Jakarta. The police-led human trafficking task force has already saved thousands of victims in almost two months since its establishment, according to an officer.

The police on June 5 set up a task force as more and more Indonesians get trafficked abroad to run online scams, among others. The task force claimed that they had already dealt with 722 human trafficking reports as of July 27. This is almost sixfold the reports that the police would get annually.

The human trafficking reports that the task force collected since their first day on the job mostly came from West Java Police. The cops in the highly-populated province received 86 trafficking in person reports over the said period.

"We have rescued 2,195 human trafficking victims out of those 722 reports," Aris Wibowo, an officer at the criminal investigation unit, told a media briefing in Jakarta on Friday.

"They were mostly saved by the North Kalimantan regional police, who rescued 233 victims and caught 17 suspects in a joint operation. The police also teamed up with the Malaysian authorities to catch 6 fugitives who fled to Malaysia," Aris said.

And in just two months, the task force has arrested 865 people suspected of trafficking in persons. 

According to Aris, human traffickers have varying modus operandi. One example is that the perpetrators would post fake job offers that promise high pay overseas on social media. Once they fall into their trap, the victims would work incredibly long hours in online scam centers abroad. 

Some victims even do not get an official employment contract. Aris added: “Even if they do, the contracts would be in Mandarin which the victims don't speak.”

The police said that it had already handled 85 human trafficking reports in the first five months of 2023. They caught 108 suspects and rescued 229 people over the said period. Twenty-six of those victims were children.

Last year, the police handled 133 human trafficking reports which saw a total of 668 victims.

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