Tangerang (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Protection (PPMI) on Monday prevented the departure of five Indonesian non-procedural migrant workers to Cambodia to allegedly work as online gambling operators.
“On Monday, December 30, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. local time, we received information on the scheduled departure of non-procedural Indonesian migrant workers via Terminal 2 of Soekarno-Hatta Airport and proceeded to secure them,” PPMI Deputy Minister Christina Aryani informed.
Speaking in Tangerang, Banten Province, on Tuesday, she revealed that the prospective migrant workers, aged between 18 and 25, hail from North Aceh District, Aceh Province, and Langkat District, North Sumatra Province.
“These five individuals were about to fly from Jakarta to Malaysia. The plan was for them to travel from Malaysia to Cambodia afterward,” she said.
The individuals, considered victims of a human trafficking attempt, said they found information about the recruitment at an unspecified company from Facebook, neighbors, and relatives, with a promised monthly salary of Rp6 million (USD371), she added.
“They were then told to employ the pretext of visiting Malaysia as tourists,” she said.
The deputy minister further said that her office has initiated a hunt for three individuals suspected of recruiting the victims.
“According to the prospective migrant workers, they were recruited by brokers identified by the initials M, S, and D,” she informed.
Aryani said that the PPMI Ministry has taken the five victims to a safe house run by the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Protection Service Center (BP3MI) in Banten for further questioning.
“This serves as a measure to expose the trafficking of our migrant workers,” she said.
She added that the government will soon help the victims return to their regions of origin.
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Translator: Azmi S, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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