Last Thursday night, members of the Jakarta Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit’s Women and Children’s Sub-Directorate raided a house in Taman Sari, West Jakarta, that authorities say was being used to house victims of human trafficking – specifically 18 women who were being forced to work as prostitutes.
The director general of Criminal Investigations at the Jakarta Police, Commissioner Krishna Murti, said the women came from several different regions.
“Most came from outside Jakarta,” he told Tempo on Saturday.
Krishna said the raid also resulted in the arrest of a 35-year-old man identified as DAM, who police say was in charge of keeping the women in the house.
From DAM’s statements, Krishna said, police learned the women were brought to Jakarta to work off debts owed by their parents.
According to DAM’s testimony, the women’s parents each had a lot of debt and had made agreements for their children to work off their debts. But he said the parents were not told the truth about what exactly their daughters would be doing to earn that money.
Police say the woman were employed as workers at a karaoke and instructed to provide customers with extra services in order to pay off their parents’ debts.
In addition to DAM, police are still pursuing two “mami” involved in prostituting the women. Police are questioning witnesses in the case, including a driver that helped transport the women.
Done reading? Kick back and watch Coconuts TV!
Reader Interactions