VZCZCXRO7651
OO RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #3359/01 3441038
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101038Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7338
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC IMMEDIATE
INFO RUEHZS/ASEAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1735
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 2135
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1291
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 4342
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 7696
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 JAKARTA 003359 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS 
STATE FOR DEPT OF LABOR/ILAB - TINA MCCARTER 
STATE FOR DRL/IL - TU DANG 
NSC FOR EPH 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ELAB PREL PHUM ID
SUBJECT: 2007 CHILD LABOR UPDATE FOR INDONESIA 
 
REF: STATE 158223 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY.  The GOI has a strong legal framework to prevent the 
Worst Form of Child Labor.  Implementation of these safeguards is 
lacking but improving.  Passage of a robust anti-trafficking law in 
2007 represented a step forward.  Issues that need to be addressed 
include:  child exploitation in domestic servitude and forced 
prostitution through debt bondage.  Decentralization has resulted in 
increased exploitation of some children.  There are an estimated 2.1 
million child laborers in Indonesia, according to official figures, 
but civil society suspects the numbers are higher.  END SUMMARY. 
 
PROBLEM AREAS 
 
¶2.  The majority of child work in Indonesia occurs in rural areas. 
Children work in agriculture primarily on palm oil, tobacco, rubber, 
tea, and marijuana plantations.  Children also work in fisheries, 
construction, manufacturing (such as footwear production, textiles, 
and food processing), and small-scale mining sector.  Other children 
work in the informal sector selling newspapers, shining shoes, 
street vending, scavenging, and working beside their parents in 
family businesses or cottage industries.  There are also large 
numbers of street children.  Children, primarily females, also are 
exploited in domestic service and are often subject to forced labor, 
as well as prostitution.  There were 2.1 million child domestic 
workers in 2007, according to the National Statistical Bureau, 
although the National Child Protection Commission believes that this 
figure understates the magnitude of the problem. 
 
DOMESTIC SERVITUDE 
 
¶3.  Many girls under age 18 and even under age 15 work long hours at 
low wages as domestic servants, according to reliable NGO studies 
underway in 2007.  They are oftentimes under perpetual debt bondage 
due to pay advances given to the children's families by brokers. 
The problem is hidden because children work under lock and key. 
So-called "foundations" are commonly used as fronts for trafficking 
children as domestic servants.  One NGO identified 285 child 
domestic workers in Bandung and 305 in Surabaya under age 17 -- 
mostly under age 15.  From November 2006 to October 2007, another 
NGO rescued 313 boys and girls aged 7 to 17, including 107 aged 15 
and under.  They had been trafficked to Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, 
UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Indonesia. 
 
FISHING AND FARMING 
 
¶4.  The exploitation of boys aged 15 to 17 on fishing platforms in 
North Sumatra, which had been reduced to less than 10 boys in 2006 
under a now-completed ILO project, crept up to 14 in 2007, according 
to monitoring by an Indonesian NGO.  Children age 15 to 17 work in 
small workshops producing footwear, generally in unsafe 
environments.  Child labor is used in small-scale family and 
community tobacco farms.  Children also are recruited from families 
living on large palm oil plantations to work on nearby small-scale 
oil plantations in slash-and-burn agriculture, oftentimes at low or 
no pay.  The Child Protection Commission in December 2007 uncovered 
children employed in the birds' nest processing industry in West 
Jakarta, involving what they suspect will be thousands of children 
aged 15 and under.  The commission rescued six children from one of 
the homes where this activity took place and are attempting to 
rescue other children. 
 
ILLICIT ACTIVITIES 
 
¶5.  Children also are exploited in the production of pornography and 
in the sex industry.  ILO in 2002/2003 estimated that about 21,000 
girls under 18 were in prostitution in Java island alone, many under 
debt bondage. Trafficking of young girls from one urban area to 
another across the archipelago by syndicates is a common practice 
and aided and abetted by officials.  Children also are trafficked 
internally for begging activities.  Children also are known to be 
involved in the production, trafficking, and/or sale of drugs, both 
manufactured drugs and marijuana, according to reliable NGO studies. 
 
 
TRAFFICKING 
 
¶6.  Indonesia is primarily a source, and to a lesser extent 
destination, country for individuals trafficked internationally and 
 
JAKARTA 00003359  002 OF 005 
 
 
internally, including children.  Children, primarily girls, are 
trafficked internationally from Indonesia primarily to Malaysia, 
Saudi Arabia, and a number of other countries in the Middle East and 
Asia, as well as to Europe and the U.S., according to 2007 NGO and 
official findings.  They are trafficked internally mainly from rural 
to urban areas.  Girls also are trafficked into Indonesia, mainly 
from China and Eastern Europe.  Girls are primarily trafficked both 
internationally and domestically for commercial sexual exploitation, 
domestic work and in restaurants and hotels, whereas boys are 
trafficked to work in construction and on plantations.  Children are 
also trafficked to work in organized begging rings. 
 
LAWS AND CONVENTIONS 
 
¶7.  In 1989, Indonesia adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of 
the Child.  In March 2000, Indonesia ratified ILO Convention No. 182 
(Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the 
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor).  Indonesia has also 
ratified the main ILO Conventions relating to child labor.  ILO 
Convention No. 138 (Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to 
Employment), was ratified in June 1999.  The minimum age for work is 
¶15.  The law contains an exception for employing children from 13 up 
to 15 years to perform light work that does not disrupt their 
physical, mental, and social development.  A set of requirements is 
outlined for employment of children in this age range, including a 
maximum of 3 hours of work per day, parental permission, and no 
disruption of schooling. 
 
¶8.  Indonesia has ratified ILO Convention 182 and Law No. 13 of 2003 
reiterates the convention's articles on hazardous labor while 
Minister of Manpower Decree No. 235 of 2003 defines types of work 
that are hazardous to children.  Under Law No. 235 of 2003, 
employing and involving children under 18 in the worst forms of 
child labor (WFCL) or economic exploitation are prohibited under the 
law; failure to comply can result in criminal sanctions of 2 to 5 
years of imprisonment.  The law defines WFCL as slavery; use of 
children in prostitution, pornography and gambling; use of children 
for the production and trade of alcohol, narcotics, and addictive 
substances; and all types of work harmful to the health, safety and 
morals of children. The law identifies a list of such harmful 
activities and provides detailed descriptions and examples of these 
activities. These include jobs requiring children to work with 
machines; jobs where physical, chemical, or biological hazards are 
present; jobs with inherent hazards such as construction, offshore 
fishing, lifting heavy loads etc; and jobs that harm the morals of 
the children including working in bars, massage parlors, 
discotheques, or promoting alcohol or drugs to arouse sexual desire. 
 Persons who expose children to such hazardous activities are liable 
to terms of up to 5 years of imprisonment or a fine. 
 
¶9.   An Indonesian decree calls for general programs to ban and 
abolish WFCL and improve family income, and for specific programs 
for non-formal education and returning children to school by 
providing scholarships.  Additional specific legal sanctions are 
laid out against offenses of commercial sexual exploitation, child 
trafficking, involving children in the production or distribution of 
alcohol or narcotics, and involving children in armed conflict. 
Anyone exercising legal custody of a child under 12 years for the 
purpose of providing that child to another person, knowing that the 
child will be used for the purposes of begging, harmful work, or 
work that affects the child's health, face a maximum sentence of 4 
years imprisonment.  The law also prohibits sexual intercourse 
outside of marriage with a female recognized to be less than 15 
years, engaging in an obscene act with a person under 15 years, and 
forcing or allowing sexual abuse of a child, with maximum penalties 
ranging from 7 to 12 years of imprisonment. 
 
NEW ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAW 
 
¶10.  The GOI passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking law in March 
¶2007.  The law meets international standards to prevent and outlaw 
trafficking, and includes a comprehensive legal mandate for rescue 
and rehabilitation of victims.  The law outlaws all forms of 
trafficking including debt bondage and sexual exploitation.  It also 
provides stiff penalties for complicity in trafficking by officials 
and labor agents, which include harsh prison sentences.  Penalties 
for trafficking of a child, under 18 years, range from three to 15 
years in prison, with  penalties for officials higher by one-third, 
and fines of between $12,000 and $60,000. 
 
JAKARTA 00003359  003 OF 005 
 
 
 
¶11.   The minimum age for recruitment or enlistment into the armed 
forces is 18 years.  The law protects children in emergencies, 
including natural disasters. 
 
¶12.  Indonesia has also ratified almost all major conventions 
relating to trafficking. In addition to those referred to above, 
Indonesia has ratified ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor, the UN 
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and 
has signed the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of 
the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child 
Pornography. Indonesia has also signed the UN Convention against 
Transnational Organized Crime and its supplemental Protocol to 
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially 
Women and Children. 
 
STRONG LEGAL FRAMEWORK 
 
¶13.  The legal framework relating to working children has changed 
significantly in recent years and a number of important pieces of 
legislation have either been enacted or are presently in the 
pipeline. Taken together this new body of law represents an 
important step forward. The reforms in part constitute part of a 
wider process underway in Indonesia in which the GOI has indicated 
its commitment to an approach to labor policy consistent with ILO 
standards. The major challenge now facing the GOI is to effectively 
socialize and enforce the new legal framework. 
 
CHILD LABOR INSPECTIONS 
 
¶14.  Ministry of Manpower authorities at the provincial and district 
levels enforce child labor laws.  However, Indonesia's Child 
Protection law is oftentimes not enforced; for example, there have 
been no documented cases of prosecution for exploitation of child 
domestic workers. Labor inspectors' involvement in child labor 
issues is limited.  Inspectors work with inadequate human and 
financial resources.  As they cannot inspect all workplaces, they 
give priority to large enterprises and consequently leave out the 
unregulated informal sector where most child laborers are found. 
There also are indications that decentralization has had a negative 
impact on the overall effectiveness of the labor inspectorate. 
However, Parliament recently ratified ILO Convention 81 in 2007 on 
Labor Inspection.  This Convention includes provisions on the need 
for inspection services to cover children and young workers which, 
when implemented, could improve enforcement of child work protection 
laws. 
 
LAW ENFORCEMENT 
 
¶15.  The national police's anti-trafficking unit and other law 
enforcement bodies have increased efforts to combat trafficking of 
children.  Law enforcement against traffickers increased in 2006 
over 2005, according to the most recent data gathered by the USG 
data:  arrests increased 29 percent; prosecutions increased 87 
percent; and convictions increased 112 percent.  High rates of 
arrest continued in 2007.   The GOI has trained over a thousand law 
enforcement officials on fighting trafficking. The numbers of 
special anti-trafficking police and prosecutors increased.   Police 
targeted operations trafficking children domestically and 
internationally, breaking up several large syndicates, rescuing 
dozens of children and arresting officials complicit in falsifying 
the age of children in documents. 
 
NEEDED POLICY REFORMS 
 
¶16.  As the above cited case of children working in the birds' nest 
processing industry illustrates, lack of Ministry of Manpower 
oversight and police enforcement allow such situations to persist, 
according to the Child Protection Commission.  There is a need to 
establish a comprehensive national enforcement policy including 
clear policy instructions on labor inspection and child labor, which 
would include: 
 
--Establishing priorities for the most hazardous or abusive 
situations; 
--Defining clear objectives for interventions, including elimination 
of illegal employment of children; 
--Preventive measures to improve the conditions of children who are 
legally employed and to extend intervention to all types of 
 
JAKARTA 00003359  004 OF 005 
 
 
workplaces. 
 
PENAL CODE INADEQUATE 
 
¶17.  The Penal Code fails to provide protection for children 
involved in some of the WFCL, such as sexual exploitation and 
involvement in the drug business. The main issues with the articles 
in the Penal Code are that different definitions of a child 
complicates implementation of the law; the statutory age for 
criminal responsibility of 8 years old does not offer children the 
special protection they need; and prosecution for sexual 
exploitation is dependent on the victim's report, while victims are 
often too ashamed or scared to report. 
 
CHILD BRIDES 
 
¶18.  The marriage law allows early marriages which technically makes 
a child into an adult.  The law can be misused for fake marriages to 
make a child enter into prostitution or migrant work 'legally'. A 
high prevalence of very early marriages (involving persons under 16 
years old) occurs in all provinces in Indonesia. 
 
DOCUMENT FRAUD 
 
¶19.  Lack of free, compulsory birth registration, results in 30 
percent of Indonesians being unregistered.  For law enforcement 
purposes, it is often impossible to be certain of a child's age. 
Ages can be falsified on identity cards, a practice which sometimes 
involves the cooperation of government officials.  The Child 
Protection Act provides for free registration but it will be a major 
challenge to give proper effect to the law. 
 
MIGRANT PROTECTION 
 
¶20.  There is no law or effective service to protect exploitation of 
Indonesians working abroad although new legislation is currently 
being considered.  The proposed new migrant protection law provides 
a minimum age of 21 for migration, unless the migrant is married. 
However, with falsified identity cards or via illegal migration, 
many children may still work abroad without protection.  While 
police and immigration are beginning to increase enforcement to stop 
child labor migration, the practice is widely accepted in society as 
a way of providing a livelihood for the masses of unemployed youth, 
and officials oftentimes falsify the ages of children on documents 
in the belief that they are helping them to go abroad and find work. 
 
 
PROTECTION OF TRAFFICKING VICTIMS 
 
¶21.  Under the five-year anti-trafficking National Plan of Action 
(NPA) and Task Force, there was a more coordinated approach to 
trafficking at the provincial and local levels as 17 NPA local task 
forces took root in communities across the country.  Local task 
forces resulted in good cooperation among law enforcement agencies, 
social service providers and NGOs in many communities as these task 
forces met frequently.  The national and local task forces include 
social services, health and law enforcement agencies, as well as 
civil society organizations. Trafficking victims are treated at 
police hospitals where they receive counseling and are interviewed 
by police so that they can press charges if they so choose. 
National and local governments expanded services for victims, 
including medical treatment, shelter, rehabilitation, and 
reintegration, although the GOI is still dependent on international 
assistance to provide these services. 
 
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES 
 
¶22.  Following are examples of a few of the government efforts to 
fight WFCL in 2007: 
 
-- Sukabumi District, West Java, allocated USD20,000 to raise 
awareness on trafficking among senior high school students, 
community members and for the establishment of a district plan of 
action. 
-- Medan Municipality signed a new decree on elimination of WFCL in 
conjunction with the establishment of the Medan Municipality Action 
Committee on Elimination of WFCL. 
-- East Kutai District in East Kalimantan established the District 
Action Committee on WFCL. 
 
JAKARTA 00003359  005 OF 005 
 
 
-- West Java's Provincial Regulation on Child Protection went into 
effect. 
-- East Java's Government Initiative No. 22 to prevent child labor, 
trafficking and child sexual exploitation has since 2005 brought the 
provincial government together with related NGOs to implement 
programs to prevent WFCL, including public awareness campaigns, 
training, shelters, repatriation of child victims. 
-- National Labor Force Survey conducted by the Central Bureau for 
Statistics in August 2007 included one question on child labor, with 
the objective of establishing a sampling framework for a National 
Child Labor Survey to arrive at a national estimate of the scale of 
child labor. 
-- East Java Provincial Action Committee on the Elimination of WFCL 
allocated funds for mapping of WFCL in 6 districts. 
--North Sumatra Province passed a law on Elimination of Worst Forms 
of Child Labor; 
--Central Java Government submitted the Draft Provincial Regulation 
on the Elimination of Child Labor to the provincial parliament for 
deliberation. 
--Ministry of Education programs to provide education for children 
who have dropped out of school benefited over a half million 
children through projects providing schooling for tailored for 
hard-to-reach children.  The ministry also implemented education 
programs for child migrant workers overseas in Hong Kong, Malaysia 
and Saudi Arabia with the goal of giving them the skills to withdraw 
from exploitive work situations. 
--The Ministry of Education worked with the World Bank's "Life 
Skills" project to support scholarships for children to learn 
employable skills and to fund small enterprises such as motorcycle 
repair shops. 
--East Kalimantan provincial government allocated over a million US 
dollars for the 2008 operation of 32 One Roof elementary/junior high 
schools targeted to keep vulnerable children in school. 
 
¶23.  The 20-year National Plan of Action (NPA) for the Elimination 
of the WFCL is completing its report on the first 5-year phase 
(2002-2006) and finalizing its plans for the second phase.  The 
Ministry of Manpower chairs a National Action Committee for the 
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor.  The National Plan of 
Action of Human Rights in Indonesia (2004-2009) contains a specific 
objective on protecting the rights of the child.  The National 
Medium Term Development Plan (2004-2009) recognizes the problem of 
child labor and supports the implementation of the National Plan on 
the Elimination of the WFCL.  The Indonesia Poverty Reduction 
Strategy (2005-2009) includes objectives of preventing the WFCL, 
increasing protection for street children and child workers, and 
preventing child trafficking.   The government maintains the 
Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children. 
 
¶24.  Sources for this report include:  Ministry of Education, 
Ministry for Women's Empowerment, Ministry of Manpower, UNICEF, ILO, 
IOM, Save the Children, American Center for International Labor 
Solidarity, International Catholic Migration Commission, National 
Child Protection Commission, local NGOs, and USAID. 
 
HUME