Indonesia’s Human Trafficking Problem

As a nation, Indonesia leads southeast Asia in human trafficking atrocities. Not only is the country host to hundreds of thousands of enslaved individuals, but Indonesian men, women, and children are commonly exported to other nations as victims of sexual exploitation and forced labor. On top of this, Indonesia serves as a transit country for human trafficking syndicates. Despite the Indonesian government’s notable recent efforts to eradicate its sex trafficking quandary, the nation’s forced labor situation has been left almost untouched. This is largely due to corruption within the governmental sphere and the lack of effectivity in recently passed anti-trafficking bills. In fact, Indonesia’s latest anti-trafficking bill fails to deal with a score of issues ranging from the legal punishment of a trafficker to the rescue of internally-trafficked victims. However, while such statistics single out Indonesia’s human trafficking problem as one of the world’s worst, the country’s government is beginning to take on a more aggressive approach toward the situation.

Indonesia’s trafficking problem is vast in expression, at present. Issues ranging from servile marriage to child labor haunt the nation, along with a throng of other manifestations of trafficking. Women and children caught in commercial sex work number 100,000 annually, with anywhere from 40,000-70,000 being children. Aftereffects from Indonesia’s 2004 tsunami and 2005 earthquake have left many fatherless families vulnerable to sexual exploitation as a means of livelihood. Major global agencies that monitor trafficking patterns contend that Indonesia’s inefficiencies with birth registry and education are also contributing factors to the nation’s trafficking situation. In addition, global tourism has brought large numbers of male vacationers to the tropical nation, creating a “supply and demand” sex market. Aside from sexual exploitation, both migrant and citizen workers are often forced into various forms of labor including domestic servitude, farming, mining, fishing, and construction. Children, too, are trafficked for the purposes of labor, thus placing them in a context that makes them especially susceptible to sexual exploitation. With such a wide range of trafficking issues, Indonesia has giant steps to take in order to overcome its still-growing torrent of human slavery. 

Indonesian slaves are mainly trafficked to more developed Asian countries and the Middle East. Atop the list of nations that receive trafficked Indonesians are the countries of Malaysia, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. Internally-trafficked victims can be spread throughout any of Indonesia’s 6000 inhabited islands, while the tourist islands of Batam and Bali are becoming increasingly recognized as the top destinations for child sex tourism.

Wholesale change in legislation is crucial. The passive, lackadaisical  attitude that most of Indonesia’s public officials tend to possess toward the trafficking situation must be invigorated and replaced by an urgent fervency for justice.