The government maintained inadequate protection efforts. The government did not have SOPs for proactive victim identification and referral to rehabilitation services. While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) utilized procedures for victim identification in its capacity to assist Indonesian citizens overseas, observers noted law enforcement did not use SOPs, especially at the municipality and district level. Observers expressed concern that the lack of SOPs and the government’s anti-trafficking infrastructure, which was under the purview of local-level police units and protection agencies who focused primarily on women and children, hindered the identification of victims overall and male victims in particular. Additionally, the government’s inadequate efforts to screen vulnerable groups for trafficking indicators, including during raids to arrest persons in prostitution or to combat illegal fishing, may have resulted in the punishment or deportation of unidentified trafficking victims. The government partnered with an international organization in 2018 to develop victim identification procedures but did not finalize the procedures during the reporting period. Officials did not collect comprehensive data on the number of victims it identified. Disparate government entities sometimes reported their own statistics, making aggregate data incomparable to data reported in earlier periods and possibly double counting victims as they came into contact with different government agencies.
The government primarily coordinated rehabilitation services for victims of abuse, including trafficking victims, through local integrated service centers for women and children (P2TP2A). There were P2TP2As in all 34 provinces and approximately 436 districts. Provincial or district governments managed and funded the centers. Services included short-term shelter, medical care, counseling, family liaison services, and some vocational skills training; however, in practice, services varied based on local leadership and funding. Women living in rural areas or districts where no such center was established had difficulty receiving support services, and some centers were only open for six hours a day and not the required 24 hours. NGOs continued to play a critical role in supplementing and filling gaps in government services—including for male victims who local governments had to refer to NGOs for shelter. The government’s victim and witness protection institute acknowledged the government needed to raise public awareness about the services it provided. In August 2018, the institute launched a hotline and mobile application to provide information to all victims of crime on filing complaints and available government protection services.
Trafficking victims entered and exited government shelters upon the approval of a government agency; victims did not have freedom of movement once the government placed them in a shelter. The central government’s Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) funded and staffed two trauma centers in Jakarta and the Riau Islands that provided short-term shelter for male and female victims of violence, including trafficking victims. The center in Riau Islands only served Indonesian citizens who were in some form of distress in Malaysia; in 2018, the center repatriated 2,755 Indonesians but did not report how many of those repatriated were trafficking victims. MOSA reported the Jakarta trauma center served 490 trafficking victims in 2018, but it did not report the type of trafficking or the age or gender of the victims. Comparatively, the government reported the two trauma centers served 1,291 trafficking victims in 2017. MOSA also funded and staffed a protection shelter for women who had experienced sexual violence; in 2018, the women’s shelter housed 37 trafficking victims. Provincial social affairs agencies funded and operated local trauma centers that were available to trafficking victims; however, in October 2018, MOSA held a training for provincial trauma center staff and discovered five centers had closed during the year due to lack of funds from the provincial or district governments. At the end of the reporting period, the government reported it had 21 trauma centers nationwide.
The government housed child victims of crimes in children’s homes funded by MOSA, provincial or district governments, and some in partnership with local NGOs. The government reported it increased the number of children’s homes from 14 to 18 in 2018 and housed 11 child victims of trafficking. The Commission for Protection of Children reported it identified 65 cases of trafficking involving children in 2018 and separately identified 93 cases of “child prostitution.” NGOs and past government reports estimated the number of child sex trafficking victims to be in the tens of thousands.
In September 2018, the MFA issued a regulation on the protection of Indonesian nationals overseas, which included trafficking victims. The regulation outlined early detection through risk mapping and required an immediate response to a complaint or report of abuse. During 2018, the MFA reported it identified 164 Indonesian victims of trafficking overseas, a decrease compared with 340 in 2017 and 478 in 2016. The MFA reported it gathered information, provided assistance with procuring identity documents as needed, and referred 95 of the victims to social services agencies; the MFA did not report its actions regarding the additional 69 victims. The government housed foreign trafficking victims identified in Indonesia in MOSA’s Jakarta trauma center or in one of 13 immigration detention centers that were holding facilities for illegal migrants and shelters for irregular migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. The government allowed an international organization to provide counseling and legal services at some shelters. The government did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution.
Police requested victims stay in government shelters until the completion of the investigation but limited government budgets resulted in only an average two-week stay in the trauma centers. Women and children in the protection shelters reportedly stayed longer, although the government did not provide data on the average length of stay or where victims went once the government released them from the shelters. Police acknowledged government services were insufficient and stated the government needed NGOs to provide shelter. Once the government released a victim from its care, the government did not track the victim, including for purposes of gathering testimony for their traffickers’ prosecution; the government relied on an international organization to remain in contact with the victims and follow-up and assist them, if necessary.
The government’s recently established universal healthcare system covered some of the medical needs of Indonesian victims; however, the system required identity documents that many returning Indonesian migrant workers who had been exploited overseas did not possess. The Ministry of Health (MOH) was responsible for funding victims’ health care, which national police hospitals were obligated to provide free of charge. The MOH trained hospital personnel to provide health services to victims of trafficking and violence in six provinces during 2018.
In the previous reporting period, the Supreme Court issued guidelines stipulating judges protect female victims during legal processes by considering psychological trauma and allowing video testimony. The government did not report if it consistently offered such protections during court proceedings for female trafficking victims. The government issued regulations to allow the government’s victim and witness protection institute to add restitution to the perpetrator’s penalties before or after conviction for human trafficking and other crimes. The protection institute, national police, and attorney general’s office partnered with a foreign government to publish and disseminate a guide for law enforcement officials and victims on a victim’s right to restitution. In 2018, the institute provided legal assistance to 70 trafficking victims, in 39 cases, compared with 64 victims in 2017, and 105 in 2016. Of the 39 cases, the institute facilitated victim restitution in 18 cases, 19 cases were still under investigation, and in two cases the victims decided not to pursue restitution for unknown reasons. As of December 2018, only the victims in one of the 18 cases had received restitution, as Indonesian law allowed convicted offenders to serve additional imprisonment in lieu of paying restitution.