Prevention and Handling Strategy Module for Women and Children Trafficking

The number of human trafficking victims in Indonesia reaches 1 million people per year (Sindonews 24/08/2015). With an area of approximately 1,905 million km² and 17,504 islands, Indonesia is a recruitment site, as well as a transit point and destination for forced laborers and human trafficking victims. Women and children are the most vulnerable victims in this situation.  The increasing number of victims has not been matched by efforts to handle and prevent trafficking. Equally concerning is that public awareness of the trafficking problem remains relatively low.

Since the publication of the Prevention and Handling Strategy Module on Women and Children Trafficking in 2006,  the collaborative results of the KAPAL Perempuan Institute, the Rindang Banua Association, and the Asia Foundation—USAID remain relevant in addressing these trafficking issues.  The purpose of creating this module is to raise public awareness, particularly among those in border areas,  regarding the serious issues of trafficking in women and children. These issues must be addressed with comprehensive prevention and handling strategies that involve both the government and the community.

The border area that is the focus of this module is Sanggau Regency, located in West Kalimantan Province. This regency serves as a hub for the trafficking of women and children, which is prevalent in Indonesia. Its strategic location, directly bordering Malaysia, the primary destination country for migrant workers (according to a report by the U.S. Consulate in Indonesia, 2016), it is also influenced by factors related to poverty. This poverty causes women not only to have low educational attainment but also to be positioned as the backbone of the family.

The stereotype still associated with the Sanggau community is that women must support their families, which places them in roles in which they are willing to undertake any work, including going abroad to improve their families’ economic situations. Women are also regarded as individuals who are easily swayed by flattery, foolish and unable to defend themselves. Based on these stereotypes, this module incorporates a gender justice perspective that underlies the trafficking problem, ensuring that women and children who are victims are not blamed and that the exploitation they experience is not regarded as mere foolishness or bad luck.

The method employed is a participatory approach grounded in the experiences of women and communities. This module results from the 5-day workshop “Development of Prevention and Handling Strategies for Trafficking of Women and Children in Sanggau Regency,” which is part of a series of programs aimed at preventing and addressing the trafficking of women and children in Sanggau Regency from February to December 2005. Other activities included in this program are (1) public campaigns, (2) participatory monitoring and evaluation workshops, (3) monitoring and evaluation of former workshop participants, (4) program evaluation workshops, and the publication of activity reports in the form of books and films. With the publication of this module, it is hoped that it will provide an explanation of the roots of the trafficking problem concerning women and children and encourage the development of additional modules that also address the same issue.