Country Report: Indonesia

Already a profitable industry, the human trafficking of women and children in Indonesia has been boosted by the chaos following the 2004 tsunami.

A Victim’s Story

In December of 2004, when the tsunami struck the shores of Indonesia and Sumatra, an 18 year-old girl was having a picnic at the beach with her family. As the huge waves sent her and her relatives out to sea, killing fourteen of her family members, she was rescued by a man. “He told me to take his hand, that he will save me,” she remembers. But the man rescued her from the waves only to rape her and later leave her in a truck along with the injured and the dead.

This girl’s story is not dissimilar to those of the hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents orphaned by the tsunami. Without home or family, they are subject to the abuse of strangers who offer help, and they are the prime victims of human traffickers who are only too eager to take advantage of an already desperate situation.

Country Background

Indonesia is a Southeast Asian archipelago located between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean with more than 245 million inhabitants. Colonized by the Dutch beginning in the 17th century, Indonesia was occupied by Japan from 1942 until Japan’s surrender in 1945. The islands of Indonesia declared their independence in 1949 after four years of negotiations. The largest archipelagic state, Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population and has been ravaged by civil feuding for decades, especially in the Aceh region.

In December 2004, an Indian Ocean tsunami took over 131,000 lives, leaving another 37,000 missing, 570,000 displaced, and rendering over $4.5 billion in losses and damage. The devastation of the tsunami has only added to the problems of a floundering economy, low employment rates, and the vast humanitarian issues existing in Indonesia today.

Causes of Slavery

For decades, violence and political conflict have displaced and traumatized women and children in Indonesia. A thriving trafficking network involves the exploitation of migrant workers and child laborers nationwide and internationally. With the trauma of frequent natural disasters such as earthquakes, and the recent devastation of the 2004 tsunami, orphaned and displaced children have become easy targets for human traffickers, contributing to flourishing child sex and labor networks. Constant demands for children and young women in Asia’s popular sex industries keep vulnerable women and children the objects of deception and outright abduction into sex slavery.

The Process of Enslavement

From the onset of the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, illegal adoption rings and human trafficking networks have grown rampant in affected areas of Indonesia. While traffickers feed off of the poverty, despair, and chaos often found in Asia, Indonesia hosts a wide array of desperate and vulnerable children and young adults made further accessible by natural disaster. Many children orphaned by the tsunami were abducted by strangers, forced into illegal adoption arrangements, or simply trafficked out of Indonesia. Poor documentation and lack of birth registration in the impoverished regions affected by the tsunami contribute to the rising chaos of undocumented infants and children without families. These children, with no families and no protection from the government, are driven into the profitable and successful international trafficking of forced laborers and sex workers to other parts of Asia and Europe.

Response on the Ground

The Indonesian Social Welfare Ministry has been working to set up shelters for displaced and orphaned children, documenting them, and setting up legal adoption arrangements. Recently, Indonesia’s government implemented a law prohibiting the removal of any children under the age of 16 from the country following a surge in kidnappings for the sex trade.

More Information

Tsunami Children Lost, Vulnerable »

Return to Slavery in Asia