Ditpolairud Kepri Police Prevent the Delivery of 17 Illegal PMI to Malaysia

Kasubdit Gakkum Ditpolairud Polda Kepri AKBP Andyka Aer/ANTARA

BATAM - The Directorate of Air and Air Police (Ditpolairud) of the Riau Islands Police thwarted the illegal shipment of 17 Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) to Malaysia in the city of Batam.

The Head of the Law Enforcement Sub-Directorate (Gakkum) of the Batam Police, AKBP Andyka Aer, said his party arrested one of the perpetrators of the illegal 17 PMI shelter in Batam.

"Personnel visited a house in Sekupang District which was used to accommodate this back-channel PMI candidate," said Andyka at the Kepri Police Mako Polairud, Sekupang, Batam, Monday, February 2, reported by ANTARA.

The suspect who was arrested with the initials R, a resident of Batam, acted as a collector for prospective PMI through the "back" or illegal route.

The PMI candidates are 15 people from Lombok, one from North Sumatra and one from South Sumatra. They consist of 15 men and two women.

"There are no PMI candidates from Kepri, all of them are from outside Kepri," he said.

The victims were recruited by someone whose identity is not known who is suspected to be outside Indonesia, namely Malaysia, seen from the mobile phone numbers used.

The victims were recruited to be employed in Malaysia as oil palm workers for men and domestic helpers (ART) for women.

"They were sent on a debt system, so the perpetrators in Malaysia financed their plane tickets from their home areas to Kepri," he said.

The prospective PMI entered Kepri through two routes, namely from Yogyakarta directly to Batam, there is also from the region of origin to Tanjungpinang then cross to Batam via Telaga Punggur Port.

"Then these prospective PMI were picked up and accommodated by R. Each person paid Rp. 100 thousand for one day in the shelter," he said.

The plan is for these prospective PMI to be deported illegally without a passport using a boat. However, the perpetrators were successfully prevented, so the victims were able to survive the possible dangers in the middle of the sea and exploitation in neighboring countries.

"We are still investigating the perpetrator who recruited these victims. He used a Malaysian number, and currently the number cannot be contacted," he said.

For the perpetrator R, it is suspected of committing the crime of Law Number 18 of 2017 concerning PMI. Currently, investigators are preparing a case file to be forwarded to the Prosecutor's Office. Meanwhile, the victims have been handed over to BP3MI Kepri to be sent home to their home areas.