JAKARTA - Police in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province have foiled an attempt to traffic 26 undocumented workers to Malaysia and arrested three suspected traffickers, authorities said.
The group, comprising 18 men and eight women, was rescued in a raid last Friday by officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) in Deli Serdang.
"The three suspects will be detained for the next 20 days," the department’s director Commissioner Sumaryono said in a statement.
Preliminary investigations revealed the workers had been promised employment as domestic helpers, factory workers and plantation labourers, with a promised monthly wage of RM1,500 (around 5.7 million rupiah).
The migrants hailed from several provinces, including 12 from East Nusa Tenggara, seven from Aceh, two each from West Nusa Tenggara and North Sumatra, and one each from Central Java, East Java and Riau.
"Each of them paid five million rupiah to the syndicate. The plan was to smuggle them to Malaysia by barge," Sumaryono said.
Before their planned departure, the group had been temporarily housed in Tumpatan village, Batang Kuis sub-district, after arriving from their home regions.
The 26 individuals have since been handed over to the North Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency (BP3MI).
The three suspects are being investigated under Indonesia’s 2007 anti-human trafficking law and the 2017 law on migrant worker protection, and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. - BERNAMA