Life is Healthy

Police officers using a scarf to protect the identity of 14-year-old ‘H’ at the Child Protection Agency in Jakarta on Wednesday. The girl lived as a domestic servant in Aceh against her will for six months. (Antara Photo)

A14-year-old girl who was abducted by traffickers and taken to Aceh nearly six months ago will finally head back home to Banjarnegara in Central Java today.

The girl, identified only as “H,” was told by a recruitment agent that she would work on the staff of a cleaning service in Pekalongan, Central Java.

“Her mother was really sick and she was offered a job at Gedung Huni in Pekalongan,” said Taufik Riswan, the secretary general of the Rights of Acehnese Children Coalition. “However, after working for three days in Pekalongan, she was brought to Jakarta to see the capital.”

In Jakarta, Taufik said H was given a pill that knocked her out. When she woke up, she was on her way to the airport to be taken to Aceh.

“She was promised a job as a domestic worker in a house, and told she would be paid Rp 300,000 per month,” he said.

However, she was never paid and was forced to work from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day.

“She was also beaten by the employer if she did not work well at the house,” he said, adding that the girl did not eat properly during her stay.

H told the Jakarta Globe, “I was exhausted, but I could not take any time to rest. My rest was only sleep at night.”

Though she was wearing a veil, a scar was visible on her forehead. According to Taufik, the girl’s employer gouged her with a knife.

H was rescued a month ago by Aceh Police after her employer’s neighbors reported what they had witnessed. She arrived at the office of the National Commission for Child Protection (KPAI) on Wednesday.

Three people have been named as suspects in this case. They are in the custody of Aceh Besar Police.

KPAI chairman Hadi Supeno said H’s case revealed a new pattern in human trafficking. “Aceh did not used to be a trafficking destination, but now we can see that underage children are trafficked to Aceh. It is hard for us now to map the illegal traffic as it has become more rampant. And we should take note that people who are involved in trafficking cases are those who are close with our children,” he said.

Zulaekha, from the Banjarnegara Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Agency, told the Jakarta Globe that H’s hometown, the village of Dukuh Selimpet in Banjarnegara, was isolated and poor and known as a source of domestic workers.

She said H’s case was an indication of the existence of a trafficking network in Banjarnegara. “If we look at her case closely, many people are involved [in the trafficking network] from ojek [motorcycle taxi] drivers to employers. This is going to be our concern as working as domestic workers is a normal thing. But we may forget that the traffickers are behind this,” she said.

The International Labor Organization estimates that 100,000 Indonesian children are trafficked overseas and domestically every year, and between 40,000 and 70,000 become the victims of sexual exploitation.

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