Jakarta. ASEAN is witnessing its citizens getting trafficked from one member state to another, and the bloc’s secretary-general Kao Kim Hourn recently assured that the group is not only standing still.

In 2015, ASEAN leaders inked a legally-binding convention against trafficking in persons, especially women and children. The group wrapped up its recent summit in Labuan Bajo with a leaders’ declaration on combating human trafficking, particularly those that involve the abuse of technology. These documents show how deeply concerned the ASEAN leaders were about human trafficking, according to Kao.

“We need to tackle [human trafficking] as part of transnational crimes. We have to look at it as a region because we want to make sure that we tackle this issue collectively, more effectively, to really address [the problem],” Kao told B-Universe on the sidelines of think tank ERIA’s 15th-anniversary reception in Jakarta.

The Labuan Bajo joint declaration stated that the regional grouping should work on, among others, identifying and addressing the legal framework and system gaps. The four-page document spoke of having the legal frameworks and systems keep pace with technological changes.

“It is important for law enforcement to have the legal framework in place. … I believe they have been working on it together,” Kao said.

“Moving forward, they are going to work together in regards to information sharing, … but also best practices and knowledge on how to really address this issue in ASEAN as a whole. Both collectively, but also individually as well,” he said.

ASEAN chair Indonesia is seeing many of its citizens falling prey to fraudulent job offers and end up being trafficked to other Southeast Asian countries such as the conflict-struck Myanmar. Perpetrators would lure their victims with well-paying jobs and later have them work as cyber scammers. 

The police not long ago caught two suspects, Andri Satria Nugraha and Anita Setia Dewi, who were involved in the trafficking of 20 Indonesians to Myanmar. These two had recruited 16 of the victims, and now the police are on the hunt for possible human trafficking networks tied to the case. The police have teamed up with anti-money laundering agency PPATK to trace financial transactions in hopes to track down the illegal syndicates, Beritasatu reported.

And as human trafficking remains rampant, the police have formed a special task force to combat the heinous crime.

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