NTB Police Chase PMI Recruiters For TIP Victims To Libya

Illustration of human trafficking aka criminal acts of trafficking in person (TPPO). (Lamuk_lamuk-Pixabay)

NTB - The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Regional Police (Polda) are hunting for the coup of recruiters of two Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) who are victims of criminal acts of trafficking in persons (TPPO) to Libya.

Director of General Criminal Investigation (Dirreskrimum) Polda NTB Kombes Pol. Teddy Ristiawan said the cukong had the initials FT from Mataram City, which is now a suspect along with two other people.

"Yes, from this case, we have arrested one of the three suspects. For the other two, including FT, we are still at large," said Teddy in Mataram, NTB, Thursday, July 27, which was confiscated by Antara.

Apart from FT, two other suspects had the initials B and HS. Suspect B acts as a field officer who recruits victims on Sumbawa Island. Suspect B has now been detained at the NTB Police Detention Center.

Meanwhile, HS acted as the sender of the two victims from Lombok Island to the FT shelter location in Jakarta. HS together with FT are now included in the police DPO.

"So, for this FT, we have difficulty picking him up, because he is working in a Middle Eastern country, if I'm not mistaken there is Saudi Arabia or Libya," he said.

Therefore, Teddy assured that his party continues to coordinate with institutions that have a role in PMI issues, both with the Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker) and BP2MI.

Furthermore, Teddy said that the location of the shelter for TIP victims in Jakarta was still being traced through the victim's statement.

"That's what we're still looking for. Meanwhile, the victim admitted that she didn't know and forgot where the shelter was and who was the person who accommodated it. She said the shelter was FT's mother," he said.

In the process of departing abroad, the two victims were also revealed using someone else's passport. One of the victims was revealed to have experienced illiteracy.

"Because the victim's face model and the passport are almost the same, so just pass the immigration check," said Teddy.

The recruitment process by the FT network was also confirmed that Teddy did not go through legal procedures. Instead, FT recruits and dispatchs victims individually without having the legality of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement Company (P3MI).

The two PMIs who were victims of TIP in Libya were revealed after uploading video recordings of their hearts to social media.

The video footage then reached the ears of the Indonesian government and immediately received special attention.

The government through the Indonesian Embassy (KBRI) Tripoli followed up on the video footage by tracking down the whereabouts of the two victims who were revealed in the Benghazi area.

After its existence was tracked down, the Indonesian Embassy in Tripoli together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Libya and the Libya Labor Agency succeeded in repatriating the two PMIs from NTB to Indonesia at the end of June 2023.