Illegal PMI Distributor Woman In Kalibata City Apartment Arrested Together With 8 Mothers From West Java

Officers secure women at the Kalibata City Apartment/ Photo; Antara

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI) thwarted the shipment of eight illegal Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) after raiding a shelter in South Jakarta, Sunday, February 4.

Deputy for Placement and Protection of European and Central East Regions of BP2MI Inspector General Pol I Ketut Suardana said that eight PMI candidates were successfully secured at the Kalibata City Apartment before becoming victims of the Trafficking in Persons (TPPO).

"We have managed to secure eight people at the Kalibata City Apartment, all of them are women, mothers. We prevent this from becoming victims of trafficking in persons to Saudi Arabia," said I Ketut Suardana.

The security was successfully carried out after the West Java (West Java) Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Service Center (BP3MI) received a report from one of the families of prospective workers who would be dispatched.

"They will be dispatched to the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, as household workers. This mother is six from West Java and two from Tangerang, all women and we will return them to their respective hometowns," he said.

The PMI candidates have been accommodated for seven days in the apartment by a woman with the initials D, who is suspected of being the distributor of illegal PMI candidates for the Middle East destination. The perpetrators themselves were handed over to the South Jakarta Police for further legal processing.

Ketut added that the raid was the umpteenth time in early 2024. In the previous year, BP2MI had carried out hundreds of raids on illegal PMI candidate shelters.

According to BP2MI data, from 2020 to December 2023 there were 110,641 migrant workers who were constrained by being deported and served by the agency's return. There were 2,597 PMIs who died and were handled by the return of their bodies and 3,672 who were sent home due to illness.