JakartaGlobe-Aug 15, 2024
ASEAN recently held a meeting on protecting migrant workers from human trafficking in Vietnam on Wednesday local time.
Silmy Karim, the director-general of Indonesia’s immigration office, told the conference that ASEAN needed to pay attention to this issue. He said that migrant workers helped contribute to quality and inclusive economic growth in ASEAN. “Indonesia, with its abundant human resource potential, is an easy target for human trafficking syndicates in ASEAN, where more than 85 percent of its victims are smuggled into, from, and within the region,” said Silmy. In 2020-2023, 2,434 cases related to online scams were recorded as being handled by Indonesian representatives in the Southeast Asia Region, including Cambodia with 1,233 people, Myanmar with 205 people, the Philippines with 469 people, Laos with 276 people, Thailand with 187 people, Vietnam with 34 people, and Malaysia with 30 people. This figure has increased sharply compared to the previous year. In 2021, 116 cases were recorded from Cambodia, and 77 cases in Myanmar. Cambodia is the country with the most cases in Southeast Asia, with an increase in the number of cases of up to 8 times. Many of the cases revolve around online scamming such as fake investments, love scams, money laundering, and others. Forms of labor exploitation experienced include long working hours, document retention, excessive fines, and very limited movement and communication restrictions, to threats or acts of violence carried out by companies against Indonesian citizens. Read more at: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/asean-holds-meeting-on-human-trafficking-prevention
