“I was only paid 4 million rupiah per month and had to work more than 12 hours a day, the office is guarded by armed men and sniffer dogs,” Slamet claimed.
As part of his “job”, he was tasked to manage transactions from those who participated in online gambling activities in Indonesia.
“I know the company’s bank password and pin number. I transferred around 30 million rupiah of their money to my bank account. If I had not done this, I wouldn’t be able to go home,” Slamet told CNA, adding that he is still being harassed by his former boss in Cambodia.
Last month, Director of Indonesian Citizen Protection Judha Nugraha said that Indonesia’s embassy in Phnom Penh handles about 15 to 30 reports daily of its citizens seeking help.
The Indonesian Citizen Protection is an agency within Indonesia’s foreign ministry.
Judha said that from January to November 2024, the embassy there had successfully managed more than 2,946 cases related to the protection of Indonesian citizens with more than 76 per cent of them linked to online fraud.
According to experts, Indonesians becoming victims of human trafficking through online means became a trend since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many were desperate to find jobs and became vulnerable to scams.
Observers also noticed a shift in how human trafficking cases have evolved. The perpetrators now target young people with higher education. They are also no longer sent to Middle East countries, but to other Southeast Asian nations.
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TORTURE
When Slamet expressed his dissatisfaction and asked to be sent back to Indonesia, his employer demanded a 50 million rupiah fine for his return, leaving him with no choice but to continue working there.
“There were no contractual agreements at all,” Slamet said, adding that he worked in apartment spaces rented by several gambling and online scam firms.
According to Slamet, as many as 80 per cent of those working alongside him are Indonesian citizens, including his former boss who is from North Sumatra.
Slamet worked and slept in the office and could only leave to eat or go for a smoke break. Even that was controlled by the guards, he claimed.
“If I wasn’t mentally strong at the time, I could have committed suicide.”
Responding to CNA’s queries, the Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh said that in general, most of the Indonesians who faced issues in Cambodia and had returned home were in good physical and mental health.
However, the embassy also noted that several of them were in “poor physical and psychological condition”.
A staff member from the Migrant Care advocacy organisation in Jakarta said that it has received several reports of abuse against Indonesians working in Cambodia.
“Some were handcuffed, electrocuted and beaten and the reasons for this abuse varied, such as failing to meet targets or being punished for filing complaints, among others,” Arina Widda Faradis – who works in the legal aid division at the organisation – told CNA.
This was also confirmed by Slamet who said that the online gambling companies in Cambodia would use electric guns or tasers on employees who were deemed to be incompetent at work.
“My friend told me that he was once electrocuted because he could not master the job after one week of training and if he couldn’t do it in another week, he was threatened with electrocution again,” shared Slamet.
“And if within a month he remains incompetent, he was threatened (with being moved) to Myanmar. Who knows what his fate will be if he is in Myanmar?”
Meanwhile, various cases of human trafficking have also surfaced on social media from alleged victims.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-cambodia-human-trafficking-online-crimes-syndicates-gambling-4849926
