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INDONESIAN officials have vowed to crack down on human trafficking after an investigation revealed that scores of girls trafficked from one of its poorest provinces have disappeared.
East Nusa Tenggara vice-governor Josef Nae Soi said police had rescued 386 people in the process of being smuggled abroad in the last two months and were stepping up checks at airports and ports.
The National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers says it has the names of over 2,600 Indonesian migrants who have died or gone missing since 2014, and that this is certainly an underestimate as it only includes those who migrated and were recruited legally. Globally, more than 60,000 migrants have disappeared since then.
Moving to wealthier countries such as neighbouring Malaysia or further afield to the Middle East to work in domestic service is common for Indonesian women, especially from poor provinces like East Nusa Tenggara, but many young girls are tricked into applying for jobs by traffickers who sell them into slavery or prostitution.
