Kuala Lumpur repatriates 53 Indonesian migrants victims of traffickers
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - At least 53 Indonesian citizens were repatriated from the capital of Malaysia, after being intercepted by the local police as they were ready to leave for the Middle East as "illegal migrants".
A report detailing the episode was released by the Jakarta embassy in Kuala Lumpur, denouncing a racket of unscrupulous trafficking in humans in Indonesia and Malaysia. Investigators have arrested a Malaysian citizen to question him and find out who his Indonesian accomplices are. Going by the nickname IM, he was already known to the police in Kuala Lumpur because he had been arrested in March 2013; he was charged with having kept some Indonesian migrant workers in a state of semi-slavery, but was released on bail.
According to Jakarta Police it is common
practice for unscrupulous criminals to prey on the rural poor as potential victims in human trafficking. Identified
as "brokers", these
people focus especially on young
women from remote villages, which
are taken upon payment of a (small) amount of money.
According to reports from the Indonesian ambassador in Kuala Lumpur Herman Prayitno,
IM is a "familiar
face" in Malaysia, one of the
leading figures in the "mafia"
that controls the racket of modern slavery and human
trafficking. The trade route, which
affects mostly women, was uncovered by some
Indonesian officials stationed in consulates and embassies in the Middle East, who discovered some
irregularities in documents.
Already on April 9 a group of nine girls from Indonesia destined for prostitution
were repatriated after being discovered by Malaysian police. But despite these discoveries, the vast majority of victims remains enslaved and exploited in this trafficking. A
phenomenon, according to experts, that continues to rise.
The latest police investigations also shows that Indonesian migrant women,
who erroneously migrate to countries in the Middle East in the hope of securing a job as a domestic worker end up as prostitutes
or sex slaves. The
province of Aceh and the regency of Sukabumi in West Java province, are
among the centers in this trade in the lives of young women, with
hundreds of cases per year and
the number is constantly growing;
experts point out that "only
30% of cases" of trafficking comes to the light, but the vast majority remain submerged.
Yesterday, Pope Francis, during a meeting with interreligious leaders at the Vatican, slammed the trade as "modern day slavery", defining the exploitation of the people "an abhorrent crime". The Pope's words accompanied the signing of a Declaration of Religious Leaders against Slavery, held in conjunction with the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
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31/10/2019 13:55
04/04/2022 15:04
