The global fight against human trafficking Benny YP Siahaan  ;   A foreign service officer based in New York

JAKARTA POST,  24 Februari 2014

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                         

                                                                                                                       

Sparked by the interview with Shandra Woworuntu in Agence France-Presse on Jan. 31, the issue of human trafficking became news again in Indonesia, with Shandra revealing herself as a survivor of human trafficking in the United States. Just on Dec. 31, President Barack Obama had proclaimed January as a month of campaigning against modern slavery and human trafficking. A possible misunderstanding from the news reports on Shandra may have been that the Indonesian government was responsible for her fate, particularly its consulate in New York. Reports had said Shandra experienced difficulty in securing assistance at the consulate, however, a new passport was issued once she acquired a police notice on a missing document. A consulate member has said that the consular team had no information that Shandra was a victim of trafficking; the situation might have been different had they known.  Beyond the case of Shandra, a former financial analyst now lobbying for better foreign workers’ protection in the US, let’s look at what lies ahead in our fight against human trafficking. Indonesia only adopted the Human Trafficking Law in 2007 while the US enacted the law in October 2000. In comparison to 2001, Indonesian embassies and consulates abroad are more ready and well equipped to confront cases like Shandra’s. Since 2003, the Foreign Ministry established a special directorate that mainly focuses on protecting Indonesian citizens and establishments abroad. By 2008, through a presidential decree following the passing of the 2007 law on trafficking, a national task-force on human trafficking was established involving 19 ministries and national institutions like the police force and Attorney General’s Office. The strategies are not perfect but Indonesia is on right track. Aside from the current national strategies to combat human trafficking, eradicating poverty will also help prevent poor people from being trapped by criminal organizations. However, this case might not be applied to people like Shandra since she has a middle class background and is well educated. Thus, awareness of the danger of human trafficking is also of paramount importance. In this context, the 2013 US report on human trafficking, which ranked Indonesia in “Tier 2” in human trafficking efforts (of course, with the US in “Tier 1”), based on its Human and Violence Protection Act of 2000, is rather judgmental and does not help, as no country is immune to the issue. Human trafficking is an extraordinary crime. Hence, to eradicate it warrants extraordinary measures. Furthermore, due to its concealed nature, it is difficult to get the accurate number of victims. In many cases, the victim themselves are afraid or too ashamed to report their cases. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, although most states have signed and ratified the protocol on anti-trafficking, implementation remains problematic given the few convictions and the rare identification of and assistance to victims. The International Labor Organization also estimates that more than 21 million people worldwide are victims of trafficking, with women and children being the most vulnerable groups. Hence, only interstate cooperation and continuous improvement of national strategies to combat human trafficking, and not being judgmental to others, would positively contribute to the UN global campaign to eradicate human trafficking. Therefore, Shandra’s effort to lobby members of Congress in Washington DC to push a bill into a law obliging foreign worker recruiter companies in the US to be listed with the Department of Labor should be applauded and supported. As long as there is a loophole both in the source and receiving countries, human trafficking will continue to exist. ●