered thousands of Indonesian citizens, 
including trafficking victims.  The Foreign Ministry 
sustained proactive efforts in protecting the rights of 
trafficked migrant workers abroad. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The Indonesian government made significant efforts to prevent 
trafficking in persons during the reporting period.  The 
government continued some collaboration with NGOs and 
international organization efforts to raise awareness of 
trafficking.  The Ministry of Women,s Empowerment (MOWE), as 
the government,s focal point and coordinator for the 
National Anti-Trafficking Task Force, drafted a new 2009-2013 
national plan of action on human trafficking.  Several 
provinces and districts established local plans of action and 
anti-trafficking committees.  The MOWE  conducted 
anti-trafficking outreach education in 33 provinces in 2008 
The national government showed little political will to 
renegotiate a 2006 MOU with Malaysia which ceded the rights 
of Indonesian domestic workers to hold their passports while 
working in Malaysia.  The government made no reported efforts 
to reduce the demand for forced labor or the demand for 
commercial sex acts during the last year.  Indonesian police 
cooperated with Australian and Swiss authorities to arrest 
and deport two pedophiles sexually abusing children, and an 
Indonesian court sentenced one Australian child sex tourist 
to eight years, imprisonment in February 2009.  The 
government provided anti-trafficking training to Indonesian 
 
STATE 00060445  005 OF 007 
 
 
troops prior to their deployment abroad on international 
peacekeeping missions.  Indonesia has not ratified the 2000 
UN TIP Protocol. 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
 
STATE 00060445  006 OF 007 
 
 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion. " 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1: Why was Indonesia again given a ranking of Tier 2? 
 
A: The Government of Indonesia does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The 
government improved its law enforcement response to 
trafficking offenses and it demonstrated that a significant 
number of its trafficking prosecutions and convictions 
involved labor trafficking offenses, the first time such 
disaggregation in data has been reported.  Moreover, it 
sustained strong efforts to assist victims of trafficking 
through the funding of basic services and referral of victims 
to those services and others provided by NGOs and 
international organizations.  The government showed 
insufficient progress, however, in efforts to confront the 
labor trafficking committed through exploitative recruitment 
practices.  Also, there were insufficient reported efforts to 
prosecute, convict, or punish Indonesia law enforcement and 
military officials complicit in human trafficking, despite 
reporting on such trafficking-related corruption. 
 
Q2: What progress has Indonesia made in the past year? 
 
A:  The Indonesian government showed overall progress in 
anti-trafficking law enforcement and prevention efforts over 
the reporting period.  The 21-man Jakarta-based national 
police anti-trafficking task force worked with local police, 
the Ministry of Manpower, the Migrant Workers Protection 
Agency, Immigration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and NGOs to 
shut down several large trafficking organizations.  After 
receiving USG training, the Jakarta police set up an 
anti-trafficking unit and conducted a series of significant 
investigations and arrests.  The ongoing two-part &Operation 
Flower,8 which continued through 2008 in 11 provinces, 
targeted women and children trafficked for commercial sexual 
exploitation.  The Indonesian government provided some 
funding to domestic NGOs and civil society groups that 
supported services for trafficking victims.  The Ministry of 
Women,s Empowerment (MOWE), as the government,s focal point 
and coordinator for the National Anti-Trafficking Task Force, 
drafted a new 2009-2013 national plan of action on human 
trafficking.  Several provinces and districts established 
local plans of action and anti-trafficking committees. 
 
Q3: What efforts could Indonesia make to improve its fight 
against trafficking in persons? 
 
STATE 00060445  007 OF 007 
 
 
A: The Indonesian Government could:  begin using the 2007 law 
to address the country,s largest trafficking problem ) 
labor trafficking, including debt bondage; significantly 
improve its record of prosecutions, convictions, and 
sentences for labor trafficking*including against labor 
recruitment agencies; prohibit labor recruitment agencies 
from charging excessive recruitment fees; re-examine existing 
MOUs with destination countries to incorporate victim 
protection; increase efforts to prosecute and convict public 
officials who profit from or are involved in trafficking; 
increase efforts to combat internal trafficking; enforce 
existing laws to better protect domestic workers; and 
increase funding for law enforcement efforts and for rescue, 
recovery, and reintegration of victims. 
 
¶12. 2009 TIP Report Hero from Indonesia 
Elly Anita is a victim-turned-advocate who fights for the 
freedom of Indonesian workers trapped in the Middle East.  In 
2006, Ms. Anita accepted an offer to work as a secretary in 
Dubai.  But she ended up in Kurdistan, Iraq, where she was 
expected to work as a waitress or hotel receptionist.  When 
she refused, the employment agent put a gun to her head, beat 
her, starved her, and kept her confined to the employment 
agency.  Near death, she still refused to be forced into a 
job other than secretary.  When the office was empty, Ms. 
Anita used the internet to contact a friend.  The friend 
directed her to the Indonesian Embassy in Amman and 
Indonesian NGO Migrant Care.  She managed to escape Kurdistan 
at great risk with IOM assistance.  Since returning to 
Indonesia, she has worked for Migrant Care and has helped 
rescue six other women who were trafficked to Iraq. 
 
¶13. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON