The Role of Local Government in Prevention of Human Trafficking

Required from Bureau Cultural Legal Aspects: A Case in Sambas

District, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Jamiat Akadol

Institut Agama Islam Sultan Muhammad Syafiuddin Sambas

Keywords: Local Government, Human Trafficking, Prevention, Bureau Cultural, Legal Aspects.

Abstract: The most crucial issue in entering the 2015 AEC was the problem of human trafficking within the territory

of ASEAN countries. It is an act of recruiting, transporting, sheltering, shipping, transferring or receiving a

person with threats of violence, the use of force, abduction, capture, falsification, fraud, abuse of power of

vulnerable positions, debt bondage or payment or benefit, to gain control of the person, whether committed

within the state or between countries for the purpose of exploitation or exploitation of the persons. Thus,

human trafficking is an act of exploiting humans for treating people not as human beings. If left unchecked,

it will harm various aspects, either economic aspects, humanitarian aspects, social, political, legal or human

rights violations. It is also one of the worst forms of violation of human dignity and prestige. This is evident

from very few peoples reports on trafficking, but when repatriation of Indonesians who work illegally in

Malaysia (illegal migrants according to Malaysian security officials) is proved to be a great deal coming

from Sambas District. According to an official report by the Womens Empowerment and Family Planning

Office of Sambas District, the case of trafficking of persons from Sambas District tends to increase, which

are 17 cases (2011), 16 cases (2012), 18 cases (2013), and 39 cases (2014) and 1st year 2015 has reached 16

cases. The community usually reports to the local government and police officers if something has

happened that resulted in the death of the victim (sick) or of being killed abroad.

1 INTRODUCTION

In The year 2015 was the hardest year for the

government of president Joko Widodo and Yusuf

Kala which just entered a year of their

administration due to the global economic impact, in

which the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar

continues to decline, even close to Rp. 15.000,00 per

US $ 1. On the other hand, there was an opportunity

for improvement of the Indonesian economy

because in 2015 Southeast Asia countries had

ratified an agreement to build an integrated region in

the field of economy known as the ASEAN

Economic Community (AEC).

It is said as an opportunity because many people

consider AEC as a great opportunity to promote the

regional economy, one of which is the statement of

East Java governor who actually sees AEC as an

opportunity not a threat. Although many observers

doubt Indonesia's readiness to enter the 2015 AEC.

2 TRAFFICKING AS A THREAT

TO ASEAN

The most crucial issue in entering the 2015 AEC

was the problem of human trafficking within the

territory of ASEAN countries. It is an act of

recruiting, transporting, sheltering, shipping,

transferring or receiving a person with threats of

violence, the use of force, abduction, capture,

falsification, fraud, abuse of power of vulnerable

positions, debt bondage or payment or benefit, to

gain control of the person, whether committed

within the state or between countries for the purpose

of exploitation or exploitation of the persons. Thus,

human trafficking is an act of exploiting humans for

treating people not as human beings. If left

unchecked, it will harm various aspects, either

economic aspects, humanitarian aspects, social,

political, legal or human rights violations. It is also

one of the worst forms of violation of human dignity

and prestige.

Akadol, J.

The Role of Local Government in Prevention of Human Trafﬁcking Required from Bureau Cultural Legal Aspects: A Case in Sambas District, West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0009022500002297

In Proceedings of the Borneo International Conference on Education and Social Sciences (BICESS 2018), pages 453-457

ISBN: 978-989-758-470-1

453

The International Organization for Migration

(IOM) predicts that around 43 to 50 percent or

approximately three to five million Indonesians

abroad are victims of trafficking and come from

various regions, mainly from Java, West

Kalimantan, Lampung, North Sumatra and South

Sumatra. Recognizing the urgency of preventing

and combating human trafficking, the Indonesian

government established Act Number 21 of 2007 on

Combating Human Trafficking. Furthermore, it is

mandated in the article 57 paragraph (1) that the

government; local governments, communities, and

families shall prevent the commission of human

trafficking. To do so, it is requested that the

government and local governments develop policies,

program activities, and allocate budgets to carry out

the prevention and handling of the trafficking issues.

Then under the article 58, the government and

regional governments are obliged to form task forces

composed of representatives from the government,

law enforcement, community organizations, non-

governmental organizations, professional

organizations, and researchers/ academics. The task

force is a coordinating agency in charge of:

1. Coordinating the prevention and handling of

human trafficking;

2. Conducting advocacy, socialization, training and

cooperation;

3. Conitoring the development of the

implementation of victim protection including

rehabilitation, repatriation and social

reintegration;

4. Monitoring the progress of enforcement and

implementation;

5. Implementing reporting and evaluation.

Public participation is expected in the prevention

and handling of victims of human trafficking which

are manifested in providing information and/ or

reporting of human trafficking to the law

enforcement or authorities or participating in the

handling of victims of human trafficking. In return

of the community's participation, the government

gives the public legal protection.

The local government of West Kalimantan and

the Sambas regency government are adjacent to

neighboring Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah), Brunei

Darussalam, and Singapore are the most potential

border areas of origin as well as transit areas for

trafficking. There are several possible causes of

human trafficking in the border areas of West

Kalimantan and Sarawak-Malaysia. First, the

economic gap which can be seen from Gross

Domestic Product (GDP) or in Indonesia is better

known as Gross Regional Domestic Product

(GRDP) between West Kalimantan, Sarawak and

Brunei Darussalam. The GDP of West Kalimantan is

relatively very small, only 0.32% of Indonesia's

GDP or only ranks 21st out of 33 provinces in

Indonesia. Meanwhile Sarawak’s GDP is almost 9

times higher than that of West Kalimantan and that

of Brunei Darussalam which is almost 43 times the

GDP per capita of West Kalimantan. Secondly,

culturally and ethnically, West Kalimantan,

Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei Darussalam have a very

strong linkage. Many Indonesian citizens live in the

neighboring country for work or marriage reasons.

There are fewer formal workers in neighboring

countries (especially in Malaysia) than the informal

ones who are registered on immigration records

since they come to the country as travelers doing

part-time jobs. Based on the records of the National

Agency for the Placement and Protection of

Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), the

numbers of formal workers from Sambas Regency

working in Malaysia are: 76 in 2008, 442 in 2009,

2,151 in 2010, 825 in 2011, 821 in 2012, 5,577 in

2013 and 2,639 in 2014. In comparison, the

population record of Sambas Regency based on

statistical data from BPS of Sambas regency in 2015

was recorded at 515,572 people, while the records

from the Population and Civil Registry Agency used

as the basis for determination of Identity Card and

Temporary List of Voters was 627,432 people in the

first half of 2015. Although the differences in the

population data cannot be ascertained that all of

them work in Malaysia and in other ASEAN

countries because they have not been recorded by

Sambas regency government, but it is believed that

some of them are informal workers without the

provisions applicable as workers in other countries.

Referring to the opinion of IOM above, it is

estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 of Sambas District

residents work as illegal workers abroad. This

estimate is often conveyed by former Sambas

Regent (Burhanuddin A. Rashid) in an International

seminar on August 1, 2015 in Sambas. Third, there

is an assumption that public participation in the

prevention of trafficking practices in border areas

(Sambas - Malaysia) is very low. This is evident

because there are very few people's reports on

trafficking. However, when there is repatriation of

Indonesians who work illegally in Malaysia (illegal

migrants according to Malaysian security officials),

it is proven that there are a great number of people

coming from Sambas District. Based on the official

report by the Board for Woman Empowerment and

Family Planning of Sambas district, trafficking cases

from the district tend to increase, which were 17

BICESS 2018 - Borneo International Conference On Education And Social

454

cases in 2011, 16 in 2012, 18 in 2013, and 39 in

2014 and the first half of 2015 it has reached 16

cases. The community usually reports to the local

government and police officers if something has

happened that resulted in the death of the victim(s)

due to illness or being killed abroad. They (the

illegal workers from Sambas District) deliberately

did not report to the security apparatus either in

Indonesia or in Malaysia, among others, because

they work illegally who are always intimidated with

harsh words that they will be reported to the

Malaysian police if they report their existence. On

the other hand, they are often treated inhumanely,

among others, they do not get salary since the

employers told them that the salary is collected or

saved by the company. Meanwhile, their passports

are held by the company and in many cases that

happened the company deliberately do so in order to

gain big profit because after the illegal workers work

for so long, the company then intentionally reported

them to the Malaysian police that they are illegal

workers. Therefore, when there is an unannounced

police raid, the workers run and leave their salaries

and passports behind. Is it not the act of modern

slavery? Upon arriving in Indonesia (through the

secret passages), they are afraid or perhaps feel

unnecessary to report it to the police because even if

it is reported they will not be able to process the case

because their case took place in another country, and

so on. The government officials (government

bureaucracy) such as police, immigration officers

and even local government officials know about the

slavery but cannot do much and even tend to blame

the people who are willing to be treated as slaves by

Malaysian businessmen. As members of the task

force, the officers’ main task is simply to sensitize

the public to not become the object of human

trafficking, and not to find a way out to overcome

major problems of the society, like poverty and

ignorance. According to Aminuddin Ilmar the

government should not solve problems after they

happened but their functions and tasks must be more

than that, namely how to find out the source of the

problem in order to able to parse the problems so

that they are not recurring.

Indonesia's Human Development Index (HDI) in

2013 was recorded in 121st from 187 countries.

Meanwhile, West Kalimantan province is ranked

28th from 34 provinces in Indonesia and Sambas

regency is ranked 14th from 14 districts/ cities in

West Kalimantan. From this data, it can be said that

the HDI of province of West Kalimantan and

Sambas especially is low which means that the

population is poor, low educated and the public

health status is low. It is believed that the poverty

and ignorance are the main causes of trafficking in

West Kalimantan. Therefore, whatever attempt to

tackle human trafficking will not succeed because

the people will keep working abroad to try their

luck, although illegally with the risk of being

imprisoned in Malaysia, because it is expensive and

involves convoluted fees and many requirements

that are certainly difficult to meet by such unskilled

workers if they try to be legal migrant workers. If

this condition continues to be ignored, the state is

said to fail in realizing the ideals of the prosperity

for the people as set forth in the 1945 Constitution.

The people’s dissatisfaction people in many

countries to their government is rooted in the

problem of poverty, and the corrupt behavior of the

government apparatus.

Meanwhile, the behavior of the apparatus is

based only on a legalistic-normative view in which

what he has done to the society has always been

considered to be in compliance with the applicable

regulations. The law enforcement is interpreted only

to apply what is in the applicable legislation. The

law perspective of the apparatus (bureaucracy) is

referred by Friedman as the legal culture. He further

explains that, "legal culture refers then to those parts

of general culture-customs, opinions, ways of doing

and thinking that bend social forces toward or away

from the law and in particular ways. The term

roughly describes attitudes about law. The current

law enforcement culture in this beloved country is a

liberal one, which is oriented towards individual

interests that are inconsistent with the collective

culture of Indonesia society. The law is for man, not

vice versa. Therefore, the law that is applicable

should be the law that makes people happy

(prosperous). The apparatus (government

bureaucracy) should not see the society as the object

of law which must be subject to the prevailing laws

and regulations (as a consequence of the rule of law)

if the law does not favor the interests of the people,

especially the poor and those left behind like in

border areas of Indonesia and Malaysia. They also

need to recognize and realize in their everyday

actions that the society as the citizens who should be

served and treated as human beings and not as

production tools.

In this regard, the bureaucratic apparatus should

act as public servants in socializing various laws and

regulations, as well as listening to the complaints and

aspirations of the people. Thus, when there is a

trafficking case, they do not directly impose

sanctions in accordance with the laws and

regulations. It is the duty of the government to

The Role of Local Government in Prevention of Human Trafﬁcking Required from Bureau Cultural Legal Aspects: A Case in Sambas

District, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

455

protect its citizens wherever they may be. In other

words, if there are many citizens seeking

employment abroad as illegal workers who are

treated as slaves, the government must not blame

them. They do it because they are poor, stupid and

have no skills. They still have self-esteem as citizens

of Indonesia, still have a conscience because they

still want to work (not corrupt nor rob), even if they

have work in another country (because there are no

good and prospering jobs available in their own

country).

3 THE ROLE OF LOCAL

GOVERNMENT INI

PREVENTING HUMAN

TRAFFICKING

Based on the mandate in Act No. 21 of 2007 on the

Eradication of the Criminal Act of Human

trafficking, both the Provincial Government of West

Kalimantan and the Sambas Regency Government

have made regional policies in the form of regional

regulations namely West Kalimantan Provincial

Regulation No. 7 of 2007 on the Prevention and

Eradication of Human trafficking, especially women

and children who are followed up with Sambas

District Regulation No. 3 of 2015 on the Prevention

and Handling of Victims of Human trafficking. The

local regulation asserts that local governments and

communities are obliged to prevent human

trafficking. Prevention of trafficking is done through:

mapping human trafficking issues; program planning

and budget allocation for prevention and handling of

human trafficking; disseminating communication,

information and education (CIE) with regard to the

prevention of human trafficking; socializing and

campaigning in the prevention of human trafficking;

encouraging the integration of the issue of criminal

human trafficking into the learning process in formal

and non-formal education; provide education and

training life skills for the community; establishing a

communications-based supervision and protection

mechanism against human trafficking; and

institutional capacity building.

Meanwhile, efforts to prevent human trafficking

as regulated in West Kalimantan Provincial

Regulation No. 7 of 2007 regulate among others:

that worker wishing to work outside their regions or

abroad are obliged to report to the head of villages/

lurahs, the head of sub-districts and regents/ mayors;

that children are prohibited to be workers either

outside the region or abroad, except for art workers,

regional ambassadors and mild workers; that

Indonesian labor service providers (PJTKI) are

required to educate prospective migrant labors

before being departed outside the region and abroad.

These two Regional Regulations seem to be

sufficient to serve as the guidelines for the

prevention of human trafficking in West

Kalimantan. However, we still, in fact, found human

trafficking cases which tend to increase each year. It

is necessary that there be real efforts to prevent

human trafficking, namely: first, the improvement of

bureaucratic work culture by actualizing service

culture, i.e. the bureaucracy is the servant of society.

According to Denhardt and Denhardt in the

framework of public service, the public officials

ought to be well aware that the public interest is the

result of public dialogue, not a collection of

individual wishes, and public services are aimed at

serving the citizens not customers. Therefore, the

public officials when serving and acting for the

public’s benefit are accountable for the citizens or

community groups. This practice is based on the

applicable legislation, values living in the society,

political norms, professional standards and public

interest. Thus, the paradigm developed so far with

respect to the role and function of government in

which only the government who can administer

governance without the involvement of the

stakeholders will only produce a service as it is. In a

sense, the existence of government is merely to carry

out its respective matters (as a facilitator) without

ever understanding the demands of aspirations and

the increasing importance and necessity of the

community is a failed government. Suing a state for

not carrying out its constitutional obligations is a

constitutional act.

Second, in order to formulate the action plan as

the implementation of the mandate of the regional

regulation, it is important to review the background

of the problem of why human trafficking takes place

in the border area of West Kalimantan, especially in

Sambas District. By knowing the background of the

problem, it is expected that the government can find

permanent ways to prevent human trafficking.

Uneducated and poor people are relatively easy to be

lured and promised with good jobs and earnings

because they want to get out of the poverty they

have been feeling, whereas in developed countries

like Malaysia, unskilled labors are definitely not

accepted, even for menial works. Moreover, those

unskilled or uneducated workers are certainly not

able to speak foreign languages. The action plan that

will be made ought to cover various causes of

human trafficking. This means, in order to prevent

the criminal acts of trafficking from taking place we

BICESS 2018 - Borneo International Conference On Education And Social

456

should examine the cases from various aspects, such

as economic aspects (especially poverty), skills

aspects (education and technical and communication

skills), etc. to clarify the problems and to achieve

clearer ways to overcome them.

Thirdly, the socialization of regulations on

human trafficking crimes must be done because it is

expected that it can make the public know what is

regulated (prohibited or authorized) in the

regulation. It is also expected, through the

socialization, that the public grow awareness to try

to prevent trafficking crimes from taking place.

When our prevention efforts are not synchronized

with that of our neighboring countries, it is difficult

to combat human trafficking. Therefore, there must

be an intensive communication between neighboring

countries to solve cases of human trafficking, for

example, by including it in one of the Sosek-

Malindo agreement items, which so far has been a

forum for economic cooperation discussions. In

addition, we can stabilize the ASEAN Convention

on Human Trafficking Forum which was formed in

2011 whose member, at present, have agreed that

human trafficking is one of the crime forms that

cannot be solved by a country individually but by a

collection of countries. There is an urgency for real

actions as what have been done by the government

of the Republic of Indonesia and the United Arab

Emirates that agreed to combat human trafficking.

The agreement consists of three items of

cooperation, namely: law enforcement to prevent

trafficking through early detection, investigation and

prosecution; protection, rehabilitation and assistance

including repatriation of the trafficking victims; and

capacity building and preventive measures.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Human trafficking today is so difficult to overcome

because it is complicated by problems of poverty

and ignorance happening in our beloved country. It

is worsened with strong liberalism and capitalism

which are found in the land of Pancasila that is said

to be communalism. Humans are considered as a

tradable means of production like in the era of

slavery.

The government apparatus (bureaucracy) is

considered successful if it has implemented the

applicable legislation, even though the laws and

regulations do not side with the people. The term

"public servant" is only on paper. It does not go deep

into the real public interest. The discretion given by

the legislations is only a figment. When dealing with

the law, the legalistic-normative will prevail.

Therefore, it is necessary to increase the role of

bureaucracy, especially those in outer regions in the

framework of preventing criminal acts, especially

that of human trafficking. This was done in response

to a change of government paradigm, i.e.

bureaucracy as the public servants..

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The Role of Local Government in Prevention of Human Trafﬁcking Required from Bureau Cultural Legal Aspects: A Case in Sambas

District, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

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