120 recruitment agencies suspected of trafficking in Jakarta

In Jakarta, Indonesia, authorities have indentified 120 recruitment agencies which may be linked to trafficking women into forced prostitution abroad. General crimes unit chief at the city police, Sr. Comr. Moh. Jaelani, said that they were investigating the agencies;
“We want to make sure that all of them obey the regulations so that our women migrant workers are not duped into prostitution abroad. We have many examples of how recruitment agencies lure young women and send them abroad as sex workers,” he said.
The owner of one such agency and its director have already been arrested, accused of trafficking 58 women into forced prostitution in Japan. The women were promised jobs as arts and cultural representatives by the labour agency PT Mediaseni Indonesia, but were allegedly forced into sex work on arrival. Two of the women managed to escape and it is their testimonies which lead to the arrest of the recruitment agency director and owner. 16 of the other women have been rescued so far.