165 People In Cilacap Become Victims Of Human Trafficking With Losses Reaching 2.5 Billion, Central Java Police Arrest 2 Perpetrators

Central Java Police Chief Inspector General Pol. Ahmad Luthfi (third from the left) showed evidence of the Human Trafficiking case at a press conference at the Cilacap Police Headquarters, Tuesday (6/6/2023). ANTARA/Sumarwoto

CILACAP - The General Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Central Java Regional Police together with the Cilacap City Police have succeeded in uncovering two cases of the crime of human trafficking (TPPO).

"The first TPPO case involved two suspects," said Central Java Police Chief Inspector General Ahmad Luthfi during a press conference regarding the TPPO case at the Cilacap Police Headquarters, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, June 6.

The modus operandi of the two suspects, consisting of SUN (51), a resident of Indramayu, West Java, and TAR (43), a resident of Cilacap, was in the form of promising to process and dispatch prospective Indonesian migrant workers (CPMI) to South Korea.

According to him, the number of CPMI victims who were successfully deceived by the two suspects reached 165 people with losses of nearly IDR 2.5 billion.

"The victims who were recruited were brought to Indramayu which is the location of the LPK (Skills Education Institute). We have conducted an investigation and it turned out that the LPK was not licensed," he explained.

After the two suspects were arrested, he said, his party carried out the development of PT AI in Jakarta. If it turns out that the company is not licensed, he continued, his party will also charge PT AI with the TPPO article.

"The second TPPO case involved sister S. We did not arrest Sister S because she still had a baby," said the regional police chief.

According to him, suspect S was involved in TPPO in European networks such as England, Spain, and the Netherlands.

In carrying out the action, he said, S collaborated with a man with the initials Tan who has been put on the wanted list (DPO) because the person concerned is currently in Japan.

"The victims paid IDR 70 million, but they did not go. Some of the victims even went to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, but the salary they received did not match what was promised," he said.

Therefore the victims made a report to the Central Java Regional Police which was followed up by the arrest of S on Tuesday morning.

According to him, the suspects in the TPPO case will be charged with Article 81 of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 18 of 2017 concerning the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

"My appeal to people who want to work as migrant workers, one, check with the official departure agencies for migrant workers," he said.

The second appeal, he said, is to cooperate with the local Manpower Office to avoid fraud.

Furthermore, the Kapolda said that in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, TPPO must be completely eradicated from upstream to downstream.

According to him, this has become the working basis for the police to enforce the law related to the criminal act of human trafficking abroad.

"The National Police Chief has advised us to act decisively against whoever is involved in it because this (TPPO, ed.) is very troubling to the community," he stressed.