by Wardah Hafidz and Syarifah Saharuddin

Problems and Policies

Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 13,000 islands and around 187 million people. It has extensive natural wealth, and oil has dominated its external economy. The oil price slump in 1983 hurt the government's revenue badly and thus the country's economy. Coupled with the high unemployment rate which now exceeds 1.5 million annually, the country is facing serious economic and employment problems. Among other measures taken, the government employs two important policies: the exploration of foreign labor market and the boosting of tourism. Both policies have affected women negatively

 For the Indonesian women, especially the deprived and poorly educated, the exploration of foreign labor market resulted in their being sent as domestic helpers to the Middle East, Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Brunei Darussalam where they have to work like slaves (facing the dangers of being raped by their employers, beaten, and working very long hours). At present there are around 300,000 Indonesian women working in all the above mentioned countries. There have been quite a number of cases reported about these women being sexually or physically harassed by their employers, yet no significant measures have been taken by the Indonesian government. Aside from those who suffer from rape and other problems, it was reported that from September - December 1989 there have been 11 Indonesian women migrant workers in Saudi Arabia who committed suicide from fear of rape and other harassment, and physical torture.

The case of these women workers has been the source of a heated debate these past three years. So far the government does not comply to the idea of stopping the 'export' of workers to Saudi Arabia albeit the high rate of casualties, especially among the women workers. Yet information from reliable sources in the recruiting agencies reveals that now the government is exercising very strict rules and high requirements for the recruiting agencies who intend to send women workers to Saudi Arabia (when this paper was written the new arrangement has not been publicly announced.) Aside from the fact that at present Saudi Arabia is facing the danger of war from the gulf crisis, it was believed that the change was due to the complaint that sending Indonesian women as domestic helpers has tainted the country's dignity and self-esteem (sic!). Still, the new policy decides to divert these women workers to Malaysia and other Asian countries, instead.

Further, the immigration rules pertaining to business of sending workers abroad tend to be loosened up. Although less red tape may work for the good, it also has its drawbacks. Among others, it has caused a lot of young women who are promised jobs with good salary outside the country, to work as prostitutes in brothels. In 1988, Kompas, the Indonesian leading newspaper estimated 3,000 women from Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines were entrapped as forced prostitutes in Berlin. In April 1988, one Thai woman was arrested in Jakarta for recruiting young Indonesian girls for prostitution. In September 1989, 6 Balinese girls were recruited by an agency to work in a big restaurant in Japan, but they ended up working in a bar in Kanazawa, a small town in Japan, as prostitutes. In all cases, the recruiters came to Indonesia as tourists free of visa. The Indonesian girls recruited were officially stated as tourists who would make a three month visit to the country of destination.

The tendency above has been strengthened by the government's policy to boost tourism. The year 1991 is the "Visit Indonesia Year", a program by which the Indonesian government expects a large number of tourists to come to Indonesia. Among hosts of different ways prepared by the government to attract tourists to come, sex tour is one. Business in entertainment is encouraged, so that a great number of new massage parlors, bars and nightclubs have opened in major cities. The municipality of Jakarta even planned to arrange a tour package which includes visit to massage parlors in Jakarta where tourists may obtain standard and "extra" services. Other big cities in the country would undoubtedly follow suit either openly or discretely. Thus, tourism in Indonesia, as in other places in the Third World, has promoted sex industry where women are the main victims.

Types of trafficking and area of distribution

There are two most important cities in Indonesia which supply and control most of the activities in this sex business: Jakarta, the capital; and Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. Accordingly, Jakarta is the center and axis for the sex business in the western part of the country which includes Sumatra (Medan, Palembang, Lampung and others). West Kalimantan (mostly Pontianak), and Batam Islands, a new industrial zone situated around 20 kilometers southeast of Singapore. It is also the transit for girls going abroad to be put to work in brothels and bars in places like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Berlin or other major cities in Western Europe.

Surabaya supplies and caters to the needs and market demands in the eastern part of the country which covers East and South Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Ambon, Maluku and West Irian. It is also the seaport where women and girls are dispatched for Malaysia through Pagkalpinang in Sumatra and Tarakan in East Kalimantan. From Malaysia, these women may be further transported to Hong Kong and South Korea.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to determine the exact number of women sent to these faraway places either under the guise of tourists or workers since there is nothing open about these activities and the police is not quite open about data on these matters. A careful investigation needs to be done to reveal a better picture of the phenomenon.

"Most of the time these agencies are hindered in their action by the government policy which give priority to tourism and the opening of job opportunities that they tend to be insensitive to problems faced by women."

 Jakarta procures its supply from areas, mostly poor villages, in Central and West Java, while villages in East Java and Madura cater the market demands in Surabaya. In a lot of cases, young village girls aged 13-17 are recruited as domestic helpers in Jakarta and Surabaya but ended up being sold as prostitutes in brothels. Such typical case was reported by the papers December last year. Four girls (virgins) were recruited from their village in Central Java to work in a restaurant but were sold to a pimp in a brothel in south Jakarta (Jawa Pos Daily News, 13 December 1990). Another recruiter was arrested in Jakarta some months ago this year when she tried to sell the virginity of a girl for one million rupiahs (around US$550).

As the center of sex business in the west, Jakarta allocates a twenty hectare land in the northern part of the city for localization area which houses around 2,000 women prostitutes. This is not the only establishment in the city, there are four more illegal localization areas all over Jakarta. The city also provides 252 massage parlors with 7500 massage girls who are ready to give "extra service" plus 35 bars and nightclubs where sex is part of the service offered. There are around 10,000 prostitutes who are officially registered, most of which are street prostitutes and those in the localization brothels. The number must be doubled if we include those working in the massage parlors, beauty salons, bars, nightclubs, call girls, and escort girls which can be found all over those places easily.

Surabaya, the east axis boasts its localization areas as the largest in Southeast Asia. Its sex business is comparable to what Thailand is known for. Many private houses in residential areas (at least 50 private are well known) are used as brothels. There are 80 hotels in the city. many of them are openly known to provide "extra service" to their guests.

Further, exchange of stocks also occurs between the two cities, especially among the high class prostitutes.

Concerned government, non-government and other agencies

First and foremost, the government agencies that are supposed to deal closely with the problems of trafficking of women and children are the Immigration Office, the Ministry of Manpower, the State Ministry for the Role of Women, and the Ministry of Social Welfare. Most of the time these agencies are hindered in their action by the government policy which gives priority to tourism and the opening of job opportunities that they tend to be insensitive to problems faced by women.

As far as we are concerned there has not been any non-government organizations in Indonesia that focuses its activity in dealing with this problem. It is not quite clear either why such problem has been overlooked by them. Nevertheless, this should soon be the concern of NGOs especially those active in handling women issues.
So far most information on the matter can be obtained from the mass-media which, in many cases are concerned more with the sensation of the news. Yet, it is possible to tap the media for campaigning on the (problem of trafficking).

Paper presented at the Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD) Conference on Trafficking of Women and Children, 15-19 November 1990, Karachi, Pakistan.