Follow Up On Reports Of 9 Victims, Police Confiscate 1,116 Passports Of Illegal NTB P3MI TIP Results

NTB Police conference press disclosure of the TIP case with 1,116 passports of PMI candidates in Mataram, NTB, Wednesday 7 February 2024. (ANTARA-Dhimas B.P.)

West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Police confiscated 1,116 passports from the disclosure of a criminal case of trafficking in persons (TPPO), one of the illegal Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement Companies (P3MI) PT Mahesa Tunggal Putra from Mataram City.

"Of the 1,116 passports, 1,107 of them we confiscated from the results of a search at the P3MI office of PT Mahesa Tunggal Putra in the Ampenan area, Mataram City. The rest were confiscated from 9 victims," said NTB Police Chief Inspector General Raden Umar Faroq at a press conference in Mataram, NTB, Wednesday, February 7, confiscated by Antara.

In handling the case, investigators named four suspects with the initials RS (38), MS (55), S (41), and BK.

Faroq explained that each suspect had a different role. From the results of the investigation, it was revealed that the hospital acted as a field worker who recruited PMI candidates.

Then, MS and S as passport makers. Furthermore, BK as director of the company who is still abroad. From the results of the interim search, it was revealed that BK was in Malaysia.

"For the suspect BK, whose director we are still investigating in the field, he said in Malaysia," he said.

In this case, a number of evidences were also confiscated. Apart from passports, there is a deposit receipt from prospective migrant workers and a letter of agreement between the victim and the company to go abroad.

Regarding the validity of 1,116 passports, Faroq explained that his party was still coordinating with the immigration authorities.

"We cannot confirm whether these passports really exist or are fake, we have to clarify them from immigration," he said.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the NTB Regional Police, Kombes Pol. Syarif Hidayat also conveyed the chronology of the arrests of the three suspects. "Our arrests are carried out from the follow-up to reports of 9 victims who have not been dispatched by the company," said Syarif.

The follow-up to the report also revealed that PT Mahesa Tunggal Putra did not have a valid permit.

"After we checked, it turned out that this company was not registered with P3MI," he said.

With the results of such investigations, investigators named four suspects with one of them being included in the police wanted list (DPO) violating Article 10 and/or Article 11 in conjunction with Article 4 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 21 of 2007 concerning Eradication of TIP and/or Article 81 jo. Article 69 of Law No. 18 of 2017 concerning Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (PPMI).

"We have detained the three suspects at the NTB Police Detention Center. The handling is still in the filing stage," he said.