NTB Regional Police Reveal the Case of the Departure of PMI Children from Dompu to Saudi Arabia

The police escorted the suspect who recruited a child-age PMI with the initials IS (central) from Jakarta, upon arrival at International Zainuddin Abdul Madjid Airport, NTB, Friday (9/12/2022). ANTARA/HO-Polda NTB

MATARAM - The West Nusa Tenggara Regional Police General Criminal Investigation Directorate team uncovered the case of the departure of Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) who were still children from Dompu Regency to Saudi Arabia.

The Director of General Criminal Investigation of the NTB Regional Police, Commissioner Teddy Ristiawan, said that his party uncovered this case by successfully arresting a man suspected of being a recruiter with the initials IS from Jakarta.

"We arrested the person concerned when he was in the East Jakarta area", he said as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, December 13.

The suspected 14-year-old female PMI recruiter was arrested last Friday, December 12. During the arrest, the police had developed into the IS house in Jakarta.

As a result of the search, the police confiscated evidence that allegedly corroborated IS's role as a recruiter for PMI.

"The evidence is in the form of 16 passports. It is known that the passports belonged to people from Sulawesi, Sukabumi, and Madura", he said.

He said the IS arrest started with a complaint by the victim to his parents who live in Dompu Regency.

"This victim contacted his parents, and he told them about his fate working as a household assistant in Saudi Arabia", he said.

During the three months of working in Arab, the victim admitted to her parents that she had never received a salary according to the perpetrator's promise, of IDR 15 million per month.

"So during the three months of work in Arabia, the victim never received a salary, was tortured by her employer, and almost became a victim of sexual violence", he said.

The victim's parents panicked and reported their son's story to the NTB Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Service Center (BP3MI).

"The complaint was then followed up by BP3MI NTB to the center and coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs", he said.

The whereabouts of the victim were detected in Arabic by the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"After being found, the victim was immediately sent home and made a police report at the NTB Regional Police", he said.

From the results of the victim's examination, it was revealed that the role of IS as a recruiter. The victim was introduced to IS by two colleagues with the initials SL and NS who also have PMI status in Saudi Arabia.

"So, this victim left for Arabia after being introduced to IS by two of his colleagues who also worked as PMI in Arabia", he said.

However, because the victim's age was still classified as a child, IS created a fake identity in Jakarta by changing the victim's year of birth to enter the adult category.

This has been revealed from the results of the IS examination. IS admitted to the police that he made a new identity for the victim so he could work abroad.

From this case the police have named IS as a suspect and have detained him at the NTB Regional Police Detention Center.

As a suspect, IS is threatened with a minimum of 3 years in prison and a fine of at least IDR 120 million according to the allegations in Article 6, Article 10, Article 11 in conjunction with Article 4 of Law Number 21 of 2007 concerning the Eradication of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons (TPPO).

Regarding the two co-victims with the initials SL and NS who introduced them to IS, he made sure they were on the police's wanted list.

"Because they are still working in Saudi Arabia, we are coordinating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pursue the two perpetrators", he said.

Editor : Ade P Marboen