Nahdlatul Ulama Urges Police To Immediately Take Strict Action Against Covert TIPs

Illustration - Campaign "Stop TIP" to reject trafficking in persons. (Between/Kornelis Kaha)

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) suspects that there are still cases of Trafficking in Persons (TPPO) which are currently still hidden and hidden by irresponsible persons, even though the Police have taken firm action against TIP.

"There are allegations of hidden and deliberately hidden acts of Trafficking in Persons (TPPO) by individuals who are currently enjoying the results of bancakan by TIP mafia syndicates through debt irregularities to PMI (Indonesian migrant workers)," said the Head of the Advocacy Division of Migrant Workers. Nusantara Indonesian Muslim Labor Union Nahdlatul Ulama Abdul Rachim Sitorus in his official statement in Jakarta quoted by Antara, Saturday.

Abdul said that one way for syndicates to ensnare PMI was through debt eradication practices. He suspects that 5,000 PMIs have left for destination countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong to be directed into the debt practice through savings and loan cooperatives whose sources of funds are from foreign finance (finance).

The modus operandi of the known debt eradication practice is that PMI is forced to pretend to pay off the placement fee to P3MI, in accordance with the cost structure stipulated in the Decree of the Head of BP2MI Number 328 of 2022 and the Decree of the Head of BP2MI Number 50 of 2023.

He highlighted that the placement fee should have been borne by the employer and the money came from PMI's employer. However, the flow of payment costs seems to come from third parties, with orders for payments abroad using the state's placement currency for six to nine consecutive months.

Their employers are also known to always get pressure from finance abroad to deposit installments from PMI's salary cuts abroad as if this is a congenital debt from their home village.

"Even though the Order of Law Number 18 of 2017 Article 30, it is also very clear that PMI cannot be burdened with placement fees," said the lawyer who handled the overcharging case of debt deterrence against PMI.

Abdul said that the distribution of KUR-KTA-PMI was never the case, but the cases were still there. PMIs also never receive disbursement of funds from local government banks.

"We suspect that there is a practice of money laundering parked at Bank Negara Indonesia as an analyst for PMI loans since returning from the village," he said.

Previously, the National Commission of the Government Policy and Justice Supervisory Agency (Komnas LP-KPK) appreciated the performance of the National Police TIP Task Force.

Karo Penmas Humas Polri Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan said his party had saved 1,982 people and had arrested 714 suspects in the past month. The arrest was made after the Task Force received 616 reports of TIP cases until July 4, 2023.