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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 55 JAKARTA 002849 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI 
DEPT ALSO FOR EAP, EAP/IET, EAP/RSP 
ALSO FOR USAID ANE/SPOTS, ANE/SEA, IGAT/WID, DCHA/DG 
DEPT OF JUSTICE FOR ICITAP AND OPDAT 
DEPT PASS TO DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREF ELAB EAID KJUS KWMN KFRD SMIG ASEC
ID 
SUBJECT: INDONESIA ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) 
REPORT, MARCH 2005 TO MARCH 2006 
 
REF: A. STATE 3836 - INSTRUCTIONS 
 
     ¶B. 05 JAKARTA 12001 - 2005 CHILD LABOR REPORT 
     ¶C. 05 JAKARTA 2979 - 2005 INDONESIA TIP REPORT 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  001.2 OF 055 
 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Indonesia remained a major sending country for 
international trafficking in persons (TIP) and faced a very 
significant internal trafficking problem.  Indonesia was also 
a receiving country for trafficked prostitutes, though their 
numbers were very small relative to Indonesian victims.  The 
Government of Indonesia (GOI) recognized trafficking as a 
crime and a serious national issue, and took steps to combat 
trafficking, but as yet Indonesia has not met minimal TIP 
standards under U.S. law. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Indonesia achieved some progress in combating 
trafficking in specific areas over the past year.  After a 
delay that affected almost all pending legislation, the House 
of Representatives (DPR) in January 2006 began formal 
hearings on a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill, now 
targeted for passage in mid-2006.  President Yudhoyono 
publicly condemned trafficking and called for the bill's 
quick passage.  Significant law enforcement efforts continued 
apace, with police conducting 110 known 
arrests/investigations in 2005 and prosecutors reportedly 
bringing 37 traffickers to court.  Internal trafficking 
became the target of more law enforcement actions, a welcomed 
development.  Police undertook investigations in cooperation 
with Japan and Malaysia; cooperated fully with the U.S. on 
the return of wanted American pedophiles; freed trafficked 
migrant workers from holding centers; and rescued hundreds of 
other women and child victims. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The GOI took effective steps to prevent trafficking 
out of areas devastated by the December 2004 earthquake and 
tsunami, with no reports of significant trafficking from Aceh 
 
SIPDIS 
relative to other areas.  The GOI launched the first-ever 
televised public service announcements to raise awareness of 
trafficking, and engaged in other limited public education 
campaigns.  The GOI sheltered victims abroad, repatriated 
victims and expanded victim services in modest ways.  Local 
governments and NGOs provided some in-country shelters. 
Police, with U.S. assistance, established two medical 
recovery centers to treat victims. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Indonesia made limited or no headway on other 
difficult anti-trafficking steps.  The GOI provided no 
information on attempts to curb the illegal involvement of 
individual security force members and corrupt officials in 
prostitution linked to trafficking.  Law enforcement data 
collection on anti-trafficking activities remained weak, 
particularly within the Attorney General's Office.  Law 
enforcement officials and civil society at times failed to 
recognize trafficking victims, despite generally rising 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  002.2 OF 055 
 
 
public awareness.  The GOI launched a major anti-corruption 
campaign, but it had yet to show significant impact on 
rampant corruption that facilitated trafficking.  Civil 
society and GOI officials continued to view conditions of 
debt bondage as acceptable within the migrant worker system. 
Little information emerged on national and local government 
budgets dedicated to anti-trafficking, and funding appeared 
very limited and ad hoc.  Victim services, while expanding 
somewhat, remained inadequate given the extent of the crime. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Within the context of the country's emerging 
democracy, Indonesia's anti-trafficking commitment faced the 
same serious constraints affecting other issues of national 
importance:  endemic corruption, the weakness of government 
structures and law enforcement at all levels, limited public 
budgets, poverty, a weak public education system, and 
competing priorities from other urgent issues.  Nevertheless, 
Indonesia made gradual progress in the fight against 
trafficking in persons.  Indonesia continued to welcome and 
cooperate with international anti-trafficking assistance, and 
anti-trafficking partnership with the U.S. Mission and U.S. 
grantees remained strong.  End Summary. 
 
------- 
SOURCES 
------- 
 
¶6.  (U) The U.S. Mission in Indonesia contacted and received 
information from many GOI sources specifically for the 
preparation of this report, including:  the People's Welfare 
Coordinating Ministry, the Women's Empowerment Ministry 
(hereinafter the Women's Ministry), the National Police 
(POLRI), the Attorney General's Office (AGO), the Manpower 
and Transmigration Ministry (the Manpower Ministry), and a 
number of local government offices, including in East Java 
and North Sumatra.  Particularly valuable information came 
from international and domestic NGOs, including the 
International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), the 
American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), 
Save the Children-USA, and The Asia Foundation.  Mission 
research included input from international organizations such 
as the International Labor Organization (ILO), UNICEF, and 
the International Organization for Migration (IOM).  A 
breakdown of Mission hours spent in preparation of the report 
will follow separately. 
 
¶7.  (U) The report text follows the general outline of themes 
and questions provided in ref A instructions.  Each section 
begins with a capsule "update" that briefly summarizes the 
most important new information included in the text. 
 
¶8.  (U) Through mid-June 2006, the Jakarta Mission point of 
contact on the TIP issue is Political Officer Mark Clark, 
tel. (62) 21-3435-9146, fax (62) 21-3435-9116. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Report text: 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  003.2 OF 055 
 
 
----------------------------------------- 
¶I.  OVERVIEW OF INDONESIA'S ACTIVITIES TO 
    ELIMINATE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
UPDATE 
------ 
 
The past year did not witness significant change in overall 
trafficking patterns in Indonesia.  New information became 
available on the extent of internal trafficking for 
prostitution to remote Papua, with an NGO estimating some 
3,000 victims in the sex trade in six major areas.  Media 
reporting indicated that Indonesian women, under the guise of 
"cultural performers," constituted an important number of 
trafficking victims in Japan.  In the aftermath of the 
December 2004 destructive earthquake and tsunami, 
anti-trafficking organizations found little evidence of 
significant trafficking of women and children from Aceh, 
particularly compared to the extent of trafficking elsewhere 
in Indonesia.  Human Rights Watch provided more descriptive 
accounts of abuse and trafficking-like conditions facing 
child domestic workers.  Foreign prostitutes in Indonesia 
remain relatively very small in number, with continued 
reports of Chinese, Russian and Central Asian women engaged 
in the sex trade in Jakarta. 
 
President Yudhoyono spoke out forcefully against trafficking, 
called for quick passage of the anti-trafficking bill before 
the legislature, and condemned trafficking in a joint 
statement signed with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah. 
After a lengthy delay, which  affected almost all pending 
legislation, the House of Representatives began formal 
deliberations on the anti-trafficking bill and targeted 
passage in mid-2006.  Some officials stated that GOI 
anti-trafficking budgets expanded, but provided no details. 
The GOI's severe funding constraints, pre-occupation with 
post-tsunami reconstruction, and deep-rooted corruption all 
adversely affected Indonesia's anti-trafficking efforts. 
 
INDONESIA FACES SIGNIFICANT TRAFFICKING CRIMES 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
Indonesia, a developing country and emerging democracy with 
the world's fourth largest population, is a place of origin 
for a significant number of internationally trafficked women 
and children, and to a lesser extent men.  Indonesia is also 
a transit and destination country for international 
trafficking, although foreign victims are very small in 
number relative to Indonesian victims.  Very significant 
incidents of trafficking occur within Indonesia's borders, 
including for prostitution.  Different regions of the country 
are identifiable as sending, transit and/or receiving areas 
for internal as well as international trafficking.  There 
were no credible reports during this period of trafficking in 
territory outside of GOI control, namely in the very limited 
areas held by separatist rebels in Aceh province prior to the 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  004.2 OF 055 
 
 
August 2005 peace accord. 
 
RELIABLE STATISTICS UNAVAILABLE 
------------------------------- 
 
Reliable statistics or estimates of the overall number of 
victims remain unavailable, in large part because of the 
illegal and informal nature of trafficking, the lack of 
systematic research, and frequent definitional problems. The 
sources available for information on the prevalence of TIP 
include GOI agencies (particularly the Women's Ministry and 
the People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry), domestic and 
international NGOs and international organizations, including 
UNICEF, IOM and ILO.  Most organizations' estimates rely upon 
a combination of extrapolation, field experience, press 
reports and anecdotal evidence.  Some of these organizations 
will not provide estimates due to the uncertainty of their 
information.  Definitional problems, often including a lack 
of distinction between human trafficking, lesser abuses of 
workers, and illegal migration make some estimates very 
unreliable. 
 
Crude estimates of the prevalence of TIP vary tremendously, 
but most indicate the number of victims in the upper tens of 
thousands or higher.  In past years, GOI documents referenced 
various estimates of the total number of victims, usually in 
the hundreds of thousands, without providing details for 
these figures.  The GOI's 2004-2005 TIP report did not offer 
an estimate of victims.  GOI officials charged with the issue 
state that they do not have reliable, overall estimates of 
the number of victims. 
 
Other non-governmental estimates of the overall number of TIP 
victims exist, but do not have a strong basis in systematic 
research.  Migrant worker advocacy groups occasionally cited 
very high and seemingly inaccurate numbers.  To the extent 
that such organizations do not differentiate between 
trafficking and lesser abuses of migrant workers, their 
figures represent gross overestimates. 
 
INTERNAL TRAFFICKING MOST SIGNIFICANT 
------------------------------------- 
 
While reliable figures do not exist, many anti-trafficking 
organizations believe the number of victims of internal 
trafficking exceeds the number of Indonesians trafficked 
overseas.  The U.S. Mission's observations support this 
conclusion. 
 
BOUNDARY ESTIMATES 
------------------ 
 
Some groups have developed boundary estimates for groups 
vulnerable to trafficking.  ICMC and ACILS, in their 2003 
book entitled "Trafficking of Women and Children in 
Indonesia," identified three categories that generate the 
greatest number of TIP victims:  female migrant workers, 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  005.2 OF 055 
 
 
prostitutes and child domestic workers.  (There are other 
categories that also generate TIP victims, but not are 
included in these ICMC/ACILS boundary estimates.)  ICMC/ACILS 
estimated that between 2.4 to 3.7 million women and children 
worked in these sectors.  Within these boundaries, the total 
number of children ranges from 254,000 to 422,000. 
ICMC/ACILS point out that these are not estimates of the 
number of victims (for example, most female migrant workers 
are not trafficked), but they do provide an indication of the 
potential impact of trafficking on a large number of women 
and children. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
TABLE 1:  WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SECTORS 
          VULNERABLE TO TRAFFICKING 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
SECTOR                  Women Children   Children 
------                  --------------   -------- 
In-country Sex 
   Workers          130k - 240k      39k - 72k 
Female Migrant 
   Workers          1.4 - 2.1 mil.     n/a 
In-country domestic 
  workers           860k - 1.4 mil.  215k - 350k 
                    ---------------  ----------- 
                    2.4 - 3.7 mil.   254k - 422k 
 
SOURCE:  ICMC/ACILS, 2003 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
DATA ON PROSTITUTION 
-------------------- 
 
Prostitution constitutes a major source of concern for TIP in 
Indonesia due to the number of women and children involved; 
the clandestine, abusive and often forced nature of this 
work; the prevalence of organized crime; and the frequent 
awareness and/or complicity of officials and security forces 
(police and military) in prostitution.  The boundary 
estimates for domestic sex workers are somewhat more precise 
than for other areas.  ICMC/ACILS in 2003 estimated between 
130,000 to 240,000 in-country prostitutes.  A number of 
studies have consistently found that on average children make 
up some 25 to 30 percent of persons working as prostitutes. 
Using 30 percent, ICMC/ACILS arrives at boundary estimates of 
some 39,000 to 72,000 child prostitutes.  This range also 
corresponds generally with a UNICEF estimate.  Underage 
prostitutes (those under 18 years of age) are by definition 
TIP victims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 
¶2000. 
 
The ILO generated data on the incidence of the worst forms of 
child labor, including child trafficking for prostitution, 
through a series of "rapid assessments" conducted in 2003. 
The ILO carried out the assessments in limited geographic 
areas of concern for specific types of child labor.  For 
child trafficking into prostitution, the ILO assessment 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  006.2 OF 055 
 
 
focused on Java, home to 60 percent of Indonesia's 
population.  The ILO field research generated "best guess" 
estimates for child prostitutes in these provinces, noted in 
Table 2. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
TABLE 2:  ESTIMATES OF TOTAL NUMBER OF PROSTITUTES 
          AND CHILD PROSTITUTES ON JAVA 
 
LOCATION      TOTAL         TOTAL     PERCENT 
              PROSTITUTES   UNDERAGE  UNDERAGE 
--------      -----------   --------  -------- 
West Java:    31,380         9,000       29 
Jakarta:        28,620         5,100       18 
East Java:    14,279         4,081       29 
Central Java:  8,495         3,177       37 
Yogyakarta     1,106           194       18 
              -----------   --------  -------- 
              83,880        21,552        26 
 
SOURCE:  ILO RAPID ASSESSMENTS, 2003 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
NEW STUDY ON PAPUA 
------------------ 
 
In remote Papua, a 2005 ICMC field study estimated that there 
were over 3,000 internally trafficked women and girls in the 
sex trade, including some 1,000 child prostitutes, in the 
area's seven largest population centers.  Almost all child 
street prostitutes were of Papuan origin.  In contrast, most 
victims in karaoke bars and brothels originated from 
Indonesian areas outside Papua, with the greatest number 
coming from North Sulawesi.  The victims normally arrived by 
ship, often with false promises of employment.  Internal 
migrant workers generated much of the demand for 
prostitution.  Geographic isolation, economic 
underdevelopment, and lack of civil society concern increased 
the severity of trafficking conditions in Papua. 
 
RIAU ISLANDS AND SEX TRAFFICKING 
-------------------------------- 
 
Locations in Riau Islands Province that are in close 
proximity to Singapore, including Batam, Bintan, and Karimun, 
drew continued domestic and international attention as major 
destination points for sex trafficking, as well as transit 
areas for trafficking into Malaysia in particular.  A 2003 
report by the Indonesian NGO Partnership in Health and 
Humanity Foundation (YMKK) estimated 6,138 prostitutes held 
in debt bondage in 58 separate "entertainment" establishments 
and seven extensive brothel areas in Batam.  With roughly 30 
percent of prostitutes under the age of 18, YMKK estimated 
approximately 2,000 child prostitutes on Batam.  According to 
Indonesian media, NGOs, and ILO research, Malaysians and 
Singaporeans constitute the largest number of sex tourists in 
Batam and the surrounding areas like Balai Karimun and 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  007.2 OF 055 
 
 
Tanjung Pinang.  The area's sex industry is also heavily 
dependent on Indonesian clients, drawn in part from the 
population of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in 
Batam.  ILO research described Tanjung Balai Karimun, near 
Batam, as operating a "prostitution economy." 
 
INDONESIAN VICTIMS IN MALAYSIA 
------------------------------ 
 
Malaysia is commonly identified as the country receiving the 
greatest number of Indonesian trafficking victims.  Past NGO 
and GOI estimates of Indonesian prostitutes (whether 
trafficked or not) and child prostitutes in Malaysia have 
ranged in the thousands, but such estimates do not have a 
strong basis in substantive research.  Officials at the 
Women's Ministry reported that during 2004 the GOI 
repatriated from Malaysia 1,047 allegedly trafficked 
prostitutes.  The officials did not provide further details, 
and might have categorized all returned prostitutes as 
trafficking victims. 
 
IOM recorded 470 Indonesian trafficking victims, including 
110 children, repatriated from Malaysia from March 2005 to 
February 2006.  Of these, 81 were trafficked into 
prostitution, representing 62 adults and 19 children. 
Domestic workers constituted the largest number of victims 
(267) repatriated with IOM assistance. 
 
The ILO, IOM, NGOs and Indonesian diplomats in Malaysia have 
noted reports of illegal Indonesian migrant workers 
trafficked to isolated plantations and plywood factories in 
Malaysia.  It was not clear in all instances whether such 
reports met the definition of trafficking or represented 
other types of labor abuse.  IOM repatriated 53 reportedly 
trafficked plantation workers during the period March 2005 to 
February 2006. 
 
"CULTURAL PERFORMERS" IN JAPAN 
------------------------------ 
 
The GOI, police and local press reports documented the 
trafficking of young Indonesian women to Japan under the 
guise of "cultural performers," and suggested that such 
trafficking victims numbered at least in the hundreds.  In 
2003, the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo reportedly acknowledged 
knowing of 235 female entertainment workers in Japan. 
International media reported that in 2005 Japanese 
authorities rescued 44 Indonesian women trafficked as "sex 
slaves" to Japan, with Indonesians representing for the first 
time the largest group of foreign victims rescued from the 
sex trade there.  In 2005, police arrested two persons for 
trafficking dozens of "cultural performers" into prostitution 
in Japan. 
 
TSUNAMI AFTERMATH 
 
SIPDIS 
----------------- 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  008.2 OF 055 
 
 
The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Aceh and 
limited parts of North Sumatra province in December 2004 
raised immediate concerns over women and children left 
vulnerable to trafficking.  A subsequent major earthquake 
that hit Nias Island in March 2005 raised similar concerns. 
In a November 2005 report, UNICEF concluded that there had 
been no substantiated cases of child trafficking in 
tsunami-striken areas and that there had been no large-scale 
 
SIPDIS 
organized trafficking of children separated or orphaned by 
the tsunami.  Local media reported an unsuccessful attempt to 
traffic two teenaged girls from Aceh to Malaysia; possible 
trafficking of some Acehnese women also to Malaysia; and one 
case of an Acehnese child allegedly trafficked to Batam.  In 
June 2005, police arrested several Indonesian NGO workers for 
allegedly trafficking 15 children from Nias to Jakarta, 
though details remained unclear.  IOM assisted the Nias 
cases, and also reported helping with 7 trafficking victims 
from Aceh.  U.S. Embassy partners concluded that, despite the 
tsunami's impact, there was little evidence of significant 
 
SIPDIS 
trafficking of Acehnese, while the extent of trafficking 
crimes appeared far greater in other areas of the country. 
The GOI's quick and firm response to stop the unauthorized 
movement of children out of Aceh contributed to the 
prevention of trafficking from tsunami-affected areas. 
 
MIGRANT WORKERS 
--------------- 
 
ICMC/ACILS note that the category of overseas or migrant 
labor, which according to their research generates large 
numbers of TIP victims, encompasses a range of sectors. 
Female Indonesian migrant laborers tend to work as domestic 
helpers, as entertainers, in the service industry, in 
factories and on plantations.  Males tend to find work 
overseas in construction, factories and plantations, and as 
drivers.  The large majority of Indonesian workers overseas 
are not trafficking victims, but they are vulnerable to 
trafficking and lesser abuses at various stages -- during 
their recruitment, pre-departure, placement and return.  The 
migrant worker recruiting system tolerates and 
institutionalizes forms of debt bondage.  The media tend to 
describe Indonesian women as among the most abused of all 
Asian migrant workers due in part to their lack of education 
and poor English language skills.  Such articles commonly 
cite examples of abuse in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, 
and Hong Kong. 
 
CHILD DOMESTICS 
--------------- 
 
Child domestic workers, frequently found in many middle- to 
upper-income Indonesian households, may number from 215,000 
to 350,000 in the under-15 age bracket, according to 
ICMC/ACILS.  ILO data from a limited 2002-2003 survey 
indicated that some 688,000 children under age 18 may be 
employed as child domestic workers.  Employers may prefer 
child domestics over adults because children commonly receive 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  009.2 OF 055 
 
 
lower wages, and can be more easily managed and controlled. 
An unknown number of domestics work in trafficking or 
trafficking-like conditions.  For example, they may receive 
little or no wages, face restricted freedom of movement, be 
subject to physical and psychological abuse and sexual 
assault, and have no means to remove themselves from such 
situations.  A 2005 Human Rights Watch report, "Always on 
Call," provided accounts of gross abuse of child domestic 
workers in Indonesia. 
 
STREET CHILDREN 
--------------- 
 
Street children represent another potential source of 
trafficking victims.  In 2003, the Social Affairs Ministry 
estimated there were some 50,000 street children in 
Indonesia, while NGO estimates place the number at 120,000 or 
higher.  ICMC/ACILS note that although most street children 
are not trafficked into their situation, they are very 
vulnerable to traffickers.  ILO studies in 2001 and 2004 
documented children trafficked for the purpose of organized 
street begging. 
 
BRIDE PURCHASE PHENOMENON 
------------------------- 
 
The GOI, including the police, and NGOs like LBH-APIK and 
ICMC/ACILS have documented the selling of brides, including 
some underage, in the Singkawang District of West Kalimantan. 
 This area is the focal point for the bride purchase 
phenomenon due to the existence of a large, poor ethnic 
Chinese community.  Most buyers are from Taiwan and Hong Kong 
and seek Chinese-speaking women.  Anecdotal evidence and 
Indonesian officials who have visited Taiwan suggest that 
many brides become spouses and part of families in Taiwan, 
although some are trafficked for prostitution, forced 
domestic work, or other slavery-like practices. 
 
In 2004, the Taiwan police received over 170 reports of abuse 
from Indonesian women living in Taiwan, according to 
Indonesian police sources.  Beginning in 2004, Indonesian 
police increased their interactions with counterparts in 
Taiwan.  In August 2005, Indonesian and Taiwanese officials 
held a seminar on protections for Indonesian spouses in 
Taiwan, and reported that there were 10,115 Indonesian 
citizen spouses living in Taiwan, roughly 11 percent of all 
foreign-born spouses. 
 
OTHER FORMS 
----------- 
 
Organizations working on TIP recognized additional categories 
that presumably generate trafficking victims.  In most cases, 
even less information is available on the prevalence of 
trafficking in these sectors.  One well-documented category 
that appears to meet the TIP definition is the recruitment of 
boys to work on offshore fishing platforms (jermals), 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  010.2 OF 055 
 
 
employment that exposes these children to many serious 
hazards and isolation for months at a time.  The incidence of 
boys on fishing platforms off the coast of North Sumatra has 
decreased dramatically over recent years.  An ILO field study 
in June 2003 of 100 known platforms uncovered only 15 
children.  More recent ILO studies have focused on children 
trafficked aboard fishing vessels.  The NGO Terre des Hommes 
documented the phenomenon of trafficking in babies, as 
distinct from illegal adoptions.  The plantation sector and 
narcotics trafficking may generate an unknown number of 
trafficking victims. 
 
VULNERABLE GROUPS 
----------------- 
 
 
Women and children are most likely to fall victim to 
trafficking in Indonesia.  A number of factors that 
contribute to women's vulnerability, including:  poverty, 
lower education levels, cultural expectations, unequal status 
(relative powerlessness) in the family and society 
(particularly in lower income groups), limited economic 
opportunities, and expectations of supporting children and 
families.  Girls who have married and divorced at a young age 
appear particularly vulnerable.  Age and cultural traditions 
that emphasize the authority of older persons compound 
children's vulnerability.  The frequent complicity of parents 
and relatives in the trafficking of children reflects a lack 
of respect for children's rights within some family settings, 
as well as economic pressures. 
 
Traffickers victimize persons from many different ethnic 
groups.  Many persons trafficked originate from 
densely-populated, low income areas of Java, reflecting the 
larger pool of potential victims on this island that features 
some 60 percent of Indonesia's total population and 
contributes the majority of the country's migrant labor.  No 
accurate statistics are available to judge, however, if the 
prevalence of TIP (as a percent of the population) is greater 
on Java than in other regions. 
 
The Women's Ministry conducted a study in 2003 of sending 
areas in West Java that supplied women and girls for 
prostitution and sex trafficking.  The study concluded that a 
strong correlation exists between poverty and trafficking 
victims at the district level.  Other studies have 
de-emphasized poverty as the key factor, pointing to the 
existence of established trafficking networks that lead to 
greater recruitment of victims in some areas compared to 
neighboring communities with the same economic profile. 
 
GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS 
------------------- 
 
Domestic and international groups combating TIP, as well as 
the GOI, identified provinces and districts within provinces 
that are primarily sending areas.  The major sending 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  011.2 OF 055 
 
 
provinces include:  Central Java, East Java, West Java, North 
Sumatra, North Sulawesi, Lampung, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), 
and West Kalimantan. 
 
Traffickers send victims to domestic and overseas locations. 
NGOs and the GOI identify the following provinces as major 
domestic receiving areas:  Bali, East Java (Surabaya), East 
Kalimantan, Jakarta, Papua, and Riau Islands (near Singapore). 
 
Certain provinces stood out as important transit areas for 
trafficking victims, including:  Bali, Jakarta, East Java, 
Riau Islands, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan and East 
Kalimantan. 
 
In terms of overseas receiving areas, traffickers send 
Indonesian victims to many countries.  Most GOI, NGO and 
press reports concluded that the greatest numbers of 
Indonesian victims overseas were found in Malaysia and Saudi 
Arabia, respectively, mirroring overall migrant worker flows 
to these countries.  Other noted destinations included 
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South 
Korea, and Singapore.  Unlike in some recent years, there 
were no new reports of trafficking to Australia. 
 
GOI agencies and NGOs have documented distinct patterns and 
routes of trafficking from and to different locations.  For 
example, North Sulawesi is known as an area that sends 
trafficked women as prostitutes to isolated Papua.  West 
Kalimantan is the focal point for the bride purchase 
phenomenon, due to the existence of a large, poor ethnic 
Chinese community there and the fact that most buyers are 
from Taiwan and Hong Kong and seek Chinese-speaking women. 
Certain villages in Indramayu, West Java, constitute a 
well-documented sending area for young girls and women, 
particularly into the sex trade.  During a February 2003 U.S. 
Embassy visit, Indramayu officials stated that up to 
two-thirds of girls and young women in certain villages had 
migrated to work in large cities or overseas, as prostitutes 
in many cases, leading the local government to allocate 
anti-trafficking funds.  Girls from Indramayu represent the 
largest group of prostitutes operating in some prostitution 
areas of Jakarta. 
 
FOREIGN VICTIMS IN INDONESIA 
---------------------------- 
 
The number of persons trafficked into Indonesia from aboard 
is relatively small, possibly in the hundreds, far fewer than 
the number of Indonesian victims inside and outside the 
country.  Press and GOI accounts of foreign prostitutes 
working in Jakarta and Batam, Riau Islands Province, provided 
indications that Indonesia is a destination point for 
trafficked women, though information remained very 
superficial.  Most foreign prostitutes in Indonesia 
originated from mainland China.  According to NGO 
information, some 150 foreign prostitutes operated in Batam, 
coming from China and Thailand, along with a small number of 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  012.2 OF 055 
 
 
Europeans.  The media, NGOs, and the ILO reported smaller 
numbers of women from Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, 
Uzbekistan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Venezuela, Spain 
and Ukraine.  In all such reports, the foreign women acted as 
prostitutes.  Often times, the presence of foreign 
prostitutes became public knowledge following police raids 
covered by the media.  During 2004, raids in Jakarta led to 
the arrest and deportation of prostitutes from China and 
Uzbekistan.  In August 2005, police and immigration officials 
in Jakarta raided nightclubs, saunas and beauty parlors, 
rounding up and deporting 68 foreign prostitutes, 63 from 
China and 5 total from Russia and Uzbekistan. 
 
In 2004 ACILS and other non-governmental sources reported 
Burmese seafarers trafficked aboard fishing vessels from 
Thailand operating in Indonesian waters.  Over a period of 
years, some of these fishermen jumped ship in the remote 
eastern Indonesian port of Tual.  In 2006, one NGO estimated 
that there were some 100 such Burmese fishermen living in 
undocumented status near Tual. 
 
TRAFFICKING CONDITIONS, METHODS 
------------------------------- 
 
For internal trafficking into the sex trade, traffickers used 
debt bondage, violence and threats of violence, drug 
addiction, and withholding of documents to keep women and 
children in prostitution. 
 
Traffickers employ a variety of means to attract and hold 
victims, including promises of well-paying jobs, debt 
bondage, community or family pressures, threats of violence, 
rape, and false marriages.  Promises of relatively lucrative 
employment are among the most common tactics.  For example, 
police and NGO interviews of women who escaped from forced 
prostitution in Batam, Papua and Malaysia commonly reveal 
that traffickers recruited the young women with offers of 
jobs in restaurants, supermarkets or as domestic servants. 
Once at their destination, traffickers used violence and rape 
to force them into the sex trade.  Migrant worker recruiters 
also use misrepresentation and debt bondage to traffic men 
and women.  Beginning in December 2004 and continuing through 
2005, the GOI freed some 2,000 women and girls detained in 
illegal Jakarta-area migrant worker holding centers, many of 
which reportedly kept their victims illegally confined under 
inhumane conditions. 
 
Debt bondage is particularly common in the sex trade. 
Indonesian women and girls trafficked into prostitution in 
Batam, for example, commonly began with a debt of five to ten 
million rupiah (USD 600-1,200).  Given the constant 
accumulation of other debts, women and girls are often unable 
to repay these amounts, even after years of work as 
prostitutes.  Although detailed information was lacking, NGOs 
assumed traffickers would subject foreign victims held in 
prostitution to threats, violence, and withholding of 
documents. 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  013.2 OF 055 
 
 
 
Some migrant workers, often female, also entered trafficking 
and trafficking-like situations during their attempt to find 
work abroad through migrant worker recruiting agencies 
(PJTKI).  Licensed and unlicensed PJTKI used debt bondage, 
withholding of documents and confinement in locked premises 
to keep migrant workers in holding centers, sometimes for 
periods of many months.  Some PJTKI also use threats of 
violence to maintain control over prospective migrant 
workers.  Civil society, officials, and victims themselves 
commonly viewed conditions of debt bondage and physical 
confinement as acceptable aspects of the migrant worker 
system, rather than as rights violations. 
 
Traffickers sent Indonesian victims both overseas and to 
domestic locations.  As noted above, traffickers focused 
disproportionately on women and children.  Traffickers also 
took advantage of persons in many impoverished regions. 
While poverty plays a leading role in facilitating 
trafficking, poor educational opportunities, cultural factors 
and established trafficking networks also acted as important 
determinants. 
 
TRAFFICKERS 
----------- 
 
Traffickers fit many different profiles.  Some worked in 
larger mafia-like organizations, particularly for trafficking 
into major prostitution areas.  Others operated as small or 
family-run businesses.  Husband-wife teams of traffickers 
were common, with the wife often serving as the recruiting 
agent.  In many instances, local community leaders and 
parents of victims assisted in trafficking. 
 
Some PJTKI operated similar to trafficking rings, leading 
both male and female workers into debt bondage, abusive 
employment situations and other trafficking situations.  Some 
of the offending PJTKI held official licenses.  Others 
operated illegally or appeared to be paper fronts for 
traffickers. 
 
Some individual members of the security forces were complicit 
in trafficking, particularly by providing protection to 
brothels and prostitution fronts in discos, karaoke bars and 
hotels, or by receiving bribes to turn a blind eye to such 
crimes.  An unknown number of civilian officials, including 
those who work in local government service, immigration, and 
local Manpower offices, either contributed to or were 
complicit in trafficking. 
 
There were many reports of families either selling or 
encouraging children to enter abusive domestic service or 
prostitution.  Children worked to pay off debts or advances 
provided to their families.  In certain rural communities, 
such as Indramayu, West Java, the GOI and NGOs repeatedly 
noted a culture in which young women were encouraged to 
support their families by becoming big-city prostitutes. 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  014.2 OF 055 
 
 
 
SIGNS OF POLITICAL WILL 
----------------------- 
 
Indonesia' priority to fight trafficking found renewed 
expression in public remarks by President Yudhoyono, cabinet 
members, and other senior officials.  In December 2005, 
President Yudhoyono called publicly for the quick passage of 
the comprehensive anti-trafficking bill and personally 
decried the conditions of trafficked migrant workers.  In 
January 2006, President Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime 
Minister Abdullah Badawi issued a joint statement, which 
"condemned acts of trafficking in persons as an atrocious 
crime against humanity."  The joint statement also "expressed 
strong commitment in working together to combat such crime 
and instructed the two countries' respective national police 
to enhance cooperation towards such a goal."  Indonesia's 
Women's Minister and Manpower Minister spoke out against 
trafficking publicly and in meetings. 
 
After a delay that affected almost all pending national 
legislation, Indonesia's House of Representatives (DPR) took 
up the anti-trafficking bill as a DPR initiative in late 2005 
and began formal hearings in January 2006.  Given its backlog 
of over 200 bills, the DPR in effect prioritized the 
anti-trafficking law over most other pending legislation. 
The DPR committee targeted passage of the bill in mid-2006. 
 
GOI-sponsored public education campaigns, continued arrests 
and prosecutions of traffickers, new medical facilities and 
shelters to assist victims, and other actions detailed in 
this report provided further signs of political will. 
 
LIMITATIONS, RESOURCES 
---------------------- 
 
Given the scope of the country's trafficking problem, 
Indonesia's actions against trafficking, whether the 
responsibility of national or local governments, continued to 
demonstrate serious weaknesses and failings.  Indonesia's 
relative poverty, weaknesses in governance, poor public 
funding, preoccupation with post-tsunami recovery, and 
endemic corruption all contributed to these shortcomings. 
 
As a developing country with a low per capita income, and as 
a new democracy of some 240 million people struggling with a 
legacy of 40 years of authoritarian rule, Indonesia faces 
huge challenges in governance, which significantly limit the 
GOI's ability to fight trafficking.  Indonesia's emerging 
democratic structures commonly lack capacity and integrity, 
and face critical funding limitations. 
 
Overall, government funding for anti-trafficking remained 
very inadequate, a situation similar to the country's 
response to many other crimes and social ills.  Limited 
funding constrained central and local governments' assistance 
and protection efforts.  This included the GOI's ability to 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  015.2 OF 055 
 
 
detect and assist victims on islands sometimes many hundreds 
of miles from the national and provincial capitals.  While 
the GOI did assist many Indonesians trafficked abroad, 
assistance and protection efforts, in particular for persons 
trafficked within Indonesia, remained very sporadic and did 
not reach most victims.  Limited police budgets and lack of 
operational funds severely hampered investigations, many of 
which required travel to other police districts. 
 
Jakarta officials and researchers reported that the national 
and local governments increased outlays for specific 
anti-trafficking efforts over the past several years, but 
these sources did not provide budget data.  In 2006 the GOI's 
focal point for anti-trafficking, the Women's Ministry, did 
not receive a significant increase in anti-trafficking 
funding, which remained at approximately $300,000 (the 
Women's Ministry has a policy, rather than operational role). 
 There were reports of additional provincial and district 
governments allocating limited money for anti-trafficking 
efforts, but no details were available. 
 
The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck 
Indonesia's Aceh and North Sumatra provinces on December 26, 
2004, continued to consume massive amounts of GOI funding and 
attention over the past year.  As the world's worst natural 
disaster in living memory, the catastrophe left over 120,000 
Indonesians dead and many more missing.  It also caused 
billions of dollars in physical damage.  Key Indonesian 
ministries in the fight against trafficking, including the 
People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry, the Women's Ministry 
and the Social Affairs Ministry, took on major 
responsibilities for the Aceh relief effort.  Staff and 
budgets in these ministries were very much focused on tsunami 
response efforts during most of 2005. 
 
CORRUPTION 
---------- 
 
Corruption, which took firm root under the former Suharto 
government, remains widespread and deeply entrenched.  The 
legal system generally functions poorly and rule of law is 
weak, severely affecting GOI law enforcement efforts for all 
crimes, and TIP cases are no exception.  The police force is 
only slowly coming to grips with its proper role in a 
democracy and under civilian, rather than military, 
authority. 
 
Corruption in Indonesia's legal system affects trafficking 
cases.  According to NGO reports, and statements from 
officials and police, in recent years traffickers have used 
corruption in the legal process to their benefit to obtain 
reduced charges and sentences, to manipulate investigative 
reporting, and to avoid charges altogether.  Often times, 
NGOs, officials and private citizens did not report 
information on corruption and illegal activities to the 
authorities because of concern over retribution or lack of 
trust in the system to take action in such cases. 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  016.2 OF 055 
 
 
 
Corruption among government officials and institutions 
responsible for producing national identity cards, passports 
and other identifying documents contributed substantially to 
trafficking.  This particularly affected the trafficking of 
persons abroad and the trafficking of minors into 
prostitution. 
 
The Yudhoyono administration launched a new and promising 
anti-corruption campaign, with an Corruption Eradication 
Commission (KPK) and a special anti-corruption task force 
under the Attorney General's Office.  The campaign achieved 
some notable, high-profile successes in its first 16 months, 
but represented only the beginning of a very long process 
needed to significantly reduce endemic corruption. 
 
GOI MONITORING AND ASSESSMENTS 
------------------------------ 
 
Senior GOI officials periodically evaluate the Government's 
performance, including serious shortcomings.  The GOI uses 
the National Anti-Trafficking Task Force to evaluate progress 
and shortcomings under the framework of the National Action 
Plan to combat trafficking.  The Task Force had the following 
priorities for 2004-2007: 
 
-- Adoption of the comprehensive anti-trafficking law 
-- Increase in public awareness campaigns and efforts 
-- Promotion of better mechanisms for counter-trafficking 
programs at provincial and district levels 
-- Full development of shelters in all provinces and in half 
of all districts 
-- Strengthening the capacity of law enforcement officers and 
task forces at all levels 
-- Building data collection and information systems 
 
As an example of its activity, the latest National 
Anti-Trafficking Task Force meeting, held in late February 
2006, endorsed a number of practical actions, including: 
targeting the passage of the anti-trafficking bill in 2006; 
increasing GOI public awareness programs; increased attention 
to the role of falsified national identity documents in 
contributing to trafficking; better defining procedures for 
victims to access government services; development of an 
awards program for local government leaders who carry out 
significant anti-trafficking efforts; and needed follow-up 
with the Finance Ministry and the National Planning Board to 
explore more national and local level funding in anticipation 
of the end of foreign anti-trafficking assistance. 
 
The GOI produces and publicly distributes an annual 
anti-trafficking report, normally available by April of each 
year. 
 
------------------------------ 
II.  PREVENTION OF TRAFFICKING 
------------------------------ 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  017.2 OF 055 
 
 
 
UPDATE 
------ 
 
Indonesia's acknowledgement of trafficking found clear 
reiteration in public statements by President Yudhoyono and 
other measures.  Indonesia's National Spokesperson on 
Trafficking, Dewi Hughes, continued numerous public 
engagements.  The GOI ran a first-ever anti-trafficking 
public service announcement on television, reaching millions 
of viewers.  The Manpower and National Education ministries 
incorporated anti-trafficking materials in their training 
activities.  The national Scout movement expanded its 
anti-trafficking campaign in West Java.  The GOI made 
progress in achieving free basic education and free birth 
registrations in some districts.  The GOI began to introduce 
a passport with improved security features. 
 
GOVERNMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TRAFFICKING 
----------------------------------------- 
 
The GOI at the most senior levels acknowledges that 
trafficking is a serious problem that affects many Indonesian 
women and children.  This acknowledgement is reflected in 
presidential and ministerial-level statements, including 
clear public statements by President Yudhoyono in 2005; three 
related national action plans; national and local 
anti-trafficking task forces; additional criminal sanctions 
included in the 2002 Child Protection Act; police actions to 
combat trafficking; and current GOI and DPR efforts to pass 
comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation. 
 
As an important signal of its recognition of the problem, the 
GOI seeks, accommodates and welcomes international assistance 
to fight the trafficking of Indonesian citizens, including in 
the area of law enforcement.  Indonesia actively participated 
in international, regional and sub-regional anti-trafficking 
events, including preparation and signing of the November 
2004 ASEAN anti-trafficking declaration, and hosting of the 
ASEAN TIP workshop in 2005.  President Yudhoyono and 
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's January 2006 joint 
statement condemned trafficking as "an atrocious crime 
against humanity." 
 
Some GOI agencies, individual officials and local governments 
lagged behind in understanding and acknowledging TIP.  Others 
took anti-TIP actions without using the term "trafficking." 
A number of senior civilian officials and law enforcement 
officers continue to believe that trafficking is a problem 
only for Indonesians victimized abroad and they do not 
acknowledge or admit the existence of internal trafficking, 
particularly for prostitution.  In general, trafficking 
within Indonesia's borders received less acknowledgment and 
priority than trafficking of Indonesians to other countries, 
though law enforcement actions against internal trafficking 
appeared to increase. 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  018.2 OF 055 
 
 
GOI AGENCIES INVOLVED IN ANTI-TIP EFFORTS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
Many government agencies at national and sub-national levels 
carried out anti-trafficking efforts, some in a substantive 
way and others only superficially.  The People's Welfare 
Coordinating Ministry is the senior most executive body 
responsible for TIP.  In 2002, the President identified the 
Women's Ministry as the focal point for anti-trafficking 
efforts, particularly those concerning women and children. 
Both the Coordinating Ministry and the Women's Ministry 
actively engaged on TIP throughout the year.  Several deputy 
ministers from both ministries devoted themselves on an 
almost full-time basis to anti-trafficking activities. 
 
The People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry and the Women's 
Ministry lead the GOI's National Anti-Trafficking Task Force, 
which has formal responsibility for the National Action Plan 
to Eliminate Trafficking in Persons.  This body includes 12 
other GOI agencies (as well as NGOs and civil society 
representatives): 
 
-- Home Affairs Ministry 
-- Foreign Affairs Ministry 
-- Religious Affairs Ministry 
-- Law and Human Rights Ministry 
-- Manpower and Transmigration Ministry 
-- Social Affairs Ministry 
-- Health Ministry 
-- Education Ministry 
-- Tourism and Culture Ministry 
-- Communications Ministry 
-- The National Police (POLRI) 
-- The National Statistics Bureau 
 
The National Task Force has had limited success as a 
coordinating body, and less success in generating concrete 
actions.  In part, this reflects the relative powerlessness 
of the Women's Ministry within the national government, and 
the fact that neither the People's Welfare Coordinating 
Ministry nor the Women's Ministry has much operational 
authority.  However, interagency coordination generally is 
weak or nonexistent everywhere in the government on almost 
all issues. 
 
The Manpower Ministry maintained a Directorate for the 
Protection of Overseas Workers that carried out some 
functions related to anti-trafficking, though it normally did 
not use this concept to describe its actions. 
 
Local government agencies, for the most part operating 
autonomously from central ministries, also played roles in 
anti-trafficking.  The number of provinces with established 
anti-trafficking committees or task forces increased to 12 
(out of 33 provinces), namely:  Bali, Central Java, East 
Java, East Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, Jakarta, North 
Sulawesi, North Sumatra, West Java, West Kalimantan, West 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  019.2 OF 055 
 
 
Nusa Tenggara, and Yogyakarta.  At least 14 district-level 
task forces also operated within 8 provinces:  Bali 
(Buleleng), Central Java (Cilicap), East Java (Tulungagung, 
Malang, Ponorogo, Blitar, Banyuwangi), Riau (Dumai), Riau 
Island (Tanjung Balai Karimun), West Java (Indramayu, 
Bandung, Bekasi), West Kalimantan (Sambas), and West Nusa 
Tenggara (Sumbawa).  The effectiveness of the various 
committees and task forces varied considerably, and some 
failed to function adequately. 
 
GOI ANTI-TIP CAMPAIGNS 
---------------------- 
 
During this period, the GOI and NGOs continued 
anti-trafficking information and education initiatives, which 
were limited in scope and budget, but did raise awareness 
among the Indonesian public.  GOI-sponsored public awareness 
campaigns included TV, radio and print media, and commonly 
featured senior officials.  Indonesia's National Spokesperson 
on Trafficking, TV personality Dewi Hughes, continued public 
awareness engagements in numerous media events that 
highlighted the human cost of trafficking, sought to warn 
potential victims, and lobbied for the passage of the 
anti-trafficking bill. 
 
In 2005-2006, the Women's Ministry conducted 
awareness-raising efforts in 16 provinces.  In late 2005, the 
Women's Ministry sponsored a televised public service 
announcement (PSA) on private national television stations, 
with viewing audiences in the millions of viewers.  The 
television PSA, the first-ever related to trafficking, ran 
for approximately one month.  The PSA depicted a rural girl 
who, with the promise of a lucrative job, is trafficked into 
prostitution in a big Indonesian city. 
 
The Manpower Ministry included information on the risk of 
trafficking, and other abuses, during mandatory training of 
out-going migrant workers.  The Manpower Ministry also 
launched pilot projects in four sub-districts (two in West 
Java, one in Central Java, one in West Nusa Tenggara) 
involving activists who reach to their communities to raise 
awareness about trafficking and safe migration. 
 
Some local governments, such as in North Sulawesi, East Java, 
and Batam, also conducted education campaigns. 
 
The National Education Ministry incorporated anti-trafficking 
materials in some of its training activities.  The Ministry 
distributed anti-trafficking education kits to 150 
administrators responsible for the country's out of school 
education services.  The National Education Ministry also 
funded a local NGO project to assist radio stations in West 
Java with the creation and airing of anti-trafficking PSAs. 
 
NGOs remained the most active groups conducting 
anti-trafficking campaigns in some areas.  For example, in 
Surabaya, East Java, NGOs held discussions in prostitution 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  020.2 OF 055 
 
 
complexes, sponsored university workshops, conducted 
campaigns in bus and railway stations, and distributed 
brochures and posters. 
 
There were few efforts that focused on reducing demand for 
trafficking.  Limited public education material in Bali and 
Batam, aimed at stopping child sex tourism, contained 
messages for potential clients of prostitutes. 
 
The GOI efforts contributed to increasing public 
understanding of the seriousness of the trafficking problem, 
but GOI agencies responsible for combating trafficking did 
not have funds to conduct extensive, national education 
efforts.  The national TIP Task Force called for expanded 
awareness-raising campaigns. 
 
Media coverage of trafficking, both domestic and 
international, expanded over recent years.  National 
television, radio and print media, and local newspapers 
routinely covered TIP issues.  Investigative journalism shows 
highlighted the crime.  Migrant workers who had become 
trafficking victims, Indonesian prostitutes in Malaysia and 
the Middle East, domestic servants in Saudi Arabia, and child 
prostitutes were among topics that received significant 
coverage. 
 
Indonesia's national Scouts organization, which has near 
universal representation in public schools, continued and 
expanded its anti-trafficking education campaign in West 
Java.  The on-going campaign targets 25,000 students in 116 
schools in 2006.  Some Islamic organizations, including 
Muslim boarding schools (pesantren) began to take a more 
active role in anti-trafficking awareness-raising in parts of 
West Java, East Java, and Aceh.  In West Java, the Fahmina 
Institute and the pesantren of Kyai Husein Muhammad engaged 
in active anti-trafficking efforts focused on the Muslim 
community. 
 
GOI SUPPORT TO OTHER PREVENTION PROGRAMS 
---------------------------------------- 
 
The GOI supported and administered other national programs 
related to the prevention of trafficking, but not designed 
specifically as anti-trafficking efforts.  These programs 
commonly faced serious constraints in terms of GOI limited 
funds, institutional capacity, and corruption.  Some of the 
more relevant programs were: 
 
-- A program to encourage free basic public education through 
the first nine years of schooling, including subsidies for 
students from poor families.  A number of districts announced 
their achievement of free public schooling. 
 
-- A program to encourage birth registrations, coupled with a 
law that mandates government offices to provide birth 
certificates free of charge.  At least 21 local governments 
began free provision of birth certificates. 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  021.2 OF 055 
 
 
 
-- A national program to eliminate gender inequality in 
education. 
 
-- Programs to train female migrant workers. 
 
-- Credit schemes for micro-, small- and medium-sized 
businesses, some of which focused on women. 
 
-- Revolving credit schemes for cooperatives and savings and 
loan associations. 
 
-- Various cooperative efforts with NGOs to assist women from 
poor families. 
 
The Megawati Government, which left office in October 2004, 
did not capitalize on then President Megawati's publicly 
declared campaign against the commercial sexual exploitation 
of children in Batam and Bali, announced in July 2003.  The 
campaign led to some limited actions in Batam and some 
meetings in Bali, and helped somewhat to raise public 
awareness, but GOI efforts did not match the President's 
rhetoric.  The campaign did not carry over into the new 
administration of President Yudhoyono. 
 
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOI, NGOs AND OTHER ELEMENTS 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
The overall relationship between relevant GOI offices and 
NGOs remained cooperative and mutually supportive on 
TIP-related issues.  Cooperation varied from agency to agency 
and location to location.  The GOI recognized the importance 
of NGO expertise, networks and involvement.  NGOs met 
regularly with officials and participated in national and 
local task forces.  The GOI and NGOs collaborated on many TIP 
initiatives, including in protection of victims, public 
awareness raising, and in providing assistance to law 
enforcement officials in investigations and prosecutions. 
The police and NGOs continued to share information on 
trafficking, although mutual suspicions between NGOs and 
police sometimes prevented their cooperation. 
 
In East Java, the province's Child Protection Commission, 
police, city authorities, and NGO representatives in May 2005 
launched a network to monitor and prevent trafficking of 
children into prostitution.  The network monitors brothels 
and reports to the social services office and police if a 
brothel employs a child prostitute. 
 
The DPR invited NGOs and other civil society groups to 
participate in hearings on the pending anti-trafficking bill. 
 Women's groups worked with the GOI and DPR members to garner 
political support for the bill's passage. 
 
In 2005, the Foreign Ministry decided not to proceed with an 
initiative by the NGO ICMC to provide limited technical and 
material assistance to TIP shelters and personnel operating 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  022.2 OF 055 
 
 
out of Indonesian diplomatic offices in Malaysia.  The 
Foreign Ministry explained that it had concerns over 
perceptions by the Malaysian government of a foreign NGO 
working with the Indonesian embassy there on such a sensitive 
issue.  This situation coincided roughly with Malaysia's 
announced effort to expel illegal Indonesian workers. 
 
MONITORING OF IMMIGRATION/EMIGRATION 
------------------------------------ 
 
The GOI, by its own admission, could not adequately monitor 
its borders due to the vast size of the country (stretching 
some three thousand miles east-west encompassing 17,000 
islands), its tens of thousands of miles of coastline, and 
its limited naval and border patrol units.  While the GOI 
increased controls and oversight at some border points in 
response to concerns over terrorism and illegal migrant 
worker flows to Malaysia, border control in general remained 
very inadequate.  Field reports from the Indonesia-Malaysia 
land border crossing points, such as Entikong, West 
Kalimantan, consistently described very loose and easily 
corrupted immigration controls. 
 
The GOI did not effectively monitor immigration and 
emigration patterns for evidence of trafficking, with some 
limited exceptions in areas like the Riau Islands, where from 
time to time police and immigration officials utilized 
immigration/emigration data to detect and act against 
trafficking rings.  On the whole, however, immigration 
officials and law enforcement agencies did not have the 
equipment, capacity or tools to generate useful information, 
or did not prioritize such information. 
 
In 2004, Indonesia established a Transnational Crime Center 
(TNCC), which includes trafficking as one focus.  There was 
no information, however, on the TNCC's activities related to 
trafficking over the past year. 
 
In February 2006, the GOI introduced a new passport with 
increased security features.  In the future, the GOI plans to 
link fingerprints to passport data to prevent fraud.  While 
efforts to increase passport integrity began, Indonesia's 
passport services, like most other government services, 
remained the object of widespread corruption.  Indonesians 
are able to easily obtain passports in false and multiple 
identities.  The lack of computerized nationwide passport and 
immigration records facilitated the work of traffickers, and 
made it difficult to check whether potential trafficking 
victims have left Indonesia.  Recruitment agencies routinely 
falsified birth dates, including for children, in order to 
apply for passports and migrant worker documents. 
 
COORDINATION AND COMMUNICATION MECHANISMS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
At the national level, the Women's Ministry served as the 
focal point for GOI actions on TIP.  The People's Welfare 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  023.2 OF 055 
 
 
Coordinating Ministry, which includes the Women's Ministry 
under its umbrella, also played a key role in coordinating 
efforts across different agencies.  The National Action Plan 
to eliminate trafficking created a Task Force led by the 
People's Welfare Coordinating Minister and the Women's 
Minister, and included some 28 government and law enforcement 
agencies, NGOs, and civil society groups (see above).  Many 
provinces and a number of districts operated task forces for 
coordinating anti-trafficking efforts. 
 
The GOI actively participated in multilateral and 
international coordination efforts to combat trafficking 
under UN, ASEAN and regional frameworks.  As an example, the 
GOI hosted the ASEAN workshop on combating TIP in November 
¶2005.  The results for Indonesia of such multinational 
efforts have been mixed, in part because they often do not 
involve GOI agencies that are responsible for TIP and are 
knowledgeable about the issue.  For example, the Bali 
Ministerial process appears to have had little discernable 
impact on GOI anti-trafficking efforts inside the country 
thus far. 
 
NATIONAL PLANS OF ACTION 
------------------------ 
 
In 2002, then President Megawati approved three five-year 
national action plans related to trafficking, one each to 
eliminate the worst forms of child labor, to combat 
trafficking in women and children, and to eliminate the 
commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC).  The 
People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry and the Women's 
Ministry led the development of the anti-trafficking action 
plan, beginning in March 2002.  A number of NGOs and civil 
society groups actively joined in the drafting and discussion 
of the plans.  NGOs and civil society groups sit on the 
steering committee for implementing the action plan. 
Following its adoption, the GOI has disseminated the action 
plans to GOI offices, provincial officials, NGOs and civil 
society groups, often through workshops, seminars and the 
travel of Jakarta officials to the provinces. 
 
East Java Province approved a provincial action plan in 2005. 
 Other provinces and districts also have developed action 
plans, including West Kalimantan. 
 
The GOI has given responsibility for developing 
anti-trafficking programs to the National Anti-Trafficking 
Task Force, created by the National Action Plan, and led by 
the People's Welfare Coordinating Minister and the Women's 
Minister, which includes other government and law enforcement 
agencies, NGOs, and civil society groups (see above). 
Responsibility for provincial and district-level programs 
varies from location to location.  A growing number of 
provinces and districts (26 in total) have their own task 
forces or committees. 
 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  024.2 OF 055 
 
 
----------------------------------- 
III.  INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION 
      OF TRAFFICKERS 
----------------------------------- 
 
UPDATE 
------ 
 
The DPR formally took up the comprehensive anti-trafficking 
bill in late 2005, after a long period of inaction affecting 
almost all other pending legislation.  The DPR began hearings 
in January 2006 and targeted passage in mid-2006.  Law 
enforcement actions against traffickers continued apace in 
2005, with 110 arrests/investigations of individual 
traffickers, some reported 37 prosecutions, and at least 16 
convictions, per partial data available.  Most cases 
pertained to women and children trafficked into prostitution. 
 In contrast to previous years, a sizable number of arrests 
wee  for acts of internal trafficking.  Law enforcemett 
actions were highly concentrated in four provic"es.  Police 
did not improve their data collectinn on TIP cases and the 
Attorney General's Office paid very limited attention to 
centralized informt ion on trafficking.  Raids on illegal or 
abusiv  migrant worker holding centers freed hundreds of 
 
women and resulted in arrests.  The police formedsspecial 
units to investigate crimes against women and children, 
including trafficking.  Indonesiano*fficials assisted with 
the arrest and return oftthree American pedophiles.  Clashes 
between polie  and military highlighted the continued 
involveeent of individual security force members in 
prostitution.  Debt bondage in the migrant worker systemQ 
continued as a widely accepted practice. 
 
EXISIING ANTI-TIP LAWS 
---------------------- 
 
Currn*t Indonesian law criminalizes trafficking in persnns, 
though the country does not yet have comprehensive 
anti-trafficking legislation.  Existing law  have important 
limitations, such as the lack of a clear legal definition of 
trafficking.  The Penal Code's Article 297 stipulates that 
"trafficking of females (age not specified) and trafficking 
in underage males" constitute a criminal offense and provides 
for penalties.  Law No. 30/1999 on Human Rights also asserts 
children's rights to enjoy protection against trafficking. 
The October 2002 Child Protection Act (Chapter 12) includes 
specific and serious penalties for child trafficking and 
related offenses.  As pertains to trafficking, however, the 
Act is general in nature and without a comprehensive 
definition of the crime.  While the GOI can and did prosecute 
TIP cases under existing laws, including those for related 
criminal violations (e.g., rape, illegal confinement, abuse 
of women for immoral purposes, etc.), the lack of a 
comprehensive law with adequate legal definitions constitutes 
an impediment for law enforcement. 
 
Police and prosecutors have increasingly turned to the Child 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  025.2 OF 055 
 
 
Protection Act, and its tougher sanctions, in cases of child 
trafficking.  This trend continued over the past year, with 
at least 38 traffickers charged under the Act. 
 
At times, police and prosecutors used other sections of the 
Penal Code to jail traffickers, including provisions against 
abductions (Article 332). 
 
STATUS OF NEW LEGISLATION 
------------------------- 
 
The 2002-2007 National Action Plan on anti-trafficking notes 
that the enactment of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law is 
an important goal and called for passage of the law by 2004. 
GOI began research for the law in 2002, completed an initial 
draft in 2003, and submitted the bill to the House of 
Representatives (DPR) following presidential signature in 
July 2004.  The bill criminalizes all forms of trafficking, 
provides compensation for victims, and protection for 
victims, witnesses and others involved in legal proceedings. 
It also includes stiff penalties for perpetrators and 
officials involved in trafficking (see below). 
 
The outgoing DPR did not deliberate on the TIP bill before 
leaving office in September 2004.  During much of 2005, 
political conditions and inexperience in the new 
administration and DPR resulted in the DPR only passing 
several minor laws from a backlog of over 200 bills. 
Although the Yudhoyono administration and the DPR agreed to 
prioritize passage of the anti-trafficking law during 2005, 
the DPR did not take further action on the bill until the 
last quarter of 2005, when the legislature adopted the draft 
as its own "initiative" and formed a special committee to 
handle the bill.  In December 2005, President Yudhoyono and 
the Women's Minister publicly called for the bill's quick 
passage.  The DPR committee began formal hearings in January 
2006 and targeted passage of the bill in mid-2006. 
 
In 2004, the DPR passed Law 39/2004 on the protection of 
migrant workers abroad.  The law provides greater regulation 
of the migrant worker recruiting and placement process.  It 
establishes jail sentences of 2 to 15 years for unlicensed 
labor recruitment agencies.  Over the past year, Jakarta 
police and Manpower Ministry officials began shutting down 
some illegal and abusive recruiting agencies, and arresting 
their operators using the migrant worker protection law. 
 
OTHER LAWS USED AGAINST TRAFFICKERS 
----------------------------------- 
 
A myriad of other laws exists in Indonesia that the GOI can 
use to prosecute trafficking-related offenses.  These include 
laws against sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, child 
labor, abduction, rape, unlawful detention, and immigration 
offenses.  At times, the GOI used these laws in conjunction 
with anti-trafficking charges to prosecute traffickers. 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  026.2 OF 055 
 
 
ICMC/ACILS conducted a review of existing legislation and 
concluded that, "although (existing laws) can and should be 
used to act now against those who traffic in people, there 
are many gaps in the existing legislation." 
 
PENALTIES FOR TRAFFICKING 
------------------------- 
 
Under the Criminal Code, Article 297, those "trafficking in 
females and trafficking in underage males are threatened by a 
penalty of up to six years in jail."  The Child Protection 
Act, Article 83, provides for a jail sentence of 3 to 15 
years, plus fines, for child traffickers.  In addition, there 
are separate sanctions for related crimes against children 
such as:  sexual exploitation (10 years maximum imprisonment 
plus fine), involving a child in narcotics trade (5 years in 
jail to life imprisonment, or death penalty, plus fine), and 
exposure of children to trafficking situations (5 years 
maximum imprisonment, plus fine). 
 
The anti-trafficking bill, pending before the legislature, 
provides for jail sentences ranging from 4 to 15 years for 
trafficking acts.  The bill provides for increased sentences 
for trafficking under certain circumstances, for example: 
trafficking by parents (increased sentence by one-third); 
trafficking resulting in serious injury (5 to 20 years); and 
trafficking resulting in death (life in prison). 
 
PENALTIES FOR RAPE OR FORCIBLE SEXUAL ASSAULT 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
The Criminal Code, Article 285, stipulates a maximum of 12 
years imprisonment for rape committed outside of marriage. 
Other generally less severe criminal sanctions apply for 
sexual intercourse with a minor, forcing a person to commit 
an act of sexual abuse of a minor, facilitating minors to 
perform acts of obscenity, and other related offenses.  The 
12-year maximum jail sentence for rape exceeds the 6-year 
maximum for trafficking under the Criminal Code, but is 
similar to the 15-year maximum penalty for trafficking of 
children under the Child Protection Act. 
 
PROSTITUTION NOT LEGAL, BUT WIDESPREAD 
-------------------------------------- 
 
As a matter of national law, Indonesia has not legalized 
prostitution.  Indonesia's Penal Code does not explicitly 
mention prostitution, but the Code's Chapter 14 refers to 
"crimes against decency/morality," which many within national 
and local governments interpret to apply to prostitution. 
Central government officials contacted by the Embassy agreed 
in their interpretation that the Penal Code renders 
prostitution illegal.  The prostitution of children is 
clearly illegal under the Penal Code and the 2002 Child 
Protection Act. 
 
The Penal Code can be used to prosecute the acts of pimps, 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  027.2 OF 055 
 
 
brothel owners and enforcers on the basis of various crimes, 
including:  using violence or threats of violence to force 
persons to conduct indecent acts (Article 289, with a maximum 
penalty of nine years in jail); facilitating indecent acts 
(Article 296, with a possible jail term of 16 months); 
conducing/facilitating public indecency (Article 281); and 
making profits from the indecent acts of a woman (Article 
506, with a possible one-year jail sentence).  In practice, 
authorities rarely pursued such charges against those 
involved in prostitution. 
 
Clients of child prostitutes can be charged under the Penal 
Code and the Child Protection Act.  In theory, married 
persons who are clients of prostitutes can be charged for 
engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage (Penal Code 
Article 284).  In general, police did not arrest and pursue 
charges against clients of prostitutes. 
 
While contrary to societal and religious norms in Indonesia, 
the practice of prostitution is widespread and largely 
tolerated in many areas of the country, particularly when it 
is not a matter of public display.  Although contrary to 
national interpretations that the Penal Code prohibits 
prostitution, authorities in some localities have formally or 
informally regulated prostitution in response to community 
pressure.  Drawing on precedents from the Dutch colonial era, 
beginning in 1960, some cities and other areas, including 
eventually Jakarta, Surabaya, and Batam, adopted a policy of 
"localization" (concentration in a particular locale) for 
prostitution.  Often supported by elements of civil society, 
"localization" was justified as an attempt to isolate vice 
and thereby preserve the morals of the wider community, as 
well as an effort to better monitor the activity and provide 
health and rehabilitation services.  In recent years, some 
local governments (Jakarta among them) closed down the 
"localization" areas because of protests from religious 
groups, a trend that continues. 
 
In November 2005, the city of Tanggerang, near Jakarta, 
passed a public morality ordinance which, in part, forbids 
persuading or coercing others into acts of prostitution, as 
well as against acts of physical intimacy in public, such as 
kissing.  Other local governments are considering ordinances 
against prostitution in the context of broader, and possibly 
intrusive, regulations of public morality. 
 
According to a media report, in February 2006 the social 
services agency in Batam announced a plan to issue 
identification cards to prostitutes, with the stated 
objective of preventing children from being engaged in 
prostitution.  The plan met with opposition from local 
legislators and religious leaders, who objected to the 
measure believing it to constitute legalization of 
prostitution. 
 
In some areas, including certain locations in Papua, brothel 
owners registered prostitutes with the police with a view to 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  028.2 OF 055 
 
 
demonstrating that the prostitutes are not coerced or 
underage. 
 
Some local governments gained important tax revenues from 
otherwise legal entertainment businesses, such as karaoke 
bars, that also offer prostitution.  Individual police and 
other officials also gained illegal income as a result of 
prostitution.  These factors encouraged the tendency to 
tolerate prostitution, according to observers. 
 
ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS 
------------------------------------- 
 
The GOI investigated, arrested, indicted, convicted and 
sentenced traffickers, with partial data indicating that 
anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts in 2005 continued at 
a pace similar to 2004. 
 
According to data provided by the national police, local 
police offices, other GOI offices and press accounts, police 
investigated/arrested 110 suspected traffickers in calendar 
year 2005.  An additional 15 arrests occurred in 
January-February 2006.  Almost all of the arrests related to 
trafficking of women and girls for prostitution, with the 
exception of baby-trafficking (see below).  Police 
investigated and arrested traffickers sending victims to 
internal destinations (62 cases) and foreign countries 
(Malaysia 21 cases; Japan 3; Middle East 3; Singapore 2). 
The sizable number of arrests for acts of trafficking within 
Indonesia represented a positive change from previous years, 
in which most arrests related to international trafficking. 
 
 
Approximately one-quarter of the arrests related to cases of 
"baby-selling," commonly using article 83 from the Child 
Protection Act prohibiting "the trafficking, selling or 
kidnapping of children for oneself or in order to sell to 
another..."  Some of these cases may refer to practices of 
illegal adoption, rather than an inherently harmful, black 
market trade in babies. 
 
Prosecutors took 37 traffickers to court in 2005, according 
to information from the Attorney General's Office (AGO) 
provided to the People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry in 
late February 2006.  The AGO had not provided details of the 
cases to the Embassy by the time of this report.  Details of 
25 completed or on-going prosecutions were available to the 
Embassy from other GOI and non-governmental sources, showing 
16 convictions of traffickers and no acquittals.  The average 
sentence in these cases was 30 months in prison.  The average 
sentence length for persons convicted under the Child 
Protection Act was higher than for those convicted only under 
the Penal Code.  The longest sentence handed down by a court 
in 2005 in a trafficking case was nine years, representing a 
conviction under both the Penal Code and Child Protection Act. 
 
In the 57 cases for which relevant information was available, 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  029.2 OF 055 
 
 
police and prosecutors used the Child Protection Act against 
traffickers in 38 cases; the Penal Code in 33 cases; the 
Migrant Worker Protection Act in 13 cases; and a local 
ordinance in 2 cases.  Police and prosecutors often filed 
charges under multiple laws.  Almost all cases involving 
child or baby trafficking utilized the Child Protection Act. 
 
As in previous years, the available law enforcement data 
showed distinct geographic patterns.  In 2005, 18 out of 33 
provinces recorded anti-trafficking law enforcement cases, 
with law enforcement actions highly concentrated in four 
provinces.  North Sumatra recorded the greatest number of 
arrests and prosecutions (27), followed by West Java (24), 
Jakarta (18), and Riau Islands (15).  The remaining 14 
provinces recorded 7 or fewer cases each.  In some areas of 
the country known for trafficking problems, there were few or 
no reports of law enforcement actions. 
 
The law enforcement data available to the Embassy represents 
incomplete and imperfect information.  Despite standing 
instructions from National Police Headquarters, not all 
police districts reported anti-trafficking statistics and 
some district reports were incomplete.  The national police 
data collection effort for anti-trafficking statistics 
remained inadequate and did not demonstrate improvement over 
the previous year.  This also reflects a general weakness in 
law enforcement data collection, which applies not only to 
the issue of trafficking in persons.  In addition, police 
data would not necessarily capture some cases that did not 
involve trafficking charges, such as cases in which 
traffickers are charged with rape or abduction instead of 
trafficking. 
 
Relative to the police, the AGO had even more difficulty in 
providing anti-trafficking data.  AGO attention to data 
collection on TIP appeared very limited.  Central government 
officials often relied upon contacts with province and 
district level courts and prosecutors to gather data on legal 
proceedings against traffickers. 
 
The GOI's difficulties in collecting data are not unique to 
TIP, but are endemic to the Indonesian Government and have 
been particularly acute following decentralization.  Local 
authorities are no longer compelled to provide data to 
central authorities in many instances. 
 
Police and other GOI officials stated that almost all of the 
convicted traffickers served their sentences in jail, but no 
details were available. 
 
Continuing law enforcement actions that began in December 
2004 and January 2005, police and Manpower Ministry officials 
conducted raids on 12 illegal migrant worker holding centers 
in Jakarta from February to October 2005, arresting 10 
persons and freeing 565 women.  The police used the 2004 
migrant worker protection law as the basis for the arrests. 
According to GOI officials, the raids targeted unlicensed 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  030.2 OF 055 
 
 
holding centers some of which forcibly held prospective 
female workers (adults and some children) under inhumane 
conditions.  However, they did not reflect a change in the 
GOI's tacit acceptance of debt bondage, which, while not 
recognized in law, is largely institutionalized in 
Indonesia's migrant worker system. 
 
THOSE BEHIND TRAFFICKING 
------------------------ 
 
Many traffickers arrested during this period appeared to be 
lower level operators and/or members of small crime groups. 
In a few cases, like that of the Jakarta-based traffickers 
who sent women to Japan as "cultural entertainers," police 
appeared to arrest more senior members of trafficking 
syndicates.  Most observers suspected the involvement of 
larger crime syndicates and international criminal rings, 
particularly for some overseas trafficking of prostitutes. 
Large organized crime gangs commonly operated brothels in 
major prostitution zones, normally with the involvement of 
individual security force members.  Traffickers also took on 
the form of migrant worker recruiting agencies, both licensed 
and unlicensed.  Marriage brokers were involved in 
trafficking using false marriages. 
 
Some government officials and individual members of the 
security forces indirectly or directly assist traffickers, 
and in some cases themselves fit the definition of 
traffickers. 
 
No information was available on the channeling of profits 
from trafficking in persons. 
 
POLICE APPROACH TO INVESTIGATIONS 
--------------------------------- 
 
As noted above, police continued actions to investigate 
traffickers, break up trafficking rings, arrest traffickers 
and free victims during this period.  Police trained under 
the DOJ/ICITAP program carried out qualitatively improved 
investigations of trafficking during 2005, according to U.S. 
Mission observations.  In most incidents, however, police 
were largely reactive in their investigations, taking actions 
in response to complaints by family members, escaped 
trafficking victims, civil society groups, NGOs, the press 
and other government officials.  Police more readily took 
action in the case of children trapped in prostitution, 
rather than adults forced into, or trapped in, the sex 
industry. 
 
Beginning as early as 2001, the police established women's 
help desks (RPK) to protect women and child victims of 
violence, including trafficking, and also to aid in 
investigations of these crimes.  The police have steadily 
expanded the number of RPK, totaling 237 such desks in 2006. 
Recently, certain police districts, including Jakarta and 
North Sumatra, formed specialized investigative units focused 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  031.2 OF 055 
 
 
on crimes against women and children, with the units referred 
to by the abbreviation RENATA.  In 2006 the RENATA unit in 
Medan, North Sumatra, consisted of 18 full-time female police 
investigators, led by a senior female police official, and 
focused most of its work on cases of domestic violence and 
trafficking in persons.  As noted above, in 2005 North 
Sumatra carried out more anti-trafficking law enforcement 
actions than any other province, per available data. 
Jakarta's RENATA unit achieved some high-profile success in 
2005 with the arrests of two traffickers sending young women 
into prostitution in Japan. 
 
 
GOI officials and NGOs often criticized police officers as 
too passive in combating trafficking absent specific 
complaints.  Although police were often aware of underage 
prostitutes or other trafficking situations, they frequently 
did not intervene to protect victims or arrest probable 
traffickers without specific reports from third parties. 
Police in some areas facilitated and accepted at face value 
efforts by pimps to obtain written statements by prostitutes, 
which "verified" that the prostitutes were of adult age and 
had consented to their roles.  Police in some areas generally 
accepted trafficking or trafficking-like situations, whether 
out of lack of awareness of trafficking as a crime, their 
direct or indirect involvement in trafficking, their 
individual financial interest in prostitution, lack of police 
resources for operations, or competing law enforcement 
priorities. 
 
To aid in trafficking investigations, cases involving 
Indonesian migrant workers, and other crimes, beginning in 
2003 the police posted liaison officers in Indonesian 
embassies in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand. 
These police liaison officers contributed to growing law 
enforcement cooperation particularly with Malaysia.  The 
Indonesian police liaisons in Australia and Saudi Arabia have 
also helped to investigate trafficking in the past. 
 
INVESTIGATIVE TECHNIQUES 
------------------------ 
 
In some instances, the police, particularly those who had 
received anti-trafficking training, used active investigation 
techniques to develop trafficking cases.  The police used 
undercover operations to some extent.  In the past, police 
occasionally employed electronic surveillance using technical 
expertise developed for counter-terrorism.  Information 
collected through electronic surveillance is not admissible 
in Indonesian courts except in cases of terrorism.  The 
cooperation of victims and witnesses was important to police 
and prosecutors in making cases against traffickers. 
According to a number of the police, GOI officials and NGOs, 
victims frequently avoided testifying because of the 
prolonged nature of court cases, their desire to return to 
their home areas and lack of financial assistance to maintain 
themselves.  This complicated prosecution efforts.  In some 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  032.2 OF 055 
 
 
cases, police did not detain suspects, who then subsequently 
disappeared and did not present themselves in court. 
 
SPECIALIZED TRAINING 
-------------------- 
 
Beginning in 2003, the GOI and POLRI using their own budgets 
began to provide some training to officials and law 
enforcement officers on TIP and related subjects at the 
national and local levels, a positive change from previous 
years.  NGOs at times served as resource persons for such 
training.  POLRI has welcomed anti-trafficking training 
assistance from the U.S. via the Department of 
Justice/ICITAP, which will continue in 2006 after a break in 
funding in 2005.  The International Organization for 
Migration (IOM) continued to provide some anti-trafficking 
training to the police over the past year. 
 
The Manpower Ministry trained labor inspectors and officials 
responsible for migrant workers in the subjects of the worst 
forms of child labor and trafficking. 
 
COOPERATION WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTS 
---------------------------------- 
 
The GOI cooperated with other governments, particularly 
Malaysia, in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking 
cases during this reporting period.  Indonesian and Malaysian 
law enforcement officers worked together to stop criminal 
operations trafficking women and girls into prostitution in 
Malaysia, and trafficking of babies to Malaysia.  Indonesian 
and Singaporean police also cooperated in the investigation 
of a ring sending Indonesian prostitutes to Singapore.  It 
was unclear whether the prostitutes were trafficked. 
 
In the past, Indonesia and Australia cooperated in the 
investigations of Australian pedophiles victimizing children 
in Bali, and syndicates trafficking women to Australia. 
 
Indonesian police and other officials cooperated actively 
with U.S. law enforcement to arrest and expel wanted American 
citizen pedophiles (see below). 
 
EXTRADITION 
----------- 
 
Indonesia maintains extradition treaties with only five 
countries or territories, but very seldom utilizes this 
mechanism to seek extradition of its citizens, preferring 
less formal options such as rendering and deportation. 
Indonesia does not have a history of extraditing or rendering 
its own citizens to other countries. 
 
Indonesia did not extradite any traffickers during this 
reporting period and there were no reports of such requests 
from other countries. 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  033.2 OF 055 
 
 
Indonesian police and officials have cooperated with foreign 
governments, including the U.S. and Australia, in the 
apprehension and repatriation of foreign sex offenders. 
 
GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN OR TOLERANCE OF TRAFFICKING 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
Some government officials and individual members of the 
security forces facilitated, tolerated, or were involved in 
TIP on a variety of levels.  The GOI in past reports 
acknowledged this fact, which has been widely reported by 
groups working on trafficking.  The most common example of 
such complicity was in the production of national identity 
cards.  In local communities, low-level officials certified 
false information to produce national identity cards and 
family data cards for children to allow them to work as 
adults.  They commonly did so in order to collect bribes and 
also to assist poor families in gaining additional wage 
earners.  In most cases, these officials facilitated such 
cards without knowing the children will be trafficked.  In a 
much smaller number of cases, the local officials presumably 
were aware that they are facilitating trafficking.  Based on 
the identity cards, traffickers processed passports and work 
visas for children who otherwise would not be able to obtain 
such documents.  With less than 30 percent of all births 
registered in the country, and such registrations also 
subject to falsification, authorities often had little legal 
basis to challenge documents containing false information. 
 
Some officials in local Manpower offices (Disnaker) 
reportedly licensed and tolerated migrant worker recruiting 
agencies despite the officials' knowledge of the agencies' 
involvement in trafficking.  In return for bribes, some 
Immigration officials turned a blind eye to potential 
trafficking victims, failing to screen or act with due 
diligence in processing passports and immigration control. 
 
Local governments' informal or formal regulation of and 
alleged profiteering from established prostitution zones in 
larger cities also raised concerns about local officials' 
involvement and tolerance of trafficking. 
 
Individual members of the police and military were associated 
with brothels and prostitution fronts, most frequently 
through the collection of protection money, which was a 
widespread practice.  Sometimes off-duty security force 
members worked as security personnel at brothels.  Security 
force members also involved themselves in prostitution as 
brothel owners or through other illicit business interests, 
according to NGOs and other reports.  As one prominent 
example, NGOs continued to report the involvement of 
Indonesian navy personnel and police in the Dolly 
prostitution complex in Surabaya, one of Southeast Asia's 
largest brothel areas.  A 2005 NGO examination of trafficking 
in Papua also found indications of police and military 
personnel involved in trafficking. 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  034.2 OF 055 
 
 
NGOs described the involvement in TIP of individual police 
and military members primarily as one of extorting protection 
money from brothel owners and pimps, and of not taking 
proactive steps to free underage or other trafficked 
prostitutes.  In past years, there have been reports of 
police officers assisting pimps to return runaway prostitutes 
to brothels.  The NGOs did not report any examples of 
security force members actively recruiting or forcing 
children into prostitution. 
 
Police, public order officials and military members sometimes 
clashed as a result of raids on prostitution areas, publicly 
highlighting the link between security force members and the 
sex trade.  Examples of such clashes occurred in Padang, West 
Sumatra, in 2005 and in Sukabumi, West Java, in February 
¶2006. 
 
In some cases, the police tolerance of trafficking, 
profiteering from the sex trade, and/or lack of understanding 
of the law limited or delayed their actions in response to 
complaints.  On occasions in the past, national police 
headquarters intervened with local police units to generate 
actions, after the local units failed to respond to direct 
complaints. 
 
Police and officials often did not recognize the relationship 
of debt bondage and trafficking of women and girls for 
prostitution. 
 
DEBT BONDAGE INSTITUTIONALIZED 
------------------------------ 
 
The recruiting process for Indonesians working as unskilled 
or semi-skilled labor abroad tends to institutionalize debt 
bondage, which technically is illegal under Indonesian law. 
Migrant worker recruiting agencies commonly hold prospective 
workers in debt bondage.  The indebtedness stems from 
processing fees charged to the workers by the agencies and 
costs incurred by the agencies prior to the departure of 
workers for jobs overseas.  Prospective migrant workers can 
remain in holding centers for months at a time, awaiting 
placement and departure.  In some cases, such situations 
degenerate into jail-like conditions, with poor food and 
sanitation, and with workers unable to leave locked 
warehouses where they are housed.  There often appeared to be 
widespread societal acceptance and tolerance by GOI officials 
and law enforcement of such migrant worker conditions. 
Situations of debt bondage commonly continued with overseas 
employers. 
 
The Manpower Ministry and the Jakarta police launched raids 
on unlicensed migrant worker agencies, some of which kept 
women and girls under inhumane conditions (see above). 
U.S.-funded NGOs, the ILO and others examined the basis for 
legal challenges to debt bondage and alternative means of 
organizing migrant worker recruitment.  There was a gradual 
increase in awareness among some Indonesian officials that 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  035.2 OF 055 
 
 
the GOI should address the issue of debt bondage. 
 
STEPS TO END OFFICIALS' INVOLVEMENT IN TRAFFICKING 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
The GOI did not provide details regarding actions taken 
against civil officials suspected of involvement in 
trafficking.  From time to time, the GOI applied 
administrative sanctions against officials involved in 
passport or other document fraud.  Criminal prosecutions for 
such actions are not common.  There were no GOI reports of 
the security forces prosecuting or disciplining their own 
members for involvement in prostitution or other activities 
related to trafficking. 
 
FOREIGN PEDOPHILES PROSECUTED, DEPORTED 
--------------------------------------- 
 
The police actively investigated reports of foreign 
pedophiles operating in Indonesia.  In 2004, these efforts 
led to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of an 
Australian pedophile in Bali in May 2004, and of a Dutch 
pedophile in West Nusa Tenggara also in May 2004.  In 2005, a 
court in Bali sentenced a French pedophile to 30 months in 
jail.  Police in Bali arrested a suspected Dutch pedophile in 
July 2005, but the case remains under investigation.  In 
February 2006, the GOI deported an Australian pedophile who 
had escaped from a jail in western Australia. 
 
During this reporting period, Indonesia authorities fully and 
quickly cooperated with U.S. law enforcement officials for 
the arrest, expulsion and successful return to the U.S. of 
three American citizens wanted due to pedophile charges or 
convictions in the United States. 
 
RATIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
Indonesia has signed and in most cases ratified international 
instruments related to the worst forms of child labor and the 
trafficking of women and children: 
 
-- The GOI signed ILO Convention 182 concerning the 
elimination of the worst forms of child labor and ratified 
this with Law No. 1 of 2000 on March 8, 2000. 
 
-- Indonesia ratified ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor in 
¶1950.  The GOI ratified ILO Convention 105 on the Abolition 
of Forced Labor in 1999. 
 
-- Indonesia signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention 
on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child 
Prostitution and Child Pornography, and ratified this in 
September 2001. 
 
-- Indonesia signed in December 2000 the UN Convention 
Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  036.2 OF 055 
 
 
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.  The GOI 
has not yet ratified the Convention and Protocol. 
 
-- On September 25, 2003, Indonesia signed the Convention for 
the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the 
Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, 1950, and the 
Convention's Final Protocol.  Indonesia has not yet ratified 
these instruments. 
 
----------------------------------- 
III.  INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION 
      OF TRAFFICKERS 
----------------------------------- 
 
UPDATE 
------ 
 
The DPR formally took up the comprehensive anti-trafficking 
bill in late 2005, after a long period of inaction affecting 
almost all other pending legislation.  The DPR began hearings 
in January 2006 and targeted passage in mid-2006.  Law 
enforcement actions against traffickers continued apace in 
2005, with 110 arrests/investigations of individual 
traffickers, some reported 37 prosecutions, and at least 16 
convictions, per partial data available.  Most cases 
pertained to women and children trafficked into prostitution. 
 In contrast to previous years, a sizable number of arrests 
were for acts of internal trafficking.  Law enforcement 
actions were highly concentrated in four provinces.  Police 
did not improve their data collection on TIP cases and the 
Attorney General's Office paid very limited attention to 
centralized information on trafficking.  Raids on illegal or 
abusive migrant worker holding centers freed hundreds of 
women and resulted in arrests.  The police formed special 
units to investigate crimes against women and children, 
including trafficking.  Indonesian officials assisted with 
the arrest and return of three American pedophiles.  Clashes 
between police and military highlighted the continued 
involvement of individual security force members in 
prostitution.  Debt bondage in the migrant worker system 
continued as a widely accepted practice. 
 
EXISTING ANTI-TIP LAWS 
---------------------- 
 
Current Indonesian law criminalizes trafficking in persons, 
though the country does not yet have comprehensive 
anti-trafficking legislation.  Existing laws have important 
limitations, such as the lack of a clear legal definition of 
trafficking.  The Penal Code's Article 297 stipulates that 
"trafficking of females (age not specified) and trafficking 
in underage males" constitute a criminal offense and provides 
for penalties.  Law No. 30/1999 on Human Rights also asserts 
children's rights to enjoy protection against trafficking. 
The October 2002 Child Protection Act (Chapter 12) includes 
specific and serious penalties for child trafficking and 
related offenses.  As pertains to trafficking, however, the 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  037.2 OF 055 
 
 
Act is general in nature and without a comprehensive 
definition of the crime.  While the GOI can and did prosecute 
TIP cases under existing laws, including those for related 
criminal violations (e.g., rape, illegal confinement, abuse 
of women for immoral purposes, etc.), the lack of a 
comprehensive law with adequate legal definitions constitutes 
an impediment for law enforcement. 
 
Police and prosecutors have increasingly turned to the Child 
Protection Act, and its tougher sanctions, in cases of child 
trafficking.  This trend continued over the past year, with 
at least 38 traffickers charged under the Act. 
 
At times, police and prosecutors used other sections of the 
Penal Code to jail traffickers, including provisions against 
abductions (Article 332). 
 
STATUS OF NEW LEGISLATION 
------------------------- 
 
The 2002-2007 National Action Plan on anti-trafficking notes 
that the enactment of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law is 
an important goal and called for passage of the law by 2004. 
GOI began research for the law in 2002, completed an initial 
draft in 2003, and submitted the bill to the House of 
Representatives (DPR) following presidential signature in 
July 2004.  The bill criminalizes all forms of trafficking, 
provides compensation for victims, and protection for 
victims, witnesses and others involved in legal proceedings. 
It also includes stiff penalties for perpetrators and 
officials involved in trafficking (see below). 
 
The outgoing DPR did not deliberate on the TIP bill before 
leaving office in September 2004.  During much of 2005, 
political conditions and inexperience in the new 
administration and DPR resulted in the DPR only passing 
several minor laws from a backlog of over 200 bills. 
Although the Yudhoyono administration and the DPR agreed to 
prioritize passage of the anti-trafficking law during 2005, 
the DPR did not take further action on the bill until the 
last quarter of 2005, when the legislature adopted the draft 
as its own "initiative" and formed a special committee to 
handle the bill.  In December 2005, President Yudhoyono and 
the Women's Minister publicly called for the bill's quick 
passage.  The DPR committee began formal hearings in January 
2006 and targeted passage of the bill in mid-2006. 
 
In 2004, the DPR passed Law 39/2004 on the protection of 
migrant workers abroad.  The law provides greater regulation 
of the migrant worker recruiting and lacement process.  It 
establishes jail sentencesof 2 to 15 years for unlicensed 
labor recruitmen agencies.  Over the past year, Jakarta 
police ad Manpower Ministry officials began shutting down 
some illegal and abusive recruiting agencies, and rresting 
their operators using the migrant worke prottection law. 
 
OTHER LAWS USED AGAINST TRAFFIK 
ERS 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  038.2 OF 055 
 
 
----------------------------------- 
 
A myriad of other laws exists in Indonesia that the GOI can 
use to prosecute trafficking-related offenses.  These include 
laws against sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, child 
labor, abduction, rape, unlawful detention, and immigration 
offenses.  At times, the GOI used these laws in conjunction 
with anti-trafficking charges to prosecute traffickers. 
 
ICMC/ACILS conducted a review of existing legislation and 
concluded that, "although (existing laws) can and should be 
used to act now against those who traffic in people, there 
are many gaps in the existing legislation." 
 
PENALTIES FOR TRAFFICKING 
------------------------- 
 
Under the Criminal Code, Article 297, those "trafficking in 
females and trafficking in underage males are threatened by a 
penalty of up to six years in jail."  The Child Protection 
Act, Article 83, provides for a jail sentence of 3 to 15 
years, plus fines, for child traffickers.  In addition, there 
are separate sanctions for related crimes against children 
such as:  sexual exploitation (10 years maximum imprisonment 
plus fine), involving a child in narcotics trade (5 years in 
jail to life imprisonment, or death penalty, plus fine), and 
exposure of children to trafficking situations (5 years 
maximum imprisonment, plus fine). 
 
The anti-trafficking bill, pending before the legislature, 
provides for jail sentences ranging from 4 to 15 years for 
trafficking acts.  The bill provides for increased sentences 
for trafficking under certain circumstances, for example: 
trafficking by parents (increased sentence by one-third); 
trafficking resulting in serious injury (5 to 20 years); and 
trafficking resulting in death (life in prison). 
 
PENALTIES FOR RAPE OR FORCIBLE SEXUAL ASSAULT 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
The Criminal Code, Article 285, stipulates a maximum of 12 
years imprisonment for rape committed outside of marriage. 
Other generally less severe criminal sanctions apply for 
sexual intercourse with a minor, forcing a person to commit 
an act of sexual abuse of a minor, facilitating minors to 
perform acts of obscenity, and other related offenses.  The 
12-year maximum jail sentence for rape exceeds the 6-year 
maximum for trafficking under the Criminal Code, but is 
similar to the 15-year maximum penalty for trafficking of 
children under the Child Protection Act. 
 
PROSTITUTION NOT LEGAL, BUT WIDESPREAD 
-------------------------------------- 
 
As a matter of national law, Indonesia has not legalized 
prostitution.  Indonesia's Penal Code does not explicitly 
mention prostitution, but the Code's Chapter 14 refers to 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  039.2 OF 055 
 
 
"crimes against decency/morality," which many within national 
and local governments interpret to apply to prostitution. 
Central government officials contacted by the Embassy agreed 
in their interpretation that the Penal Code renders 
prostitution illegal.  The prostitution of children is 
clearly illegal under the Penal Code and the 2002 Child 
Protection Act. 
 
The Penal Code can be used to prosecute the acts of pimps, 
brothel owners and enforcers on the basis of various crimes, 
including:  using violence or threats of violence to force 
persons to conduct indecent acts (Article 289, with a maximum 
penalty of nine years in jail); facilitating indecent acts 
(Article 296, with a possible jail term of 16 months); 
conducing/facilitating public indecency (Article 281); and 
making profits from the indecent acts of a woman (Article 
506, with a possible one-year jail sentence).  In practice, 
authorities rarely pursued such charges against those 
involved in prostitution. 
 
Clients of child prostitutes can be charged under the Penal 
Code and the Child Protection Act.  In theory, married 
persons who are clients of prostitutes can be charged for 
engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage (Penal Code 
Article 284).  In general, police did not arrest and pursue 
charges against clients of prostitutes. 
 
While contrary to societal and religious norms in Indonesia, 
the practice of prostitution is widespread and largely 
tolerated in many areas of the country, particularly when it 
is not a matter of public display.  Although contrary to 
national interpretations that the Penal Code prohibits 
prostitution, authorities in some localities have formally or 
informally regulated prostitution in response to community 
pressure.  Drawing on precedents from the Dutch colonial era, 
beginning in 1960, some cities and other areas, including 
eventually Jakarta, Surabaya, and Batam, adopted a policy of 
"localization" (concentration in a particular locale) for 
prostitution.  Often supported by elements of civil society, 
"localization" was justified as an attempt to isolate vice 
and thereby preserve the morals of the wider community, as 
well as an effort to better monitor the activity and provide 
health and rehabilitation services.  In recent years, some 
local governments (Jakarta among them) closed down the 
"localization" areas because of protests from religious 
groups, a trend that continues. 
 
In November 2005, the city of Tanggerang, near Jakarta, 
passed a public morality ordinance which, in part, forbids 
persuading or coercing others into acts of prostitution, as 
well as against acts of physical intimacy in public, such as 
kissing.  Other local governments are considering ordinances 
against prostitution in the context of broader, and possibly 
intrusive, regulations of public morality. 
 
According to a media report, in February 2006 the social 
services agency in Batam announced a plan to issue 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  040.2 OF 055 
 
 
identification cards to prostitutes, with the stated 
objective of preventing children from being engaged in 
prostitution.  The plan met with opposition from local 
legislators and religious leaders, who objected to the 
measure believing it to constitute legalization of 
prostitution. 
 
In some areas, including certain locations in Papua, brothel 
owners registered prostitutes with the police with a view to 
demonstrating that the prostitutes are not coerced or 
underage. 
 
Some local governments gained important tax revenues from 
otherwise legal entertainment businesses, such as karaoke 
bars, that also offer prostitution.  Individual police and 
other officials also gained illegal income as a result of 
prostitution.  These factors encouraged the tendency to 
tolerate prostitution, according to observers. 
 
ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS 
------------------------------------- 
 
The GOI investigated, arrested, indicted, convicted and 
sentenced traffickers, with partial data indicating that 
anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts in 2005 continued at 
a pace similar to 2004. 
 
According to data provided by the national police, local 
police offices, other GOI offices and press accounts, police 
investigated/arrested 110 suspected traffickers in calendar 
year 2005.  An additional 15 arrests occurred in 
January-February 2006.  Almost all of the arrests related to 
trafficking of women and girls for prostitution, with the 
exception of baby-trafficking (see below).  Police 
investigated and arrested traffickers sending victims to 
internal destinations (62 cases) and foreign countries 
(Malaysia 21 cases; Japan 3; Middle East 3; Singapore 2). 
The sizable number of arrests for acts of trafficking within 
Indonesia represented a positive change from previous years, 
in which most arrests related to international trafficking. 
 
 
Approximately one-quarter of the arrests related to cases of 
"baby-selling," commonly using article 83 from the Child 
Protection Act prohibiting "the trafficking, selling or 
kidnapping of children for oneself or in order to sell to 
another..."  Some of these cases may refer to practices of 
illegal adoption, rather than an inherently harmful, black 
market trade in babies. 
 
Prosecutors took 37 traffickers to court in 2005, according 
to information from the Attorney General's Office (AGO) 
provided to the People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry in 
late February 2006.  The AGO had not provided details of the 
cases to the Embassy by the time of this report.  Details of 
25 completed or on-going prosecutions were available to the 
Embassy from other GOI and non-governmental sources, showing 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  041.2 OF 055 
 
 
16 convictions of traffickers and no acquittals.  The average 
sentence in these cases was 30 months in prison.  The average 
sentence length for persons convicted under the Child 
Protection Act was higher than for those convicted only under 
the Penal Code.  The longest sentence handed down by a court 
in 2005 in a trafficking case was nine years, representing a 
conviction under both the Penal Code and Child Protection Act. 
 
In the 57 cases for which relevant information was available, 
police and prosecutors used the Child Protection Act against 
traffickers in 38 cases; the Penal Code in 33 cases; the 
Migrant Worker Protection Act in 13 cases; and a local 
ordinance in 2 cases.  Police and prosecutors often filed 
charges under multiple laws.  Almost all cases involving 
child or baby trafficking utilized the Child Protection Act. 
 
As in previous years, the available law enforcement data 
showed distinct geographic patterns.  In 2005, 18 out of 33 
provinces recorded anti-trafficking law enforcement cases, 
with law enforcement actions highly concentrated in four 
provinces.  North Sumatra recorded the greatest number of 
arrests and prosecutions (27), followed by West Java (24), 
Jakarta (18), and Riau Islands (15).  The remaining 14 
provinces recorded 7 or fewer cases each.  In some areas of 
the country known for trafficking problems, there were few or 
no reports of law enforcement actions. 
 
The law enforcement data available to the Embassy represents 
incomplete and imperfect information.  Despite standing 
instructions from National Police Headquarters, not all 
police districts reported anti-trafficking statistics and 
some district reports were incomplete.  The national police 
data collection effort for anti-trafficking statistics 
remained inadequate and did not demonstrate improvement over 
the previous year.  This also reflects a general weakness in 
law enforcement data collection, which applies not only to 
the issue of trafficking in persons.  In addition, police 
data would not necessarily capture some cases that did not 
involve trafficking charges, such as cases in which 
traffickers are charged with rape or abduction instead of 
trafficking. 
 
Relative to the police, the AGO had even more difficulty in 
providing anti-trafficking data.  AGO attention to data 
collection on TIP appeared very limited.  Central government 
officials often relied upon contacts with province and 
district level courts and prosecutors to gather data on legal 
proceedings against traffickers. 
 
The GOI's difficulties in collecting data are not unique to 
TIP, but are endemic to the Indonesian Government and have 
been particularly acute following decentralization.  Local 
authorities are no longer compelled to provide data to 
central authorities in many instances. 
 
Police and other GOI officials stated that almost all of the 
convicted traffickers served their sentences in jail, but no 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  042.2 OF 055 
 
 
details were availablQ 
 
Continuing law enforcement actions that began in December 
2004 and January 2005, police and Manpower Ministry officials 
conducted raids on 12 illegal migrant worker holding centers 
in Jakarta from February to October 2005, arresting 10 
persons and freeing 565 women.  The police used the 2004 
migrant worker protection law as the basis for the arrests. 
According to GOI officials, the raids targeted unlicensed 
holding centers some of which forcibly held prospective 
female workers (adults and some children) under inhumane 
conditions.  However, they did not reflect a change in the 
GOI's tacit acceptance of debt bondage, which, while not 
recognized in law, is largely institutionalized in 
Indonesia's migrant worker system. 
 
THOSE BEHIND TRAFFICKING 
------------------------ 
 
Many traffickers arrested during this period appeared to be 
lower level operators and/or members of small crime groups. 
In a few cases, like that of the Jakarta-based traffickers 
who sent women to Japan as "cultural entertainers," police 
appeared to arrest more senior members of trafficking 
syndicates.  Most observers suspected the involvement of 
larger crime syndicates and international criminal rings, 
particularly for some overseas trafficking of prostitutes. 
Large organized crime gangs commonly operated brothels in 
major prostitution zones, normally with the involvement of 
individual security force members.  Traffickers also took on 
the form of migrant worker recruiting agencies, both licensed 
and unlicensed.  Marriage brokers were involved in 
trafficking using false marriages. 
 
Some government officials and individual members of the 
security forces indirectly or directly assist traffickers, 
and in some cases themselves fit the definition of 
traffickers. 
 
No information was available on the channeling of profits 
from trafficking in persons. 
 
POLICE APPROACH TO INVESTIGATIONS 
--------------------------------- 
 
As noted above, police continued actions to investigate 
traffickers, break up trafficking rings, arrest traffickers 
and free victims during this period.  Police trained under 
the DOJ/ICITAP program carried out qualitatively improved 
investigations of trafficking during 2005, according to U.S. 
Mission observations.  In most incidents, however, police 
were largely reactive in their investigations, taking actions 
in response to complaints by family members, escaped 
trafficking victims, civil society groups, NGOs, the press 
and other government officials.  Police more readily took 
action in the case of children trapped in prostitution, 
rather than adults forced into, or trapped in, the sex 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  043.2 OF 055 
 
 
industry. 
 
Beginning as early as 2001, the police established women's 
help desks (RPK) to protect women and child victims of 
violence, including trafficking, and also to aid in 
investigations of these crimes.  The police have steadily 
expanded the number of RPK, totaling 237 such desks in 2006. 
Recently, certain police districts, including Jakarta and 
North Sumatra, formed specialized investigative units focused 
on crimes against women and children, with the units referred 
to by the abbreviation RENATA.  In 2006 the RENATA unit in 
Medan, North Sumatra, consisted of 18 full-time female police 
investigators, led by a senior female police official, and 
focused most of its work on cases of domestic violence and 
trafficking in persons.  As noted above, in 2005 North 
Sumatra carried out more anti-trafficking law enforcement 
actions than any other province, per available data. 
Jakarta's RENATA unit achieved some high-profile success in 
2005 with the arrests of two traffickers sending young women 
into prostitution in Japan. 
 
 
GOI officials and NGOs often criticized police officers as 
too passive in combating trafficking absent specific 
complaints.  Although police were often aware of underage 
prostitutes or other trafficking situations, they frequently 
did not intervene to protect victims or arrest probable 
traffickers without specific reports from third parties. 
Police in some areas facilitated and accepted at face value 
efforts by pimps to obtain written statements by prostitutes, 
which "verified" that the prostitutes were of adult age and 
had consented to their roles.  Police in some areas generally 
accepted trafficking or trafficking-like situations, whether 
out of lack of awareness of trafficking as a crime, their 
direct or indirect involvement in trafficking, their 
individual financial interest in prostitution, lack of police 
resources for operations, or competing law enforcement 
priorities. 
 
To aid in trafficking investigations, cases involving 
Indonesian migrant workers, and other crimes, beginning in 
2003 the police posted liaison officers in Indonesian 
embassies in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand. 
These police liaison officers contributed to growing law 
enforcement cooperation particularly with Malaysia.  The 
Indonesian police liaisons in Australia and Saudi Arabia have 
also helped to investigate trafficking in the past. 
 
INVESTIGATIVE TECHNIQUES 
------------------------ 
 
In some instances, the police, particularly those who had 
received anti-trafficking training, used active investigation 
techniques to develop trafficking cases.  The police used 
undercover operations to some extent.  In the past, police 
occasionally employed electronic surveillance using technical 
expertise developed for counter-terrorism.  Information 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  044 OF 055 
 
 
collected through electronic surveillance is not admissible 
in Indonesian courts except in cases of terrorism.  The 
cooperation of victims and witnesses was important to police 
and prosecutors in making cases against traffickers. 
According to a number of the police, GOI officials and NGOs, 
victims frequently avoided testifying because of the 
prolonged nature of court cases, their desire to return to 
their home areas and lack of financial assistance to maintain 
themselves.  This complicated prosecution efforts.  In some 
cases, police did not detain suspects, who then subsequently 
disappeared and did not present themselves in court. 
 
SPECIALIZED TRAINING 
-------------------- 
 
Beginning in 2003, the GOI and POLRI using their own budgets 
began to provide some training to officials and law 
enforcement officers on TIP and related subjects at the 
national and local levels, a positive change from previous 
years.  NGOs at times served as resource persons for such 
training.  POLRI has welcomed anti-trafficking training 
assistance from the U.S. via the Department of 
Justice/ICITAP, which will continue in 2006 after a break in 
funding in 2005.  The International Organization for 
Migration (IOM) continued to provide some anti-trafficking 
training to the police over the past year. 
 
The Manpower Ministry trained labor inspectors and officials 
responsible for migrant workers in the subjects of the worst 
forms of child labor and trafficking. 
 
COOPERATION WITH OTHER GOVERNMENTS 
---------------------------------- 
 
The GOI cooperated with other governments, particularly 
Malaysia, in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking 
cases during this reporting period.  Indonesian and Malaysian 
law enforcement officers worked together to stop criminal 
operations trafficking women and girls into prostitution in 
Malaysia, and trafficking of babies to Malaysia.  Indonesian 
and Singaporean police also cooperated in the investigation 
of a ring sending Indonesian prostitutes to Singapore.  It 
was unclear whether the prostitutes were trafficked. 
 
In the past, Indonesia and Australia cooperated in the 
investigations of Australian pedophiles victimizing children 
in Bali, and syndicates trafficking women to Australia. 
 
Indonesian police and other officials cooperated actively 
with U.S. law enforcement to arrest and expel wanted American 
citizen pedophiles (see below). 
 
EXTRADITION 
----------- 
 
Indonesia maintains extradition treaties with only five 
countries or territories, but very seldom utilizes this 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  045 OF 055 
 
 
mechanism to seek extradition of its citizens, preferring 
less formal options such as rendering and deportation. 
Indonesia does not have a history of extraditing or rendering 
its own citizens to other countries. 
 
Indonesia did not extradite any traffickers during this 
reporting period and there were no reports of such requests 
from other countries. 
 
Indonesian police and officials have cooperated with foreign 
governments, including the U.S. and Australia, in the 
apprehension and repatriation of foreign sex offenders. 
 
GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN OR TOLERANCE OF TRAFFICKING 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
Some government officials and individual members of the 
security forces facilitated, tolerated, or were involved in 
TIP on a variety of levels.  The GOI in past reports 
acknowledged this fact, which has been widely reported by 
groups working on trafficking.  The most common example of 
such complicity was in the production of national identity 
cards.  In local communities, low-level officials certified 
false information to produce national identity cards and 
family data cards for children to allow them to work as 
adults.  They commonly did so in order to collect bribes and 
also to assist poor families in gaining additional wage 
earners.  In most cases, these officials facilitated such 
cards without knowing the children will be trafficked.  In a 
much smaller number of cases, the local officials presumably 
were aware that they are facilitating trafficking.  Based on 
the identity cards, traffickers processed passports and work 
visas for children who otherwise would not be able to obtain 
such documents.  With less than 30 percent of all births 
registered in the country, and such registrations also 
subject to falsification, authorities often had little legal 
basis to challenge documents containing false information. 
 
Some officials in local Manpower offices (Disnaker) 
reportedly licensed and tolerated migrant worker recruiting 
agencies despite the officials' knowledge of the agencies' 
involvement in trafficking.  In return for bribes, some 
Immigration officials turned a blind eye to potential 
trafficking victims, failing to screen or act with due 
diligence in processing passports and immigration control. 
 
Local governments' informal or formal regulation of and 
alleged profiteering from established prostitution zones in 
larger cities also raised concerns about local officials' 
involvement and tolerance of trafficking. 
 
Individual members of the police and military were associated 
with brothels and prostitution fronts, most frequently 
through the collection of protection money, which was a 
widespread practice.  Sometimes off-duty security force 
members worked as security personnel at brothels.  Security 
force members also involved themselves in prostitution as 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  046.3 OF 055 
 
 
brothel owners or through other illicit business interests, 
according to NGOs and other reports.  As one prominent 
example, NGOs continued to report the involvement of 
Indonesian navy personnel and police in the Dolly 
prostitution complex in Surabaya, one of Southeast Asia's 
largest brothel areas.  A 2005 NGO examination of trafficking 
in Papua also found indications of police and military 
personnel involved in trafficking. 
 
NGOs described the involvement in TIP of individual police 
and military members primarily as one of extorting protection 
money from brothel owners and pimps, and of not taking 
proactive steps to free underage or other trafficked 
prostitutes.  In past years, there have been reports of 
police officers assisting pimps to return runaway prostitutes 
to brothels.  The NGOs did not report any examples of 
security force members actively recruiting or forcing 
children into prostitution. 
 
Police, public order officials and military members sometimes 
clashed as a result of raids on prostitution areas, publicly 
highlighting the link between security force members and the 
sex trade.  Examples of such clashes occurred in Padang, West 
Sumatra, in 2005 and in Sukabumi, West Java, in February 
¶2006. 
 
In some cases, the police tolerance of trafficking, 
profiteering from the sex trade, and/or lack of understanding 
of the law limited or delayed their actions in response to 
complaints.  On occasions in the past, national police 
headquarters intervened with local police units to generate 
actions, after the local units failed to respond to direct 
complaints. 
 
Police and officials often did not recognize the relationship 
of debt bondage and trafficking of women and girls for 
prostitution. 
 
DEBT BONDAGE INSTITUTIONALIZED 
------------------------------ 
 
The recruiting process for Indonesians working as unskilled 
or semi-skilled labor abroad tends to institutionalize debt 
bondage, which technically is illegal under Indonesian law. 
Migrant worker recruiting agencies commonly hold prospective 
workers in debt bondage.  The indebtedness stems from 
processing fees charged to the workers by the agencies and 
costs incurred by the agencies prior to the departure of 
workers for jobs overseas.  Prospective migrant workers can 
remain in holding centers for months at a time, awaiting 
placement and departure.  In some cases, such situations 
degenerate into jail-like conditions, with poor food and 
sanitation, and with workers unable to leave locked 
warehouses where they are housed.  There often appeared to be 
widespread societal acceptance and tolerance by GOI officials 
and law enforcement of such migrant worker conditions. 
Situations of debt bondage commonly continued with overseas 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  047 OF 055 
 
 
employers. 
 
The Manpower Ministry and the Jakarta police launched raids 
on unlicensed migrant worker agencies, some of which kept 
women and girls under inhumane conditions (see above). 
U.S.-funded NGOs, the ILO and others examined the basis for 
legal challenges to debt bondage and alternative means of 
organizing migrant worker recruitment.  There was a gradual 
increase in awareness among some Indonesian officials that 
the GOI should address the issue of debt bondage. 
 
STEPS TO END OFFICIALS' INVOLVEMENT IN TRAFFICKING 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
The GOI did not provide details regarding actions taken 
against civil officials suspected of involvement in 
trafficking.  From time to time, the GOI applied 
administrative sanctions against officials involved in 
passport or other document fraud.  Criminal prosecutions for 
such actions are not common.  There were no GOI reports of 
the security forces prosecuting or disciplining their own 
members for involvement in prostitution or other activities 
related to trafficking. 
 
FOREIGN PEDOPHILES PROSECUTED, DEPORTED 
--------------------------------------- 
 
The police actively investigated reports of foreign 
pedophiles operating in Indonesia.  In 2004, these efforts 
led to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of an 
Australian pedophile in Bali in May 2004, and of a Dutch 
pedophile in West Nusa Tenggara also in May 2004.  In 2005, a 
court in Bali sentenced a French pedophile to 30 months in 
jail.  Police in Bali arrested a suspected Dutch pedophile in 
July 2005, but the case remains under investigation.  In 
February 2006, the GOI deported an Australian pedophile who 
had escaped from a jail in western Australia. 
 
During this reporting period, Indonesia authorities fully and 
quickly cooperated with U.S. law enforcement officials for 
the arrest, expulsion and successful return to the U.S. of 
three American citizens wanted due to pedophile charges or 
convictions in the United States. 
 
RATIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
Indonesia has signed and in most cases ratified international 
instruments related to the worst forms of child labor and the 
trafficking of women and children: 
 
-- The GOI signed ILO Convention 182 concerning the 
elimination of the worst forms of child labor and ratified 
this with Law No. 1 of 2000 on March 8, 2000. 
 
-- Indonesia ratified ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor in 
¶1950.  The GOI ratified ILO Convention 105 on the Abolition 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  048 OF 055 
 
 
of Forced Labor in 1999. 
 
-- Indonesia signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention 
on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child 
Prostitution and Child Pornography, and ratified this in 
September 2001. 
 
-- Indonesia signed in December 2000 the UN Convention 
Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to 
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.  The GOI 
has not yet ratified the Convention and Protocol. 
 
-- On September 25, 2003, Indonesia signed the Convention for 
the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the 
Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, 1950, and the 
Convention's Final Protocol.  Indonesia has not yet ratified 
these instruments. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
IV.  PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
UPDATE 
------ 
 
National and local level assistance efforts continued or 
increased over the past year, although they remained small in 
comparison with the scope of the problem.  The police added 
11 new women's help desks in police departments to reach a 
total of 237 nationwide.  The GOI and police increased from 
11 to 18 the number of operational "integrated service 
centers," providing health services to TIP and other victims 
of violence.  With U.S. assistance, the police upgraded two 
such centers to become full medical recovery centers 
specifically for trafficking victims, and began work on a 
third medical center.  These two trafficking victim recovery 
centers treated hundreds of patients since opening in 2005. 
Authorities continued to round-up and deport a small number 
of foreign prostitutes without screening them for possible 
trafficking victims.   Various GOI offices and diplomatic 
missions received limited training on TIP victim recognition 
and assistance. 
 
GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS 
-------------------------------- 
 
The GOI at various levels and to varying degrees assisted its 
citizens who fell victim to trafficking.  National and local 
level assistance efforts continued or increased, but remained 
small in comparison with the scope of the problem.  In 
general, the GOI provided modest but more structured 
assistance to Indonesians trafficked abroad.  In contrast, 
government assistance specifically for internal trafficking 
victims remained minimal.  Local government assistance 
usually appeared ad hoc and often focused on cases with a 
public profile. 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  049 OF 055 
 
 
The police further increased the number of its women's help 
desks (RPK), units established to assist women and children 
who fall victim to violence including trafficking, and to 
help related investigations.  The total number of such units 
at the province and district levels has gradually increased 
from 163 in 2003 and 226 in 2005 to a total of 237 women's 
help desks in 2006.  The women's desks provided temporary 
shelter, special police handling, and some level of legal 
services for victims.  The women's desks often cooperated 
with local NGOs, which arranged for medical and psychological 
services, and longer term shelter.  Distrust of the police 
discouraged some victims from using these desks. 
 
Local governments worked together with NGOs and civil society 
groups to establish and operate shelters for TIP victims, in 
key transit points like Dumai, Riau Province, and Batam, Riau 
Islands Province, and in Entikong on the West Kalimantan 
border with Malaysia.  Local governments also used social 
services offices and police women's desks as temporary 
shelters.  Women's bureaus in provinces like East Java, North 
Sumatra, and Riau Islands budgeted modest funding for 
victims' services. 
 
The Foreign Ministry operated shelters for trafficking 
victims and migrant workers at its embassies and consulates 
in a number of countries, including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, 
Kuwait, and Singapore.  Over the course of 2005, these 
diplomatic establishments sheltered thousands of Indonesian 
citizens, including trafficking victims.  Indonesian 
diplomatic missions, in coordination with other GOI agencies, 
assisted with repatriation of trafficking victims. 
 
The Manpower Ministry has an Overseas Worker Protection 
Directorate.  The GOI upgraded this office over the period 
2001-2003 and dramatically increased its budget.  The 
Directorate regulates migrant worker recruiting agencies, 
provides limited training to migrant workers, and assists and 
repatriates overseas workers fleeing abusive situations.  The 
Directorate, often in conjunction with the Social Affairs 
Ministry, repatriated female migrant workers during 2004 and 
¶2005.  Some of the repatriated female migrant workers fit the 
definition of trafficking victims. 
 
The Social Affairs Ministry founded a Sub-Directorate of 
Social Assistance for Victims of Violence and Migrant Workers 
in 2001.  In 2002, the Ministry upgraded this office to 
become a Directorate, with greater authority and budget, 
responding in part to the demand for action against TIP.  In 
terms of trafficking, the Directorate primarily assisted 
victims returning from overseas since domestic cases normally 
fall under the responsibility of local governments.  In 2004 
and 2005, the Ministry provided some repatriation assistance 
to tens of thousands of migrant workers, the vast majority of 
whom returned from Malaysia.  This included transportation, 
basic medical care, and food for some of these returnees. 
The Directorate provided some training to provincial Social 
Affairs offices.  The Ministry also operated women's 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  050.3 OF 055 
 
 
rehabilitation centers and assists with crisis centers, 
including the Children's Crisis Center established in Jakarta 
in 2002. 
 
The provincial government in East Java established a women's 
crisis center in 2003 that serviced trafficking victims and 
other women who suffered violence. 
 
Police and public hospitals provided medical care to 
trafficking victims, in accordance with a GOI directive (see 
below). 
 
In 2004 the Women's Ministry, with input from international 
and local NGOs, finalized standard operating procedures 
(SOPs) to be used when assisting trafficking victims to 
ensure their protection.  This was in accordance with the 
anti-trafficking National Action Plan's goal of having the 
SOPs in place by 2004.  The Ministry began to train officials 
in the SOPs during 2005. 
 
VICTIM HEALTH CARE FACILITIES 
----------------------------- 
 
The Social Affairs Ministry, the Women's Ministry, the Health 
Ministry and POLRI signed a coordination agreement in October 
2002 to provide "integrated service centers" (PPTs) for women 
and children who are victims of violence.  As part of this 
MOU, the GOI assigned police hospitals, like the Kramat Jati 
police hospital in Jakarta and the Bhayangkara hospital in 
Surabaya, to be the medical treatment points for migrant 
workers who return from abroad with serious medical or 
psychological problems.  In other locations, public hospitals 
operate the service centers, in coordination with the 
ministries and the police.  In 2006 there were 18 operational 
PPTs, an increase from 11 in 2005. 
 
After 2002, the Jakarta police hospital, as a PPT, began 
treating hundreds of trafficking victims annually. 
With the assistance of a U.S.-funded IOM project, Indonesia 
police upgraded the Jakarta police hospital facility to 
become a full medical recovery center for victims of 
trafficking, the first in Indonesia.  The center provides 
comprehensive medical care, including psychological 
treatment, to TIP victims, most of whom have returned from 
abroad.  The medical center, which officially opened in its 
new form in June 2005, has capacity for 30 in-patients. 
During the last seven months of 2005, the hospital treated 
330 in-patients and 112 out-patients. 
 
The IOM project assisted with the opening of a second medical 
recovery center in the Surabaya police hospital in September 
¶2005.  This center has a capacity of 8 in-patients and 
treated 15 patients during the final months of 2005.  A small 
medical recovery unit in the police hospital in Makassar, 
South Sulawesi, started informally in January 2006, also with 
IOM assistance. 
 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  051 OF 055 
 
 
Some government medical facilities and NGO clinics conducted 
HIV/AIDS screening, but this did not appear to be widespread 
or systematic. 
 
GOI SUPPORT FOR NGO SERVICES TO VICTIMS 
--------------------------------------- 
 
The GOI provided some funding to domestic NGOs and civil 
society groups that supported services for TIP victims, 
usually as part of a larger program rather than one focused 
exclusively on trafficking.  At the national level, for 
example, the People's Welfare Coordinating Ministry and the 
Social Affairs Ministry provided food assistance to social 
centers and safe houses nationwide.  Local governments in 
North Sulawesi, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Riau Islands, 
and East Java funded NGOs to provide services to some 
victims, including shelters, medical exams and training. 
 
SCREENING AND REFERRAL OF VICTIMS 
--------------------------------- 
 
In Jakarta, a screening system is in place at the 
international airport to refer cases of abused migrant 
workers and trafficking victims to the city's police hospital 
(see above).  NGOs active in migrant worker advocacy also 
identify and refer returned migrant workers who need medical 
attention.  An NGO screening process was also in practice in 
Surabaya. 
 
Women's help desks at provincial and district level police 
offices typically have formal or informal arrangements in 
place with local NGO's to provide short-term shelter and a 
modicum of care for trafficking victims.  In general, 
long-term care does not appear to be available.  A current 
U.S.-funded project, implemented by IOM, has begun to develop 
models of better and longer-term care for trafficking victims. 
 
RESPECT FOR THE RIGHTS OF VICTIMS 
--------------------------------- 
 
The GOI's written policy, found in its annual trafficking 
report, is that, "from a legal perspective, the Government 
treats persons who are trafficked not as criminals, but as 
victims who need help and protection."  The People's Welfare 
Coordinating Ministry, the Women's Ministry, and training 
conducted by international NGOs and DOJ/ICITAP, reinforced 
this policy during the year in public settings and trainings 
of police and other officials.  Police who received ICITAP 
training demonstrated greater awareness of and respect for 
TIP victims. 
 
Local government and police practice varied, particularly in 
the lower ranks of law enforcement agencies.  Local 
governments, exercising greater authority under the nation's 
decentralization program, sometimes enacted regulations that 
tend to treat trafficked prostitutes as criminals, contrary 
to national policy.  In many instances, GOI officials and 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  052 OF 055 
 
 
police actively protected and assisted victims.  In other 
cases, police officers treated victims, particularly 
trafficked prostitutes, as criminals, subjected them to 
detention, and took advantage of their vulnerability to 
demand bribes and sexual services.  The media and lower level 
officials, including police, frequently failed to protect 
victims' identities and commonly provided victims' names to 
the public. 
 
The GOI's policy is not to detain or imprison trafficking 
victims.  Police implementation of this policy varies in 
practice.  Not all local government laws comply with this 
policy.  Local police often arrested prostitutes, presumably 
including trafficking victims, who operated outside 
recognized prostitution zones on charges of violating public 
order.  Police raids on prostitute areas commonly resulted in 
the arrest of prostitutes, rather than users or pimps.  On 
occasion, the police detained victims, sometimes to gain 
their testimony or in the belief they were protecting the 
victims from traffickers.  In other cases, police detained 
victims in order to extract bribes. 
 
While there appeared to be a growing understanding of the 
need to protect Indonesian victims of trafficking, this was 
not the case for foreign prostitutes.  In Jakarta, police and 
immigration officials in August 2005 rounded up and deported 
foreign prostitutes from China, Russia and Uzbekistan without 
screening them as possible trafficking victims or protecting 
their identities from intrusive media coverage. 
 
ENCOURAGING VICTIMS TO ASSIST INVESTIGATIONS/PROSECUTIONS 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
The GOI encourages victims to assist in the investigation and 
prosecution of traffickers.  The GOI reported that victims 
frequently were reluctant or refused to provide testimony out 
of shame and fear of retribution against themselves and their 
families.  There are no specific legal mechanisms for victims 
to seek compensation from traffickers, though this may be 
addressed in the anti-trafficking bill currently pending 
before the DPR.  A bill on witness protection also remains 
pending before the legislature (see below). 
 
In previous periods, there have been reports of police 
officers who refused to receive complaints from trafficking 
victims, but insisted instead that victims and traffickers 
reach an informal settlement (for example, payment of debts 
in return for a prostitute's release from a brothel). 
 
PROTECTIONS FOR VICTIMS AND WITNESSES 
------------------------------------- 
 
The functions of the women's help desks at provincial and 
district level police stations include protection of women 
and children during the police investigation process of 
crimes such as trafficking.  Some of the desks functioned 
reasonably well, while others did not function adequately. 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  053 OF 055 
 
 
There were no specific reports of the GOI providing special 
protection to witnesses during court cases on trafficking. 
 
The Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Women's Ministry 
drafted a Witness and Victim Protection bill, originally 
targeted for passage by 2004 in the anti-trafficking National 
Action Plan.  Like most other legislation, the bill did not 
advance in 2005.  The Government and the DPR are currently 
discussing the bill. 
 
TRAINING FOR OFFICIALS TO RECOGNIZE/ASSIST VICTIMS 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
The National Action Plan calls for training of government 
officials in recognizing trafficking and assisting victims, 
to be carried out in the 2003-2007 timeframe.  The GOI 
conducted such training on an ad hoc basis through various 
seminars, workshops and government meetings.  POLRI and the 
Manpower Ministry both conducted anti-trafficking training, 
including victim recognition, over the past year. 
 
NGOs and international organizations have assisted in the 
training of Indonesian officials.  IOM and ICMC have worked 
with Indonesian diplomatic offices in Malaysia to improve 
their screening procedures for potential trafficking victims. 
 The Foreign Ministry discontinued the ICMC activity due to 
perceived political sensitivities in Malaysia. 
 
The relationship between Indonesian diplomatic missions and 
NGOs abroad that serve trafficking victims appears to vary 
greatly.  A 2005 survey of Indonesian diplomatic offices in 
Malaysia revealed some working frequently with NGOs and 
others not.  The availability of such NGOs was a factor. 
 
ASSISTANCE TO REPATRIATED NATIONALS 
----------------------------------- 
 
The GOI, both at the national and locals levels, provides 
some measure of assistance, including limited medical aid, 
shelter, and financial help, to its repatriated nationals who 
were trafficking victims.  In general, the government at 
various levels provided more attention and assistance to 
repatriated victims compared with victims of internal 
trafficking. 
 
NGO'S WORKING WITH TRAFFICKING VICTIMS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
ICMC/ACILS, in their 2003 book, identified 45 local NGO 
offices around the country that provide services to 
trafficking victims, most in the context of other social 
programs.  Some of the more prominent NGOs are Solidaritas 
Perempuan (Jakarta), LBH-Apik (Jakarta and West Kalimantan), 
Yayasan Mitra Kesehatan dan Kemanusiaan or YMKK (Batam), 
Rifka Anisa (Yogyakarta) and LADA (Lampung).  Some labor 
unions also provided services to trafficking victims.  The 
activities of these groups related to TIP include:  legal 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  054 OF 055 
 
 
assistance, prevention and education programs, medical 
services, clinics for children, research and advocacy, 
counseling, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention, and 
shelters.  More NGOs have emerged over the past several 
years, including Migrant Care, currently a leading advocacy 
body for migrant worker rights and anti-trafficking, and Anak 
Bangsa, a pioneering NGO assisting victims along the 
Indonesia-Malaysia border area of West Kalimantan. 
 
The GOI's 2004-2005 trafficking report listed service 
providers for trafficking victims, including women's crisis 
centers, trauma centers, shelters and drop-in centers set up 
by local governments, NGOs, and community organizations in 14 
provinces.  The report also documented dozens of legal aid 
organizations and their branches across Indonesia that have a 
mandate to provide legal assistance to victims of trafficking 
and other violence. 
 
GOI continued strong cooperation with NGOs over the past year 
in the area of assistance to trafficking victims.  In some 
cases government offices relied heavily on NGO inputs and 
advice.  GOI offices provided licenses to organizations and 
access to trafficking victims, included NGOs on national and 
local action committees, and interceded with law enforcement 
agencies in some cases to permit NGOs to carry out their 
activities.  NGOs frequently interacted with the police, 
though mutual suspicions limited the interaction in some 
areas. 
 
--------- 
¶V. HEROES 
--------- 
 
Kyai Husein Muhammad:  As a founder and leader of the Fahmina 
Institute and the head of a large Islamic boarding school 
(pesantren), Kyai Husein Muhammad ("Kyai" is a title 
referring to a respected local religious leader/scholar) has 
helped to raise awareness of trafficking in persons among 
women and children in rural communities in West Java.  Kyai 
Husein has carried out an anti-trafficking media campaign, 
which in 2005 included distribution of 22,000 leaflets each 
week in mosques after Friday prayers, along with outreach to 
village health clinics and schools.  Kyai Husein researched 
and produced written works concerning the application of 
Islamic Law and trafficking, an unprecedented initiative to 
use Islamic arguments and traditions to combat this crime. 
His scholarship highlighted the Islamic perspective on 
victims' rights, the rights of women and children, and the 
immorality of human trafficking, while emphasizing that 
victims should not be criminalized and that communities have 
a responsibility to combat trafficking.  Kyai Husein's 
efforts were instrumental in raising awareness of the risk of 
trafficking in post-tsunami Aceh and enlisting Muslim schools 
there in the ultimately successful prevention of TIP in 
tsunami-affected areas. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
Kyai Husein is an advisor to the Indonesian Government on 
 
JAKARTA 00002849  055 OF 055 
 
 
violence against women and he contributed to the drafting of 
the law against domestic violence, passed in 2004.  He has 
published a number of works on Islam and gender issues.  The 
Asia Foundation (TAF) has supported Kyai Husein and the 
Fahmina Institute's efforts to stop trafficking in persons. 
 
Almost 90 percent of Indonesians adhere to Islam and 
Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population. 
Local Islamic leaders play a significant role in their 
communities and have the potential, like Kyai Husein, to make 
an important contribution to anti-trafficking. 
 
------------------ 
VI. BEST PRACTICES 
------------------ 
 
The Indonesian Scout Movement:  In 2004, the Scout Movement, 
which incorporates nearly all public school students across 
the country, began an anti-trafficking campaign in Indramayu, 
West Java, a sending area for many young women and girls who 
fall victim to trafficking.  In its current phase, the Scouts 
have targeted the provision of anti-trafficking education to 
25,000 students in 116 schools in the Indramayu area by 
August 2006.  To do so, the Scouts have trained 285 
school-level facilitators who utilize an innovative training 
and campaign kit containing a four-part video documentary, 
comic books and other anti-trafficking materials.  The Scouts 
donate the campaign kits to the schools at the end of the 
training program.  The national Scout movement is considering 
the expansion of the program to other districts and the 
institution of an anti-trafficking merit badge to encourage 
more Scouts to learn about and promote anti-trafficking 
efforts. 
 
The American Center for International Labor Solidarity (the 
Solidarity Center) and the International Catholic Migration 
Commission (ICMC), along with UNICEF, have supported the 
Scout's involvement in anti-trafficking.  This effort is part 
of a larger strategy initiated by the Indonesian Government, 
the Solidarity Center and ICMC to mobilize existing 
mass-membership institutions and their significant networks 
to combat trafficking. 
PASCOE