Protection Of Indonesian Citizens Needs Holistic Cooperation All Stakeholders

Illustration of TKI (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - Efforts to protect Indonesian citizens are businesses that require comprehensive and holistic cooperation between all stakeholders at home and abroad.

According to the Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens and Indonesian Legal Entities (BHI) of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Judha Nugraha, efforts to protect Indonesian citizens must also cover aspects of prevention other than only in handling and resolving cases that are revealed.

"Of course our focus is no longer only on handling cases abroad, but we must take a comprehensive approach to protecting Indonesian citizens from upstream to downstream," Judha said quoting Antara.

He said the collaboration was very necessary considering the number of problematic Indonesian citizens cases abroad in 2023 reached 53,598 cases, an increase of more than 50 percent compared to the previous year which only reached 35,149 cases.

He gave an example, in order to increase the awareness of Indonesian citizens about the dangers of being entangled in criminal acts of trafficking in persons (TPPO), his party has collaborated with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Indonesia to make short films about the dangers of online scams in job applications.

"Then, we also work with Kominfo to provide short service advertisements on how to recognize various kinds of scam online advertisements that can exploit our citizens abroad," he said, explaining.

In addition to collaborating with domestic stakeholders, Judha stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also encouraged cooperation at foreign levels to eradicate online fraud, which has now become a cross-border crime.

For example, Indonesia has pushed for the realization of the declaration of ASEAN leader regarding the eradication of human trafficking due to the misuse of technology during Indonesia's chairmanship in ASEAN last year.

In addition, Indonesia has also signed a bilateral agreement to combat transnational organized crimes with various countries, one of which is Cambodia, said Judha.