Foreign Minister Emphasizes The Importance Of Collaboration In ASEAN To Overcome TIP

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi/DOK VIA BETWEEN

BADUNG - Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi emphasized the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration in ASEAN to jointly address the crime of trafficking in persons (TPPO) because it is a cross-border crime.

"International cooperation must be increased in multi-sector participation. Currently, no country can handle these cross-border crimes alone," said Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi virtually on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Conference regarding TPPO in Kuta, Badung Regency, Bali, as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, November 7.

According to him, collaboration needs to be tightened, especially TIP syndicates take advantage of the sophistication of information technology that is misused in recruiting victims.

For this reason, all parties, including the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in ASEAN through a conference held by Komnas HAM RI, can contribute to preventing and guarding human rights protection, especially victims of TIP.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Retno reiterated that ASEAN continues to strengthen efforts to fight TIP through the commitment of Southeast Asian leaders to adopt three important documents during the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo, NTT.

The three documents adopted included the ASEAN Declaration regarding human trafficking, protection of migrant workers and protection of migrant fishermen.

"All of these documents have the aim of increasing coordination among law enforcement agencies and increasing the protection of TIP victims," he said.

Chairman of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission Atnike Nova Sigiro said ASEAN is an area with a high flow of migrant workers, which is estimated to reach 10 million migrant workers per year, about 50 percent of whom are female workers.

For this reason, female migrant workers are considered vulnerable to becoming TIP because the types of jobs abroad are mostly related to women, for example, domestic assistants or domestic workers.

Meanwhile, regarding the misuse of information technology, victims of TIP were recruited through online fraud (scamming) using social media.

Since 2020, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recorded that many Indonesian citizens have been trapped in online scamming companies, most of which are in Southeast Asia and are experiencing labor exploitation.

The perpetrators recruited victims to be forcibly employed in Southeast Asian countries and some in the Middle East to cheat online.

Until May 2023, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled 2,438 cases of Indonesian citizens trapped online scamming, which was around 50 percent or 1,233 Indonesian citizens, of whom were handled in Cambodia.

The rest, in Myanmar as many as 205 Indonesian citizens, the Philippines (469), Laos (276), Thailand (187), Vietnam (34), Malaysia (30), United Arab Emirates (4).

Meanwhile, in 2022, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will repatriate 425 Indonesian citizens who have been trapped in the same case, and unfortunately, those who have been sent home, some return abroad to work in the same sector.