Scars of Trafficking: Heart-wrenching Stories from Indonesian Migrant Workers

Millions of Indonesian migrant workers went abroad to seek better opportunities, but many returned with physical and psychological scars as they fell victim to trafficking.

Although the majority of former migrant workers experienced positive economic outcomes after working abroad, according to the World Bank, Rokaya was among those who had negative experiences as migrant workers. As she needed time to recover after illness, she was forced to quit as a live-in domestic worker in Malaysia and returned home to Indramayu, West Java. However, she later forcefully accepted an offer to work in Erbil, Iraq, as her former agent demanded IDR 2 million for her initial placement in Malaysia.

In this new place, Rokaya was in charge of taking care of a family’s sprawling compound, working from 6 a.m. until after midnight, without any rest day. “I was not given any day off. I barely had time for a break,” she said. “It felt like a prison,” she said. This exhausted condition has worsened the headaches and vision problem that previously forced her to leave Malaysia. “Even in a sick condition, my host family refused to take me to the doctor. They also confiscated my mobile phone,” she added.

Unable to stand this abusive situation, Rokaya clandestinely recorded a video that went viral and reached the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI). The government then intervened to get her release. However, she says her agency illegally extracted the cost of her return airfare from her wages and – with a hand around her throat – forced her to sign a document absolving them of responsibility. She now knows better: “We need to really be careful about the information given to us because when we miss key details, we pay the price.” Rokaya is relieved to be back home but has no recourse to claim the money extorted from her. 

The hardships Rokaya endured will be familiar to the 544 Indonesian migrant workers IOM assisted between 2019 and 2022 in association with the SBMI. Many of them experienced physical, psychological and sexual abuse overseas. That caseload comes despite a moratorium Jakarta imposed on work in 21 countries in the Middle East and North Africa in 2015, following Saudi Arabia’s execution of two Indonesian maids.

It is an all-too-common situation, said SBMI’s chairman Hariyono Surwano, because victims are often reluctant to share details of their experience overseas: “They fear being seen as a failure because they went overseas to improve their financial situation but returned with money problems.”

It is not only victims’ shame that affects the slow progress of trafficking case prosecutions. Legal ambiguity and the difficulties authorities face prosecuting cases also pose obstacles, compounded by law enforcement officers sometimes blaming victims for their situation. SBMI data shows around 3,335 Indonesian victims of trafficking in the Middle East between 2015 and the middle of 2023. While most have returned to Indonesia, only 2% have been able to access justice. 

To mitigate the humanitarian impact of trafficking in person, IOM works with Indonesia’s Government to shore up the regulatory environment on labour migration; trains law enforcement to better respond to trafficking cases; and works with partners like the SBMI to protect migrant workers from exploitation – and, if necessary, repatriate them.

“Cases like Rokaya’s underscore the need for victim-centric approaches and for strengthening the protection system to prevent migrant workers from falling prey to trafficking in persons,” said Jeffrey Labovitz, IOM Chief of Mission for Indonesia.

Around 3.3 million Indonesians were employed abroad in 2021, according to Bank Indonesia, on top of more than 5 million undocumented migrant workers BP2MI estimates are overseas. More than three-quarters of Indonesian migrant labourers work low-skill jobs that can pay up to six times more than the rate at home. For those who become victims of trafficking, the experience is rarely positive.

A fisherman, Saenudin, from Java’s Thousand Islands, also shared how he experienced nightmares because of human trafficking. In 2011 he signed a contract to work on a foreign fishing vessel, hoping to give his family a better life. But at sea, he was forced to work 20-hour days hauling in nets and dividing catch and was only paid for the first three of his 24 months of grueling labour.

In December 2013, South African authorities detained the vessel off Cape Town, where it had been fishing illegally, and held Mr. Saenudin for three months before IOM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs helped him and 73 other Indonesian seafarers to repatriate. 

In the nine years since, Saenudin has been fighting to recover 21 months of missing pay, a legal battle that forced him to sell everything he owns except his house. “The struggle tore me from my family,” he said. He realizes that this long battle will not come to an end in near time, but he is persistent. “I’m willing to keep going, even if it takes forever,” he said.

From the recruitment process and pre-departure to the victim assistant programme, IOM continuously works with relevant stakeholders to eliminate cases like Rokaya and Saenudin. In 2022, IOM trained 89 judges, legal practitioners and paralegals on adjudicating trafficking-in-persons cases, including the application of child victim and gender-sensitive approaches, as well as 162 members of anti-trafficking task forces in East Nusa Tenggara and North Kalimantan provinces.