Funded Foreigner, Police Dismantling The Trafficking Group Of People To The Middle East

Deputy Head of Soetta Airport Police, AKBP Anton Firmanto, accompanied by Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of Soetta Airport Police, Kompol Rezha Rahandi, when the disclosure of the case of trafficking in persons, Friday (10/2/2023). (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The City Police (Polresta) of Soekarno-Hatta Airport (Soetta), Tangerang, Banten revealed a syndicate of perpetrators of criminal acts of trafficking in persons (TPPO) against dozens of prospective Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) funded from abroad.

"This case was successfully revealed after we received a report from the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, with the suspicion that 38 people will be dispatched to the Middle East as non-procedural workers," said Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of Soetta Airport Police, Kompol Rezha Rahandi, quoted by ANTARA, Friday, February 10.

He explained that the arrest of the TIP case began with information that dozens of prospective migrant workers would be dispatched to work in several Middle Eastern countries on October 17, 2022.

Then, after it was discovered that there was an attempt to smuggle the prospective migrant workers, investigators together with the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) immediately picked up and thwarted their departure from the Soekarno Hatta Airport terminal.

"After finding out, we are coordinating with the Ministry of Manpower and BP2MI to pick up the 38 PMIs, and then we will conduct an examination," he said.

According to him, from the results of the development and investigation, his party also managed to arrest three suspected perpetrators of TIP with the initials MAB (49), ABM (46) residents of East Jakarta and RC (43) residents of Lebak, Banten.

"From these three actors, their respective roles are different. So there are those who recruit as done by RC, there are those who take care of passports carried out by ABM, then MBA as a visa administrator," he said.

He said, from the results of the confessions of the syndicates of criminals, they claimed to have been funded by foreign companies. They will benefit by calculating the recruitment per one PMI person.

"So the cost per person is Rp. 10 million to Rp. 15 million, and later this PMI will be accommodated by the company initials AZ in West Java. They have also been serving this crime since 2010," he said.

He also added that these syndicates could recruit 20 to 30 migrant worker candidates per day. "Most of them recruit prospective workers from Lebak, Karawang, and Cianjur regencies, West Java," he said.

As for the results of this disclosure, his party secured evidence in the form of three mobile phones that were used to communicate between the suspect and the victim, three savings books that were used for money transfer transactions, three ATM cards used for money transfer transactions, and 34 passports, visas and boarding passes (CPMI Travel Documents).

Furthermore, for their actions, the perpetrators were subject to Article 81 in conjunction with Article 69 and/or Article 83 in conjunction with Article 68 of Law No. 18 of 2017 concerning the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers and/or Article 4 of Law No. 21 of 2007 concerning the Eradication of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons (PTPPO) with a maximum imprisonment of 10 years or a fine of Rp. 15 billion.

Meanwhile, Soetta Airport Police Chief Kombes Pol Roberto Pasaribu added that his staff would commit to eradicating criminal acts of trafficking in persons.

In addition, law enforcement will still be carried out intensively in order to provide legal certainty according to applicable regulations by involving all relevant agencies, including BP2MI, Ministry of Manpower, and Immigration.

"We always provide education as a preemptive step for Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) and Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement Company (P3MI) by collaborating with BP2MI, Ministry of Manpower, and Immigration, that the importance of procedures is taken to ensure the protection of PMI's government safety and welfare while carrying out work in placement countries," he said.