The Impact of the Moratorium of Indonesian Migrant Workers ...

RESEARCH REPORT

THE IMPACT OF THE MORATORIUM OF INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS PLACEMENT ON SOCIETY ATTITUDES TOWARDS HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN

EAST NUSA TENGGARA

Zero Human Trafficking Network Research Task Force Migrant CARE – Mensen met een Missie, The Haque, Netherlands

2020

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Research Report:

The Impact of the Moratorium of Indonesian Migrant Workers

Placement on Society Attitudes Towards Human Trafficking in East

Nusa Tenggara

Writers and Data Processing Team: Retno Agustin

Meifita Handayani

Yovi Arista

Zulyani Evi

Research Manager:

Mulyadi

Critical Reader:

Wahyu Susilo

Research Consultant:

Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat

Person in Charge:

Agus Duka SVD

Research Partners:

IRGSC Kupang, TRUK-F Maumere, JPIC Rumah Perlindungan Perempuan dan Anak SSpS

Flores Barat, Gereja Masehi Injili di Timor (GMIT), Rumah Harapan, Yayasan DIAN/ Interfidei.

Migrant CARE © 2020

Jl. Jatipadang I No. 5A, Jati Padang, Pasar Minggu,

South Jakarta,Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 12540

Website: migrantcare.net

E-mail: [email protected]

This research was conducted by the Zero Human Trafficking Network (ZHTN) Research

Task Force in which Migrant CARE was the conductor and research coordinator with the

support of Mensen met een Missie, The Haque, Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... 1 List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1: Preliminary ............................................................................................................ 4

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 4 Research Questions ............................................................................................................... 6 Research Objectives and Benefits ......................................................................................... 6 Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 7

a. Research Approach .................................................................................................... 7

b. Research SItes ............................................................................................................ 7

c. Data Collection ............................................................................................................ 7

d. Instrument Test Results .............................................................................................. 9

e. Data Triangulation .................................................................................................... 10

f. Research Limitations ................................................................................................. 10

Literature Reviews................................................................................................................ 11 a. Human Trafficking ..................................................................................................... 11

b. Labor Migration Policy and Governance .................................................................. 12

c. Migrant Worker Moratorium ...................................................................................... 14

Chapter 2: Regional Overview.............................................................................................. 20 Socio-Economy and Infrastructure ...................................................................................... 20 Locally-Generated Revenue ................................................................................................ 22 Poverty ................................................................................................................................. 23 Social and Customary Contexts........................................................................................... 25 Employment ......................................................................................................................... 27

Employment Situation in NTT and in 3 Regions .............................................................. 27

Human Trafficking in NTT and in 3 Regions .................................................................... 30

Chapter 2 Summary ............................................................................................................. 32 Chapter 3:Results of the Survey of Community Attitudes in Three Districts ................ 34

Respondents Profile ............................................................................................................. 34 Society Attitude Toward Human Trafficking ........................................................................ 37

Cognitive Aspects ............................................................................................................. 41

Affective Aspects .............................................................................................................. 45

Behavioral Aspects ........................................................................................................... 46

Analysis between Variables and Clusters ........................................................................... 48 Cluster Analysis ................................................................................................................ 50

Chapter 3 Summary ............................................................................................................. 53 Chapter 4: General Patterns of Human Trafficking in the Moratorium Period ............... 55

Migration, Remittances, and Moratorium ............................................................................. 55 Moratorium and Governance Improvement, Are They Really Connected? ........................ 58 Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Risky Migration, and Moratorium ................................... 61

The Victims, and Society's Attitude to Human Trafficking ............................................... 62

Old Strategy Modes and Kinship Pathways ..................................................................... 65

New Strategy Modes ........................................................................................................ 67

Society Attitudes and Human Trafficking during the Moratorium Period ............................ 69 Chapter 4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 69

Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................................... 73 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 74 Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 78

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 82 List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... 85 List of Charts .......................................................................................................................... 85

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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Praise be to God Almighty for the completion of this research report. As "joint program", this

research is a follow-up to the meeting of the Zero Human Trafficking Network (ZHTN) Task

Force at Wisma Samadi, Jakarta Archdiocese, 10 - 11 September 2020. In addition to

agreeing on the formation of a Research Task Force, this meeting also produced

recommendations for research themes on the impact of the temporary terminal (moratorium)

policy on Indonesian migrant workers abroad on the situation of human trafficking in the East

Nusa Tenggara Province. This research began in January 2020 and was dormant for several

months due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On behalf of the Research Task Force Coordinator, Zero Human Trafficking Network (ZHTN),

we would like to thank Nienke Vierstra (Mensen met een Missie, NL) for the input on the

substance, methodology, and support of this research. Thank you also to Fr. Paul Rahmat,

Fr. Agus Duka (VIVAT Indonesia), Pdt. Emmy Sahertian (GMIT), Pdt. Elga Sarapung

(DIAN/Interfidei Foundation), Sr. Estochia Monika Nata (TRUK F Maumere), Sr. Maria

Yosephina Pahlawati (JPIC SSPS West Flores), Pius Rengka (VOX East Nusa Tenggara)

which has helped enrich ideas, as well as helped deepen information to support the

implementation of research in the field. Thank you to Yohanes Victor Lasi Usbobo (Institute of

Resource Governance and Social Change/IRGSC) who organized the survey and facilitated

the FGD in Kupang city. Enumerator friends for Kupang; Yanny, Sri, Decky, Dida, Arys, Merlin,

Even. Enumerator friends for Sikka Regency; Maria Theresia Y. Helfi, Y. Dafrosa, Yano,

Elisabet Istilca, Maria Dortina, Elisabet Bestyana, Sr. Fanti, Yulianto Valentino, Muche

Bakang, and Fransiskus Gunadi. Enumerators from West Manggarai Regency; Itho Umar,

Ningsih, Indah Sega, Wahyu, Vincent, Nesty, Koko Candra, Milano, Afry Magung, and Tilde,

thank you for your hard work in supporting the field survey.

Thank you Fr. Ignas Ledot - Puslit Candraditya Maumere and Dr. Max Regus Unika Santo

Paulus Ruteng for his FGD facilitation in Sikka Regency and West Manggarai Regency. Our

appreciation and gratitude also extend to all parties, stakeholders from the village government,

regency/city governments, provincial governments, law enforcers, and civil society in East

Nusa Tenggara Province who are involved in the process of extracting information and

supporting the smooth running of research.

To the Migrant CARE Research Team, Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat, Wahyu Susilo, Retno Agustin,

Meifita Handayani, Yovi Arista, Zulyani Evi, Twenty Aprilia, thank you for your cooperation so

that all stages of this research can be completed.

Jakarta, December 6, 2020

Mulyadi

Research Task Force Coordinator- ZHTN

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations Full Form English Translation

APBN Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Negara

State Budget

APBD Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Daerah

Local Government Budget

Bappenas Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Nasional

National Development Planning Agency

BLK Balai Latihan Kerja Work Training Center

BLKLN Balai Latihan Kerja Luar Negeri Overseas Work Training Center

BP2MI Badan Pelindungan Pekerja Migran Indonesia

Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency

BP3TKI Balai Pelayanan Penempatan dan Perlindungan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia. *Sekarang diganti menjadi UPT BP2MI (Unit Pelaksana Teknis Badan Pelindungan Pekerja Migran Indonesia)

Indonesian Worker Placement and Protection Service Center [Now changed to UPT BP2MI (Technical Implementation Unit of Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency)]

BPJS Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial Social Security Administrator

BPS Badan Pusat Statistik Central Bureau of Statistics

CPMI Calon Pekerja Migran Indonesia Prospective Indonesian Migrant Workers

FGD Focus Group Discussion Focus Group Discussion

GIC GrowthIncidenceCurve Growth Incidence Curve

IOM International Organization for Migration International Organization for Migration

IPG Indeks Pembangunan Gender Gender Development Index

IPM Indeks Pembangunan Manusia Human Development Index

IRGSC Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change

Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change

KDRT Kekerasan Dalam Rumah Tangga Domestic Violence

LTKM Laporan Transaksi Keuangan Mencurigakan

Suspicious Financial Transaction Reports

LTSA Layanan Terpadu Satu Atap One-Stop Integrated Services

MP3EI Masterplan Percepatan dan Perluasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Indonesia

Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development

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NTT Nusa Tenggara Timur East Nusa Tenggara

P3MI Perusahaan Penempatan Pekerja Migran Indonesia

Indonesian Migrant Worker Placement Company

PAD Pendapatan Asli Daerah Locally-generated Revenue

Permenaker Peraturan Menteri Ketenagakerjaan Minister of Manpower Regulation

PMI Pekerja Migran Indonesia Indonesian Migrant Workers

Polda Kepolisian Daerah Regional Police

PPATK Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisis Transaksi Keuangan

Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center

SD Sekolah Dasar Elementary School

SMA Sekolah Menengah Atas Senior High School

SMP Sekolah Menengah Pertama Junior High school

TPPO Tindak Pidana Perdagangan Orang Criminal Act of Human Trafficking

TPT Tingkat Pengangguran Terbuka Open Unemployment Rate

TRUK-F Tim Relawan Untuk Kemanusiaan Flores

Volunteer Team for Humanity in Flores

TTS Timor Tengah Selatan South Central Timor

UNODC United Nation Organizationo nDrugs and Crime

United Nation Organization on Drugs and Crime

USAID United States Agency for International Development

United States Agency for International Development

UU PPMI Undang-undang tentang Pelindungan Pekerja Migran Indonesia

Law on the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers

UU PPTKILN Undang-undang tentang Penempatan dan Perlindungan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia di Luar Negeri

Law on the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Abroad

UU PTPPO Undang-undang tentang Pemberantasan Tindak Pidana Perdagangan Orang

Law on the Eradication of the Crime of Human Trafficking

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CHAPTER 1:

PRELIMINARY

Introduction In the dynamics of the global economy, labor migration - in at least the last two decades - has

become one of the most significant motors of the world economy. The volume of remittances

flowing has even exceeded the total ODA (Official Development Assistance) and FDI (Foreign

Direct Investment).

Likewise in Indonesia, labor migration is one of the work sectors that is still relied on as an

economic driver. Demographics of the migrant labor force indicate an increase in the number

of migrant workers over time. Processed documentation of BP2MI (Indonesian Migrant Worker

Protection Agency) shows a growth in the mobility of placement of migrant workers from

Indonesia by 1.1% per year, in the 2017-2019 period (Migrant CARE, 2020).

In the World Migration Report 2020 released by IOM at the end of 2019, it was stated that

Indonesia is in the top 10 countries receiving remittances from its migrant workers. Thus, labor

migration encourages financial remittances which further contribute to Indonesia's GDP. On a

micro-level, labor migration also has the opportunity to increase the income of migrant workers

at the individual, community, and household levels. The economic benefits of growing labor

migration have been, even, recognized by countries and entities that focus on migration,

economic, and development issues.

In fact, the strategic models and economic benefits of labor migration tend to be recognized

only on a macro-level and partially. On the other hand, at the micro-level, such as at the

individual level, migrant workers are faced with various dimensions of vulnerability. This

vulnerability is in the form of problems that intersect with the fulfillment of rights as workers,

rights as citizens, to human rights, or as individuals who need protection from the state.

However, what deserves mutual attention is that this vulnerability originates from structural

challenges and constraints.

Migrant CARE (2020) in a study of various cases it advocates found that old problems are still

experienced by migrant workers, such as undocumented migration, fraud, and work contracts.

The relationship between migration and human trafficking also tends to increase in the 2017-

2019 period, precisely in the span of the policy period for the enforcement of the moratorium

on migrant workers issued by the NTT Provincial Government.

The close relationship of problems faced by Indonesian migrant workers with organized crime,

one of which is human trafficking, has been under the spotlight of various parties from local to

international levels. In the Trafficking in Persons Report, Indonesia is categorized into the

position of Tier 2, provided that there are efforts (prevention and protection of the rights of

victims of trafficking in persons) by the Indonesian government, but have not indicated a

significant impact (Department of State, USA, 2020). However, the report does not indicate

any significant development because Indonesia has continued to be in Tier 2 for 5 consecutive

years since 2017. This situation also confirms the absence of significant progress in

eradicating trafficking in persons.

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In 2017, the Indonesian government has designated 5 provinces as red zones for human

trafficking, those provinces are East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, East Java, Central

Java, and West Java. The province of East Nusa Tenggara occupies the top position of the

province with the highesthuman trafficking cases. The Institute of Resource Governance and

Social Change (IRGSC) said that in 2015 there were 1,667 female migrant workers from East

Nusa Tenggara who were victims of trafficking. Meanwhile, in 2016, from January to July,

there were around 726 female migrant workers who were indicated to be victims of the practice

of human trafficking. Separately, the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Regional Police (Polda)

recorded that there were 1,667 female migrant worker candidates from NTT who were sent

out of the region non-procedurally.

The complexity of the labor migration problem in East Nusa Tenggara is also further

strengthened by the death rate and the return of the bodies of migrant workers to this region.

The Service Center for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BP3TKI) -

currently UPT BP2MI - East Nusa Tenggara Province noted that until January 3, 2020, 119

bodies of Indonesian migrant workers had been received. Out of the 119 bodies of migrant

workers, 117 of them were identified as migrant workers who migrated through undocumented

channels.

The high number of cases of human trafficiking as well as a large number of versions of data

which held by various parties indicate that integrated and sustainable management of

eradicating trafficking in persons has not been implemented among stakeholders. In fact, the

Indonesian government already has a structural foundation that can become the foundation

for combating trafficking in persons in relation to the vulnerability of migrant workers.

Among these are Law No. 21 of 2007 concerning the Eradication of the Crime of Human

Trafficking and Law No. 18 of 2017 concerning the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers.

However, the implementation of these two policies has not been carried out comprehensively

so that the impact of the policies has not been optimal to eradicate trafficking cases targeting

migrant workers. Even in the past two decades, the national government has taken several

steps to temporarily terminate (moratorium) the placement of migrant workers in response to

the high polemic and complexity of the issue of the death of Indonesian migrant workers who

are indicated as victims of human trafficking.

The Provincial Government of East Nusa Tenggara has also taken moratorium steps in

responding to the high number of cases of migrant workers from NTT who have experienced

the crime of human trafficking. The government issued NTT Governor Decree Number

357/KEP/HK/2018 concerning the Termination of the Departure of Prospective Indonesian

Migrant Workers from East Nusa Tenggara Province Abroad. This moratorium works at the

provincial level and does not have strong links at the national and inter-state levels, thus

leaving a number of issues to be discussed in this study.

Since the moratorium policy was enacted, there have been several strong indications that this

policy does not answer or solve problems but instead opens up new problems for migrant

workers, prospective migrant workers, and also their families. Brokers who are "dressed" as

job seekers/field officers/field workers still carry out their functions with various tactics, such

as hiring workers from NTT to other provinces in the country that are still in the human

trafficking category. There are indications that the outflow of migration out of NTT during the

moratorium period along with the internal problems that resulted from the moratorium policy

shows the ineffectiveness of the moratorium policy set by the Governor of NTT.

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One of the factors that determine the effectiveness and significance of the moratorium policy

in eradicating human trafficking is the attitude of the community towards the policy. Thus, it is

necessary to know how this policy encourages society’s attitudes towards the human

trafficking situation that befell migrant workers from East Nusa Tenggara. This research

focuses on examining the impact of policies on society attitudes towards human trafficking in

East Nusa Tenggara. The review carried out in this study not only measures the effect of the

moratorium on the placement of migrant workers on society's attitudes but also identifies the

impact and causal aspects of the migration governance policy, the protection of migrant

workers, and the eradication of the crime of trafficking in persons on social, cultural or

development situations in general.

Research Questions Based on the description above, this study seeks to answer three research questions:

1. How does the moratorium policy affect society's attitudes towards trafficking in persons in

East Nusa Tenggara?

2. What is the perception of the society of East Nusa Tenggara in responding to the

moratorium on the placement of migrant workers on human trafficking?

3. How does the East Nusa Tenggara government improve the governance of the placement

of migrant workers to prevent human trafficking?

Research Objectives and Benefits This study aims to describe the effect of the moratorium on the placement of migrant workers

on society's attitudes. The study was also carried out to identify aspects of the impact as well

as aspects of the causality of policies related to migrant workers and the eradication of human

trafficking on social, cultural or development situations in East Nusa Tenggara in general. In

terms of benefits, this research has practical and theoretical benefits.

a. Practical Benefit

This research is expected to be a source of information and a reference for stakeholder

entities; civil society organizations, the government, and the general public regarding the

impact of the temporary termination of placement of Indonesian Migrant Workers of East

Nusa Tenggara. Specifically, this research is expected to become a source of information

and a reference for stakeholders regarding factual conditions that can serve as the basis

for strategic evaluation in the framework of advocacy for civil society and a framework for

implementing or operationalizing the improvement of the governance of migration policy

for the government.

b. Theoritical Benefit

The results of this study are expected to enrich studies related to labor migration, human

trafficking, policy causality with society attitudes, and development in general. In addition,

the research results are also expected to become a reference for future studies on related

topics.

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Methodology

a. Research Approach

The study of human trafficking is part of the problem of horizontal social mobility related

to globalization. This study uses two approaches, quantitative and qualitative,

simultaneously to understand this problem. The quantitative approach is useful for

analyzing the attitudes of society at large towards the issue of human trafficking.

Meanwhile, qualitative studies are useful for understanding the qualitative social learning

process of the emergence of human trafficking.

b. Research Sites

This research took place in three regencies/cities in East Nusa Tenggara Province:

Kupang City, Sikka Regency, and West Manggarai Regency. In the survey phase, data

collection was carried out in 16 villages from 8 sub-districts spread over the three

regencies/cities, with stratified sampling based on households in each region. The

selection of research sites/locations was carried out with the consideration of being a base

area for migrant workers and cases of trafficking in persons, with different regional

characteristics and local contexts as a base area (sending) and a transit area.

c. Data Collection

Quantitative

In extracting quantitative data, this study proposes measurement of a individual's attitude

towards the phenomenon of human trafficking that occurs in society. Attitudes in this case

need to be understood as a representation of knowledge that includes a person's likes or

dislikes towards something in their social environment. Attitude is a socio-cultural process

that is a person's cognitive and emotional entity. This process takes place through

experience as social learning that they experience. Attitude theoretically has three

important aspects: Affective Aspects; Behavior Aspects; and Cognitive aspects so that it

is often referred to as the A-B-C model in psychological sciences.

Measuring Society Attitudes Toward the Trafficking Situation

The study of human trafficking is part of the problem of horizontal social mobility related

to globalization. So it is important to be able to analyze the attitudes of the society at large

towards the issue of human trafficking as part of this study. The attitude in this context is

a representation of knowledge that includes a person's likes or dislikes towards something

in their environment. Attitudes in this regard are also formed in the social learning process.

So that the basis of the analysis is carried out by measuring a person's attitude towards

the trafficking phenomenon that occurs in society, which is in line with the perspective of

Albert Bandura (1986, 2001, 2004) which shows that humans behave based on the social

learning process throughout their life. Thus, it is the measurement of social learning that

shapes attitudes that become cognitive and emotional entities at the individual level. The

formation of this attitude is theoretically influenced by three important aspects, such as:

(1) Affective aspects, which are defined as feelings, moods, emotions, and sympathetic

nervous system activity that a person experiences and is associated with attitude-forming

objects (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998, p. 272), (2) Behavioral aspects, which are defined as the

tendency of behavior in the form of (words) or non-verbal (actions) carried out by

individuals in the form of actions or responses that are observed and are the result of the

object of attitude (Wicker, 1969), and (3) Cognitive Aspects which are defined as a

function of reason on the evaluation of a person to consider an individual's opinion

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(believe/do not believe) about the object of attitude obtained through the social learning

process (Bandura, 1986, 2001, 2004).

Quantitative data collection in this study was conducted to reach 1,173 respondents

spread across 16 villages from three regions; Kupang City, Sikka Regency, and West

Manggarai Regency with the distribution as follows:

Table1.Distribution of Respondents

Regency/City Districts Village/ Sub-district

Number of Respondents

Sikka Regency Magepanda Done 124

Alok Barat Hewuli 153

Mego Dobo 107

Total Sikka 384

West Manggarai Regency

Lembor Daleng 193

PocoDedeng 52

Ndoso Waning 98

Momol 60

Total West Manggarai 403

Kupang City Maulafa Penfui 44

Belo 35

Fatukoa 28

Alak Manulai II 33

Penkase 57

Alak 20

Naioni 68

Kotaraja Bakunase II 57

Bakunase I 44

Total Kupang 386

Total Sikka + West Manggarai+ Kupang 1173

Qualitative

a. In-Depth Interview

In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 informants who were specifically

categorized based on individual categories as victims or family members who had

been related to human trafficking cases in the three research areas.

b. Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

Focused discussions were held in three research areas involving around 12 key

informants in each research area. These key informants include the following parties:

1) regency/city level local governments in 3 research areas and East Nusa Tenggara

province related to migrant workers and trafficking issues as well as, 2) law

enforcement elements, and 3) civil society organizations, communities, religious-

based organizations engaged in or focused on migrant worker and trafficking issues.

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d. Instrument Test Result

a. Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Test

In general, reliability is intended as a level of confidence or a condition that can be

trusted. In this study, the reliability test was conducted to determine the reliability level

of the instrument through the consistency of the questionnaire used. The Cronbach's

Alpha reliability test was carried out jointly on all items or question items in the

questionnaire in the quantitative measurement of this study, which showed that

Cronbach's Alpha value was 0.712.

The alpha value according to Griethuijsen (2014) can be categorized as follows; Very

good (0.93–0.94), strong (0.91–0.93); Reliable (0.84–0.90); Strong (0.81); Fairly high

(0.76-0.95); High (0.73-0.95); Good (0.71–0.91); Relatively high (0.70–0.77); Slightly

low (0.68); Fair (0.67–0.87); Enough (0.64–0.85); Medium (0.61–0.65); Satisfactory

(0.58–0.97); Acceptable (0.45–0.98); Enough (0.45–0.96); Not satisfactory (0.4–0.55)

and low (0.11) (Griethuijsenetal., 2014). Based on these descriptions, Cronbach's

Alpha in this study which reached a value of 0.712 can be said to be in a relatively high

to good spectrum. Therefore this research instrument can be trusted.

Table2.Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Test Result

ReliabilityStatistics

Cronbach'sAlpha N ofItems

.712 21

b. Regression Test

Regression test and analysis were carried out in this study to test whether there was

an influence between one variable and another. Or in the context of this measurement,

it is related to the aspects that shape people's attitudes towards the phenomenon of

trafficking in persons and the moratorium policy on the placement of migrant workers

from East Nusa Tenggara.

In this study, a hypothesis is proposed, there is an influence or relationship between

cognitive, affection, and behavior aspects on the formation of community attitudes in

responding to trafficking in persons and the policy of a moratorium on the placement

of migrant workers. Based on the results of partial regression testing between aspects

with comparison of the probability coefficient (0.05), it shows that there is a significant

influence of affection and behavior in the formation of a positive attitude or degree of

trust which positions the government to protect its citizens wherever they are.

Table3.Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis

Variables Regression Coefficient

tcount Significance

Constant 1,748 Cognitive_5 0,083 1,595 0,111 Affection_4 0,115 3,062 0,002 Behavior_2 -0,081 -1,91 0,050 Fcount 4,525

R Square 0,020

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e. Data Triangulation

Triangulation in a study is carried out to maintain the accuracy and credibility of the data

used in the study. The data triangulation technique used in this study included various

data collection methods.

1. Participatory observation is carried out by involving field researchers and data

processors in a series of research activities. In this study, the interviewer is a

companion to human trafficking victims or observers of migrant worker issues. Thus

the interviewers are subjects who already have prior knowledge related to the object

of research as well as parties who can make direct and close observations of the

research subjects that enable them to get meaning from the informants' behavior and

statements.

2. Interview, the interview technique in this study was conducted as a data collection

technique as well as a mechanism to confirm the accuracy and accuracy of the data.

Interviews were conducted to complement the research process by exploring the

meaning, situation, and context of the information that was missing from both the

quantitative research instrument and the data collection process. Interviews as

triangulations were conducted during the data synthesis process and result writing.

3. Documentation study as a triangulation process is carried out to obtain meaning, the

meaning of information on research subjects (sources) from various written sources

or other documentation in the form of written, visual or thought-provoking works

related to the research objectives. Media studies are an important source of

information amidst limited data on recruitment, arrivals, moratoriums, and trafficking

in East Nusa Tenggara Province.

f. Research Limitations

During its development, this research faces situations and conditions that affect the

stages of research, among others:

1. This research was designed before the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 has become a

new context that affects the results of research directly and indirectly. The central

government's policy for a moratorium on the sending of migrant workers during the

Covid-19 pandemic is one of the policies that directly affect the sending of migrant

workers at the national level. Second, both Covid-19 and the moratorium because

Covid-19 affects human mobility across regions and across national borders due to

restrictions on transportation modes and tightening permits across national borders.

2. The data collection method was adapted to the context of Covid-19 where data

triangulation was carried out online. Meanwhile, primary data collection, which was

originally carried out by the main researcher, could not be done due to mobility

restrictions. So that the primary data collection was carried out by the enumerator

team from the research area. Efforts to bridge the gap between researchers' capacity

and data quality have been made through the use of various data collection

techniques for the triangulation of various actors. The use of various data collection

techniques aims to fill in data quality gaps, but they do not completely replace the

quality of direct data collection by the main researcher, which is the strength of socio-

anthropological studies.

3. Until this research was completed, the unavailability of data that could be used as a

reference for photographing cases of trafficking in persons in East Nusa Tenggara

and each research regency/city became one of the obstacles in formulating the basis

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for analysis. Data on cases of trafficking in persons can generally be traced through

statements by relevant officials in mass media coverage, or collected by victim

assistance agencies or issue observers.

Literature Review

a. Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is become the third largest transnational crime in the world. Anyone can

become a victim of trafficking in persons, especially children and teenagers, migrant

workers to refugees from conflict areas or natural disasters. So far, women and children

have been mostly victims of trafficking cases. UNODC (2018) states that 71% of victims

of human trafficking are women, then 1 in 3 victims of human trafficking are children. This

means that women and children have a higher vulnerability to becoming victims of

trafficking in persons.

There are various definitions of human trafficking. UNODC describes the crime of

trafficking in persons as taking many forms and knowing no boundaries. There are many

forms of trafficking in persons, but most of them have the objectives of sexual exploitation,

forced marriage, forced labor, organ trafficking, forcing children to become beggars, and

selling children.

In 2007, Indonesia succeeded in making laws and regulations related to trafficking in

persons, such as Law Number 21 of 2007 concerning the Eradication of the Crime of

Trafficking in Persons (PTPPO Law). In that Law, human trafficking is defined as “The act

of recruiting, transporting, holding, sending, transferring, or accepting a person with

threats of violence, use of force, kidnapping, confinement, forgery, fraud, abuse of power

or vulnerable position, holding them in debt, payment, or benefits, so as to obtain the

consent of the person who has control over other people, whether done within the country

or between countries, for the purpose of exploitation or causing people to be exploited."

In addition to referring to the Law above, the Palermo Protocol, and the Bali Process.

2014 has main indicators of trafficking in persons that can be used to understand human

trafficking. Human trafficking indicators include the workings, processes, and objectives

of trafficking in persons. The indicators used are related to the process, among others,

evidence of transportation, transfer, storage, or acceptance of people, then related to

methods, such as evidence of threats or coercion, kidnapping, abuse of power, fraud, and

coercion. Furthermore, the goal confirms that trafficking in persons always has

exploitative purposes, for example, exploitation, prostitution, sexual exploitation, acts of

forced labor, slavery, and the like, to theft and organ trafficking.

Cameron and Newman (2008,3) explain that there are a number of factors that need to

be seen to understand the context of human trafficking, factors in the structural context

and the proximate context. In this case, it is important to look at the context and

interactions between social, economic, and political factors (structural context), for

example, economic inequality, structural poverty, social and customary contexts, gender

inequalities, including those created and reproduced by adat. Meanwhile, the closest

factors (proximate context) include poor law enforcement, corruption, weak national and

international laws or policies, and inadequate socialization. The interaction of these

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various factors is key to understanding where there are groups that are vulnerable to

trafficking in persons, why they are vulnerable and how this vulnerability occurs.

In the Global Slavery Index report in 2014 and 2016, it is stated that Indonesian migrant

workers who experience the vulnerability of being trapped in modern slavery practices,

especially for them who work in the marine sector, oil palm plantations, and domestic

workers.

Indonesian migrant workers facing the conditions of forced labor and slavery in destination

countries, highly happened in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Kuwait, Syria, and Iraq.

Windi Arista & Nursimah (2018) sees a number of factors that worsen the situation of

migrant workers, like strengthening patriarchal ideology in society and the state. This

ideology sees that: 1) Children and women as objects, they are below and do not have a

bargaining position with their parents; 2) Women become objects of violence for men who

feel their position is higher and in power due to the low level of education of women and;

3) There is a strengthening of globalization and neoliberalism. However, there are other

factors that trigger many problems for migrant workers, such as the migration process

that is not regulated and unsafe, so that many people become victims of human trafficking.

NTT occupies the top position in areas prone to human trafficking. According to a study

conducted by Abbas, Wandi (2018), human trafficking in NTT is mainly caused by

economic, educational, and other factors. People facing economic problems, which then

become the main reason they are trapped in human trafficking cases, in addition to the

limited understanding of the community about human trafficking or trafficking in persons.

In the human trafficking report released by the US Department of State in 2020, a number

of issues related to handling and law enforcement in Indonesia were highlighted as the

cause of the high human trafficking in the last 5 years. The problem of handling and law

enforcement includes the low prosecution of the perpetrators of TIP, the lack of a strong

and systematic victim identification procedure, and the weakness of the government in

enforcing regulations for the protection of migrant workers, and the inconsistency of the

Law on Trafficking in Persons/TIP (Law No. 21 of 2007) with international law.

b. Labor Migration Policy and Governance1

Indonesia has Law Number 18 of 2017 concerning the Protection of Indonesian Migrant

Workers (UU PPMI). The PPMI Law is an amendment from Law Number 39 of 2004

concerning the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Abroad (the PPTKILN

Law). The PPMI Law regulates the protection of Indonesian migrant workers which

includes the fulfillment and enforcement of human rights not only as migrant workers but

as citizens, then guarantees legal, economic, and social protection not only for migrant

workers but also their families. Substantively, although not yet ideal, the PPMI Law has

included an international convention to protect the rights of migrant workers and their

family members. Therefore, there has been at least the state recognition of the rights of

migrant workers and guaranteed protection of migrant workers and their families.

However, the implementation of this law still faces many obstacles due to the weakness

of the derivative regulations as the basis for implementing the PPMI Law. The government

should have issued 28 derivative regulations which include 2 Presidential Regulations, 11

1ps://nasional.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/17/11/23/ozvhkw383-lima-provinsi-masuk-zona-merah-perdagangan-manusia

https://nasional.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/17/11/23/ozvhkw383-lima-provinsi-masuk-zona-merah-perdagangan-manusia

https://nasional.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/17/11/23/ozvhkw383-lima-provinsi-masuk-zona-merah-perdagangan-manusia

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Government Regulations, 12 Ministerial Regulations, and 3 Agency Head Regulations.

However, until now only 3 Ministerial Regulations have been issued to carry out the

mandate of protection in this PPMI Law. An example of a derivative regulation that has

been made is the Minister of Manpower Regulation (Permenaker) No. 18 of 2018

concerning the Social Security of Indonesian Migrant Workers, this regulation assesses

the insurance and social security for Indonesian migrant workers through BPJS

Ketenagakerjaan. However, this regulation is still limited, so it needs to be pushed with

more comprehensive regulations. Meanwhile, Permenaker No. 9 and Permenaker No. 10

of 2019 actually shows a contradiction with the PPMI Law by continuing to prioritize the

role of the private sector in labor migration governance. This regulation not only goes

beyond the governance authority that should be regulated in higher regulations, such as

the Government Regulations, but the large role of the private sector has reduced and

weakened the protection efforts mandated in Law no. 18 of 2017.

In addition, local governments, both provincial/regency/city and village governments, are

not prepared to implement them. A number of problems that occur in the regions, for

example, lack of support in the establishment and management of One-Stop Integrated

Services (LTSA) in the enclaves of migrant workers. The public service functions provided

by LTSA are still limited in supporting the protection-based placement service mechanism

for migrant workers in the regions. In addition, the information services that should exist

in every village which is the first gateway to protecting migrant workers have not been

implemented properly. Another problem is education and training for migrant workers,

which under the mandate of the PPMI Law are carried out by government-owned training

institutions, in practice, many are carried out by private-owned Overseas Training Centers

(BKLKN).

The dichotomystic of procedural and non-procedural migration is philosophically a

contradiction that disturbs efforts to protect migrant workers. This dichotomy is prone to

discrimination and stigmatization of migrant workers who carry out cultural migration. This

dichotomization excludes cultural or self-help migration practices from the institutional

framework of protection because of the labeling of cultural migration as an undocumented

migration process that risks discrimination, stigmatization, and exploitation of migrant

workers (Hidayah, et al., 2015). This is despite the fact that the number of undocumented

(non-procedural) migrant workers is much larger than those who are documented,

especially with the destination country Malaysia. The mobility of these undocumented

migrant workers is as stated in a study conducted by Hugo (2002), where it has a long

history because it has been started since the formation of Indonesia and Malaysia as

independent countries, or even longer before during the colonial period.

Efforts to decriminalize the reality of cultural migration have been encouraged by Migrant

CARE to collaborate with the Yayasan Kesehatan untuk Semua (YKS) and the Lembata

Regency Government by issuing Regional Regulation No. 1 of 2015 concerning the

Protection of Indonesian Workers from Lembata. This local regulation tries to recognize

the process of cultural migration so that we can get real data about human mobility that

has been going on for a long time.

c. Migrant Worker Moratorium

The Indonesian government has an obligation to protect migrant workers. In Law Number

18 of 2017 concerning the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, it is stipulated that

the government has the obligation to protect migrant workers and take the necessary

14

efforts to prevent and overcome violence experienced by Indonesian migrant workers, as

in Article 32 which reads:

(1) The Central Government can stop and/or prohibit the placement of Indonesian

Migrant Workers for certain countries or certain positions abroad with the following

considerations: a) security, b) protection of human rights, c) equal employment

opportunities; and/or, d) interest in the availability of labor in accordance with

national needs.

(2) In stopping and/or prohibiting the placement of Indonesian Migrant Workers as

referred to in paragraph (1), the Central Government shall take into account the

suggestions and considerations of the Representatives of the Republic of

Indonesia, ministries/agencies, Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement

Companies, and the public.

(3) The central government determines certain countries or certain positions as

referred to in paragraph (1).

The article clearly states that the government can impose a moratorium and restrictions

on the placement of migrant workers to protect security and human rights by taking into

account the suggestions of various parties, including the public.

The moratorium on migrant workers is one of the steps taken by the Indonesian

government to provide protection for migrant workers. This step has been taken several

times by the Indonesian government, following a series of cases involving torture, murder,

and the death penalty experienced by Indonesian migrant workers, especially women who

work in the domestic sector as domestic workers (Makovec, Mattia, et al, 2016).

Malaysia and the Middle East are the main contributors to the high number of TIP cases

by sending migrant workers abroad. The first moratorium on the migration of female

migrant workers from Indonesia to Malaysia was carried out in June 2009. The proposed

moratorium on domestic workers emerged after another case of alleged torture by the

employer of a housemaid, Siti Hajar, resulted in severe injuries almost all over her body.

According to data from BNP2TKI, the previous year (2008) there were around 800 cases

of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia, ranging from unpaid salaries to torture and

sexual violence. This has led to a moratorium on migrant workers to Malaysia, especially

domestic workers during the term of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. However, in

December 2011, the moratorium on Malaysia was lifted, after the two governments signed

protocols aimed at improving the living and working conditions of migrant workers (Hickey

et al., 2013, and ILO, 2016).

Apart from the limited moratorium in Malaysia, starting from 2009, the Indonesian

government has implemented a limited moratorium on several countries of destination for

migrant workers. The moratorium on the placement of migrant workers, especially

domestic workers, was created in September 2009. The reason is that there is no

protection for Indonesian migrant workers in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government hopes that

the moratorium can be ended immediately by making an MoU which contains a number

of things, such as the minimum salary received by migrant workers, payment of salaries

through banks, migrant workers can have cell phones, and they are entitled to get one

day off per week. Other countries such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh

also send migrant workers to Kuwait, however, Indonesia has not yet open further

dialogue to stop the moratorium. Again, according to the Kuwaiti government, the mistake

15

was not only in the recipient country but also from the Indonesian side which did not make

a good system for the delivery.

In July 2010, Jordan became another country in the Middle East that was closed and no

longer become a destination for sending migrant workers. According to the Minister of

Manpower at that time, Muhaimin Iskandar, the moratorium on Jordan could be in effect

forever, due to low salaries and inadequate social security. So, as long as there is no

certainty regarding legal protection and basic rights for migrant workers, the moratorium

on sending migrant workers to Jordan along with a number of countries in the Middle East

region will remain in effect.

In August 2011, a moratorium on migrant workers to Saudi Arabia was implemented. The

moratorium was triggered by the execution of the beheading of Ruyati binti Satubi, an

Indonesian migrant worker who was accused of murdering the wife of her employer after

being repeatedly abused (Makovec, Mattia, et al, 2016). In Saudi Arabia, out of 1.2 million

Indonesian migrant workers, around 70 percent are domestic workers. The case of

domestic workers who were sentenced to death penalty was not only Ruyati, Darsem who

also presumed kill her employer in December 2007 as an effort to defend herself when

she was about to be raped. Darsem can be exempt from the death penalty if the victim's

family forgives and gets damages of $533,000 or 2 million rials. Despite the moratorium

in 2017, it was revealed that at least 300 migrant workers were being held in Saudi Arabia.

According to Migrant CARE, this was because the moratorium was not accompanied by

strict supervision. The Migrant CARE survey revealed that around 2,000 informal sector

workers had left for the Middle East during 2015-2016. Apart from the weak supervision,

Migrant CARE also thinks this is caused by a one-sided policy on the moratorium, in which

placement countries have an issue of work visas even though there is a moratorium

policy.

The moratorium on migrant workers to Syria was implemented in August 2011. Indonesia

stopped sending migrant workers as it become a conflict area and was categorized as

theunsafe destination to work. In addition, Syria also has no cooperation to protect the

rights of Indonesian migrant workers, does not meet the minimum standards for trafficking

victim protection acts and there is no MoU. Out of the 13,615 Indonesian migrant workers,

13,329 are domestic workers. During 2010, there were 652 cases, from unpaid wages to

child trafficking. However, despite the moratorium, there are still many migrant workers in

Syria. In 2016 there were around 2000 Indonesian migrant workers there. The Syrian

government also does not recognize the moratorium and continues to accept the entry of

Indonesian migrant workers.

Indonesia implemented a moratorium on the United Arab Emirates in November 2013

following other countries, including Malaysia, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

The cause is the same as in other placement countries because there is no guarantee of

legal protection for migrant workers and the provision of their basic rights in these Middle

Eastern countries. Throughout 2012, the number of migrant workers who died in the

United Arab Emirates reached 20 people.

This regulation was later extended through the Minister of Manpower Decree No. 260 of

2015 concerning the Termination and Prohibition of Placement for Indonesian Workers to

individual users in Middle Eastern countries. According to the decree, 21 Middle Eastern

16

countries are prohibited from having migrant workers from Indonesia.2However, the

moratorium policy which was carried out without supervision, actually has potentially

triggered a high black market activity in recruiting migrant workers to the Middle East.

According to the Migrant CARE survey (2015), there are still many Indonesian Migrant

Workers who leave for the Middle East on an irregular basis. This actually creates new

problems, one of which is human trafficking.3

Thus far, women migrant workers, especially those who work in the domestic sector, face

an extremely vulnerable situation. According to a survey conducted by the World Bank,

72 percent came from rural areas (WB-IMR Survey, World Bank, 2014a). Then 80 percent

of female migrant workers are employed as domestic workers compared to men, the 70

percent work in the plantation and construction sectors. The survey also shows that the

majority of female migrant workers are categorized having minimum skills, with 50% only

passing primary education and 30% other passing junior high school.

The initial moratoriums that were implemented in both the Middle East in 2011 and

Malaysia in 2009 have reduced the number of placement of female migrant workers.

Available data shows that between 2010 and 2011 the annual flow of female migrants fell

from 203,625 to 110,641. Then in 2012, this number fell again to only 18,356. The

placement of migrant workers to Malaysia has also decreased. At the end of 2008, the

annual flow of documented female migrants to Malaysia was 102,145, while at the end of

2011 this number had fallen to only 38,122 (Makovec, Mattia, et al, 2016).

Furthermore, the study also found that the moratorium on migrant workers imposed by

the Indonesian government in 2009 and 2011 had a negative impact on the situation to

the local labor market. The regional economic slowdown occurred as a result of this

limitation. The local labor market appears unable to absorb the excess supply of labor

generated by restrictions on migration, and this, in turn, results in worsening conditions of

households living in migrant-sending areas. The worsening economic condition of the

migrant worker community has triggered efforts to penetrate destination countries through

undocumented channels. During the moratorium period, undocumented/non-procedural

migrant workers always departed. Poor socialization regarding the moratorium and low

compliance with government regulations has become. In addition, undocumented

migration, which has been a phenomenon in Indonesia, is difficult to predict because it is

not included in the administrative data which manageby BNP2TKI (now BP2MI) (Mattia

et al. 2016).

The moratorium policy undertaken by the government does not necessarily reduce and

address the vulnerabilities of migrant workers. Because the moratorium, on the other

hand, has actually triggered a high black market activity in recruiting migrant workers to

the Middle East. According to the Migrant CARE survey (2015), there are still many

2Include Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Egypt, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen, and Jordan. The moratorium on migrant workers in the Middle East is driven by discrimination and torture of Indonesian Migrant Workers, as well as the enactment of the Kafala system; where this system makes migrant workers part of the employer's property - not to be contested or interfere with outside parties - and the issue of ratification of the protection of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. 3https://migrantcare.net/2017/01/moratorium-tki-bukan-solusi-perlindungan/&https://migrantcare.net/2016/06/hasil-survey-pengiriman-prt-migran-pasca-moratorium-bandara-soekarno-hatta/

https://migrantcare.net/2017/01/moratorium-tki-bukan-solusi-perlindungan/

https://migrantcare.net/2017/01/moratorium-tki-bukan-solusi-perlindungan/

https://migrantcare.net/2016/06/hasil-survey-pengiriman-prt-migran-pasca-moratorium-bandara-soekarno-hatta/

https://migrantcare.net/2016/06/hasil-survey-pengiriman-prt-migran-pasca-moratorium-bandara-soekarno-hatta/

17

Indonesian migrant workers who leave for the Middle East on an irregular basis. This

actually creates new problems, one of which is human trafficking.

The existence of a moratorium also received a number of different responses, a study

conducted by Chan (2014) saw that the state's reaction to cases of abuse and violence

against migrants was to implement laws that arguably further limit women's mobility, such

as issuing a moratorium that temporarily prohibits migration of women to Malaysia and

Saudi Arabia. This restriction is carried out through stricter bureaucratic requirements for

female migrants than for males. The moratorium, especially on sending domestic workers,

is a contradictory step in the discourse of state protection for migrant workers. This factor

is seen as a result of pressure from influential national communities such as religious

leaders. The Indonesian Cleric Council (MUI) has officially issued a religious decree

(fatwa) that states that transnational female labor migration is un-Islamic. The emergence

of a moratorium is thus thicker with a paternalistic nature which tends to limit women's

freedom rather than protecting women.

In the study, Chan (2014) sees activists as also arguing that prohibiting women from

migrating will not actually stop migration but only contributes to increasing women's

vulnerability to exploitation, as well as increasing the number and forms of undocumented

and risky migration. This contrasts with changes proposed by activists who support and

want the increase in the bargaining position of migrants, such as the freedom to speak

out, against exploitation, as well as the options for housing and employment opportunities

in both countries of origin and destination.

It seems that the government has not taken into account these factors and inputs in

implementing the moratorium on migrant workers. A moratorium on migrant workers

abroad that is not carried out with careful consideration and is on the side of women &

migrant workers, in general, is also carried out by local governments. In 2012, Purwakarta

Regency imposed a moratorium on migrant workers to Malaysia and the Middle East. The

decision at that time was made following cases of violence against migrant workers

abroad. After the policy was implemented, the number of citizens who became migrant

workers decreased to 50%, but there were still migrant workers from Purwakarta who left

for Malaysia and the Middle East illegally. The Purwakarta Regency Labor and

Transmigration Service recommend its citizens to choose other countries such as Taiwan,

Hong Kong, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam if they want to work abroad.

The moratorium on the placement of migrant workers by the NTT Provincial Government

is a moratorium by the local government which was first implemented after the enactment

of the PPMI Law in 2017. Through the Decree of the Governor of NTT Number

357/KEP/HK/2018 concerning the Termination of the Departure of Prospective

Indonesian Migrant Workers from East Nusa Tenggara Province Abroad. There are 11

decrees regulated, including that the moratorium only applies to migrant workers who do

not have competence. This means that prospective migrant workers who are deemed

competent can go abroad. The competency assessment is determined by the NTT

Manpower and Transmigration Office. However, the definition of competence referred to

in this moratorium regulation is still being debated.

In his speech, sometime after being elected as the Governor of NTT, Victor Laiskodat

interpreted the moratorium as a form of resistance from the Government and the people

of East Nusa Tenggara against the perpetrators of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons. In

his statement, the moratorium is seen as a comprehensive step to improve the system

18

and governance of CPMI placement services so that they are integrated from upstream

to downstream. After the issuance of the Governor's Decree regarding the moratorium,

the NTT Province Task Force for the Prevention and Handling of Non-Procedural Workers

canceled the departure of 1,379 non-regular CPMIs.

In addition, the moratorium decision also states that the P3MI Branch Office located in

NTT Province is obliged to establish BLKLN, if not already established, training is carried

out at BLK/BLKLN in NTT Province and direct departure from the NTT embarkation. P3MI

is also required to enter into a work agreement with migrant workers to ensure clarity of

the migration process and placement of migrant workers. The agreement contains the full

name, profile, and address of the employer, the full name and address of the Indonesian

migrant worker, the rights and obligations of each party, position or type of work, working

conditions and conditions, including working hours, wages and payment procedures, the

right to leave and rest periods as well as social security and/or insurance, the term of the

work agreement, and the PMI's security & safety guarantees while working in accordance

with the provisions of laws and regulations.

The moratorium on sending migrant workers by local governments is also not in line with

the PPMI Law. In the PPMI Law, the issuance of a moratorium on sending migrant workers

is the authority of the central government. Therefore, local government authorities should

focus on efforts to improve governance in the placement and protection of migrant

workers. However, in reality, after the issuance of the moratorium in NTT, the government

has not received significant improvement, for example, the insufficient number of BLKs

owned by the government and LTSA which have not been re-functioned as mandated by

the law.

The Covid-19 pandemic that occurred globally also has an impact on the situation of

migrant workers. On March 18, 2020, the Minister of Manpower of the Republic of

Indonesia issued a Decree of the Minister of Manpower (Kepmenaker) No. 151/2020

which states that there is a temporary terminal of placement of Indonesian Migrant

Workers. This Ministerial Decree was issued following protests from various groups,

especially among migrant worker activists, who see the government only pays attention

to formal workers and completely ignores the vulnerability of migrant workers in the Covid-

19 pandemic.

This Ministerial Decree only stipulates the termination of the process of placing migrant

workers in countries that are at high risk of the Covid-19 outbreak. This decree does not

comprehensively elaborate on what steps should be taken to ensure that the basic rights

of Indonesian migrant workers are fulfilled. There are a number of problems faced by

migrant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, including: 1) Susceptible to exposure /

contracting the virus because they are in the epicenter area of Covid-19, 2) Stigma as a

virus carrier where they experience restrictions on mobility and discrimination in services,

and 3) Experiencing an increase in workload so there is a potential for conflict with

employers.

In addition, due to the lockdown carried out by Malaysia in March 2020, migrant workers

who have been working in the fields of construction, restaurants, and factory workers are

threatened with the risk of losing their sources of income due to the closure of their

workplaces. The Malaysian government also deported thousands of undocumented

migrant workers during the lockdown which exacerbated the situation of migrant workers'

vulnerability to being exposed to Covid-19. Thousands of migrant workers were indicated

19

as People Under Supervision (ODP) when they returned to East Nusa Tenggara and there

was no coordination to respond to the return of migrant workers and migrant workers

between regions that were abundant.

20

CHAPTER 2:

REGIONAL OVERVIEW

East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) is a province with a land area of 47,931.54 km2 and a population

of 5,456,200 people. This archipelago-shaped province consists of 21 regencies and 1 city,

309 subdistricts, and 3,353 villages spread across seven major islands, such as Sumba Island,

Timor Island, Flores Island, Alor Island, Lembata Island, Rote Island, and Sabu Island. The

majority of NTT's population is Catholic (52.48%), followed by Protestant Christians (39.03%)

(BPS, 2020). East Nusa Tenggara is also a strong Indonesian territory in terms of customs

and culture. Therefore, the people of NTT are influenced a lot by customs and culture, as well

as the main religions in the area, which are Christianity and Catholicism.

Various studies so far have seen that East Nusa Tenggara has a complex socio-economic

and political issue. This region from year to year becomes one of the poorest provinces in

Indonesia. In 2020, East Nusa Tenggara is the third poorest province after Papua and West

Papua. Then, even though the unemployment rate in this region is only 3.35%, the

employment situation in East Nusa Tenggara is far from ideal. When viewed from social and

cultural studies, customs is also a problem in itself because several studies have seen that it

has a tendency to weaken women and impoverish society. These various problems are

intertwined and one of the results is the high level of human trafficking, especially trafficking

of women in NTT.

The following is an overview of the complexity of these problems which hopefully can explain

the chronic situation that has been experienced by the poorest and most vulnerable groups in

East Nusa Tenggara.

Socio-Economy and Infrastructure

NTT economic growth is still categorized as low compared to other regions in Indonesia,

according to Wuryandari (2014) this is because development in NTT has not been evenly

distributed so that only certain areas are developing, especially in urban areas such as Kupang

which become the center of government and business in the NTT region and sub-urban areas

which are new growth areas for tourism such as Labuan Bajo in West Manggarai.4Although

the tourism sector in a number of areas is growing, most people still depend on agriculture.

The areas of Sikka and West Manggarai which been seen in this study also still depend on

agriculture.

So far, NTT's geographical condition, which consists of islands, has always been seen as a

barrier to connectivity between regions as well as a cause of economic inequality in NTT.

Apart from the above constraints, NTT does experience natural constraints that are not minor,

4As an illustration, if you look at, for example, the affordability of electricity by the population in 2017-2019 there are still 30% of households in NTT Province who have not been reached by PLN electricity. West Manggarai Regency has the largest percentage of households that have not accessed the PLN electricity network, with a figure that is still below the NTT provincial average. Meanwhile, almost all households in Kupang City have been reached by PLN's electricity. This indicates a huge disparity between development in urban and rural areas.

21

such as the lack of rainfall which causes the agricultural sector to not develop properly. In fact,

most people depend on the agricultural/livestock sector for their livelihoods.

The cause of the complexity of the problem in East Nusa Tenggara, if traced historically,

shows that this region was the victim of development inequality during the New Order (Orde

Baru) which destroyed eastern Indonesia (Wuryandari, 2014). Another study (Dhosa, 2017)

looks at the accumulation of capital that has occurred since the colonial era as the root of the

chaotic problems that have created poverty in East Nusa Tenggara.

East Nusa Tenggara has recently been improving in terms of infrastructure. In recent years,

both the national and regional governments have accelerated infrastructure development in

the region. It is hoped that the development of infrastructure and the acceleration of the

economy in East Nusa Tenggara can provide wider employment opportunities and thereby

improve the community's economy.

To overcome the infrastructure barriers and strengthen connectivity between regions in NTT

and with other regions in Indonesia, the national government is carrying out an accelerated

development project through the MP3EI scheme (Master Plan for the Acceleration and

Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development) where the NTT region is included in the

Bali-Nusa Tenggara Economic Zone with a main focus on development of tourism, fisheries,

and livestock.5In his study, Dhosa also saw that development of industrial estates and tourist

areas in East Nusa Tenggara has recently become a source of new problems.

Economic and infrastructure development has negative and positive aspects for the welfare

of the society. A number of studies have also looked at the impact of development in NTT. A

study conducted by Perkumpulan Prakarsa (Saputra, 2014) presents a number of problems

in the MP3EI mega project, including in East Nusa Tenggara. Some of its findings were that

MP3EI did not involve the local government and the people of NTT in its planning. Tolo

(2019)6explained that infrastructure development in Flores has so far benefited the elite and

the rich segment of society. This is because land, means of production, and capital are only

controlled by a handful of elites. In Labuan Bajo, for example, strategic lands are mostly

controlled by people from Jakarta, Bali, and even abroad. The same thing seems to have

happened in almost all strategic areas, both tourist and industrial areas.

Development inequality in NTT is also seen only enjoyed by the upper middle-class groups

also appears in a study conducted by Bappenas (2018). A Bappenas study in a number of the

poorest provinces including NTT shows that the growth in consumption or expenditure of the

bottom 20 percent is much lower than that of the upper-middle class. The Growth Incidence

Curve (GIC) in NTT Province during the 2016-2017 period also shows that the consumption

and expenditure growth of the bottom 20 percent of the group is far below the provincial

average, even in the lowest group, GIC is negative. This means that there was an increase in

the number of people who fell into poverty in that period which occurred almost evenly in all

5In the MP3EI scheme, there are 14 infrastructure developments starting from the construction of roads, ports, power plants, reservoirs, irrigation, and others, including fiber optic networks and BTS to boost information and telecommunications facilities. The investment for the 14 projects is estimated at 6.6 trillion. Then a number of large projects were also carried out, for example, the development of the salt industry in Ende, Kupang Bay, and Nagekeo, the development of the Bolok Industrial Zone, the Steam Power Plant in Kupang and Ende, and so on. 6https://tirto.id/proyek-infrastruktur-di-flores-hanya-memakmurkan-yang-kaya-dhsG, accessed 27 October 2020

https://tirto.id/proyek-infrastruktur-di-flores-hanya-memakmurkan-yang-kaya-dhsG

22

regencies/cities in the Province of NTT. This finding directly provides evidence that economic

growth in NTT is only enjoyed by the upper-middle class, and that existing development and

growth are not benefiting the poorest groups who are very numerous in the region.

Meanwhile, infrastructure development also raises many problems, such as land acquisition

by both the government and investors. This is because some projects are located in productive

agricultural areas, areas belonging to indigenous communities, causing the land acquisition

process often creates conflicts. In addition, it also results in the elimination of the poor and

indigenous communities and the loss of their livelihoods and sources of livelihood. Tenure of

land that is concentrated on a handful of elites and owners of capital causes farmers to have

more limited agricultural land ownership. Moreover, the presence of agricultural

mechanization and monoculture has made it more difficult for farmers, and sometimes even

get into debt due to high agricultural inputs. According to Tolo (2019), infrastructure inequality

and structural impoverishment stemming from agrarian problems and agrarian livelihoods

have encouraged people to migrate to Malaysia.

Migrant workers from various regions in NTT go abroad through various accessible routes,

including sea, land, and air routes. In the research in these 3 areas, Kupang City is one of the

transit areas for migrant workers, especially those from Belu, Soe, Malacca, and Kefamenanu.

Generally, migrant workers drive by land to Kupang before traveling by ship or plane. Not

much different from Kupang, Labuan Bajo Port and Komodo Airport in West Manggarai

Regency have also become new areas for transit for migrant workers including those who are

victims of trafficking in persons. Likewise, with Sikka Regency, people from Ende, Ruteng,

and surrounding areas transit in Sikka before leaving by ship from the port of Sikka. More

details on how the modes of recruitment in sending migrant workers including the practice of

human trafficking through various transportation routes in NTT can be seen in Chapter 4.

Locally-Generated Revenue

The economic and development situation in NTT can also be analyzed by reviewing the

contribution of Locally-Generated Revenue to total Regional Revenue in the Local

Government Budget (APBD) which can indicate the level of regional fiscal independence. In

regions that still have a high dependence on central government transfer support, these

regions have a much lower PAD contribution to total regional revenues. Furthermore, revenue

realization in this research area can be seen in the table below.

Table4.Realization of Government Revenue of Kupang, Manggarai Barat,

Sikka, and NTT Provinces in 2019 by Type of Income (in Thousand Rupiah)

Kupang City West Manggarai

Sikka NTT

Locally-Generated Revenue

186.573.408 165.380.630 104.289.721 1.131.943.379

Balancing Fund 918.377.845 786.515.951 916.408.692 4.174.054.978

Other Legitimate Income 98.945.311 223.702.273 221.001.587 41.159.665

Total Regional Income 1.203.896.564 1.175.598.854 1.241.700.000 5.347.158.022

Source: Provincial/Regency/City Government Financial Statistics. BPS 2019

If you look to the table above, almost 78% of the NTT provincial APBD comes from the

Balancing Fund from the central government, likewise, the Kupang City APBD of 76%

depends on the Balancing Fund, as well as 66% of West Manggarai and 73% of Sikka

Regency. Each of the research areas in NTT has low local revenue, where Kupang City is

23

only 15%, West Manggarai is 14%, Sikka is only 8.3% and the Provincial Government of NTT

is 21%. Sikka has the lowest local revenue among the other 2 research areas. From these

data, it means that the level of financial independence of the province of NTT and the three

research areas is still low, the course of development and regional financing is still dependent

on central funds, and local revenue is still small, some even below 10% of total regional

revenue.

Apart from that, from the Locally-Generated Revenue in the three research areas, the

contribution of Regional Owned Companies and the Management of Separated Regional

Assets contributed the smallest figure compared to taxes, levies, and other legal revenue from

PAD. The results of Regional Owned Companies and the Management of Separated Regional

Assets in Sikka Regency only show a value of less than 3% of the total Locally-Generated

Revenue. Likewise, in West Manggarai Regency, the results of Regionally Owned Companies

and the Management of Separated Regional Assets are only 3.6% of the total Locally-

Generated Revenue. Meanwhile, the Locally-Generated Revenue of Kupang City is 8% and

NTT Province is 7.1%. This shows that local governments are still limited in creating and

managing Regional Owned Companies and their regional assets for the welfare of the people.

Poverty

The portrait of poverty in NTT shows a large disparity between urban and rural areas.

According to BPS as of March 2020, NTT was in the third rank of provinces with the highest

poverty rate, with a percentage of 20.9% or 1,153.76 thousand people. This number has

increased by 24.3 thousand people since September 2019, where the highest increase was

in rural areas, which increased by around 19.5 thousand people. The imbalance of the rural

and urban poverty in NTT can be seen in the table below.

Table 5.Table of Number and Percentage of Urban-Rural Poor in East Nusa

Tenggara, 2015-2020

Year Number of the Poor (Thousand) Percentage of the Poor

Urban Rural Urban Rural

2015 97,6 1.063,47 9,41 25,89

2016 97,6 1.063,47 9,41 25,89

2017 112,48 1.037,60 10,17 25,19

2018 119,04 1.015,70 10,11 24,59

2019 108,62 1.020,84 8,34 24,45

2020(March) 113,39 1.040,37 NA NA

Source : BPS 2020

The percentage of poor people in the rural area is almost 25% of the total population, meaning

that 1 in 4 rural residents in NTT is in poverty. When making a comparison between the three

regions in this study, in 2019 the percentage of poor people in Kupang City was 9.22%. This

figure is far below the percentage of poor people in NTT Province which reached 21.09%.

Meanwhile, in Sikka Regency, the percentage of poor people reached 13.53%. Then

compared to the other 2 research areas, West Manggarai has the highest percentage of poor

people, which is 18.01%. This data again shows the large inequality between urban and rural

areas, where the largest pockets of poverty are in villages. This inequality is also an indicator

that the distributive equity of local resources at the provincial level tends to be controlled by

the centers of economic growth.

24

In various studies, villages in NTT face a number of problems that drive the community to be

poorer. For example, Tolo (2016), Regus (2011), and Dale (2016) as cited by Dhosa (2016)

in a study in West Flores (Manggarai, East Manggarai, and West Manggarai) found land

acquisition under the pretext of development instead of prospering the people actually creates

systemic poverty, ecological disaster, and cultural destruction in Flores. The land acquisition

process is a piece of strong evidence that there is no equitable distribution, especially if the

function of the land is more extractive out of the area and then flows to growth centers.

When comparing the situation of human resources in the 3 areas studied, the majority of the

population in the age of 15 years and over in Kupang City in 2018 had high school diplomas,

which is 32.52%. In addition, 11.39% of the population in the age of 15 years and over have

never received formal education or do not pass elementary school. However, Kupang City's

Human Development Index (HDI) is the highest in NTT, at 79.55 in 2019. This figure is much

higher than the NTT provincial HDI, which is 65.23 and higher than the national HDI. When

compared to West Manggarai, the situation in Kupang City is better. The HDI for West

Manggarai in 2019 was 63.50 below the HDI for the NTT Province, which is 65.23.

The number of workforce in West Manggarai Regency in 2019 is 124,105, of which 72,243

have elementary school education and below. This situation is not much different from that of

the Sikka Regency. According to the 2019 National Statistics Agency's Susenas, the

education level of Sikka residents in the age of 15 years and over, 38.56% do not pass

elementary school and 19.55% do. The Human Development Index/HDI of Sikka Regency in

2019 is also still below the provincial HDI, which is 64.75.

Although the East Nusa Tenggara Province Human Development Index is low, at 65.23, the

NTT Province Gender Development Index is high. The NTT gender development index from

2017 to 2019 increased from 92.44, 92.57, and 92.72. The NTT Gender Development Index

is higher than the national figure which is in the 90s. However, this contradiction is later

explained in Rahmawati et al (2019, 73) that the high Gender Development Index in NTT

occurs because the HDI of women and men are both low. The indicator for the composition of

the HDI is the HDI, namely the ratio of the HDI of women to men's HDI. A high IPG can occur

because the HDI of men and women is almost equal, can be both high, equally moderate, or

even both low. The last situation that happened in NTT Province.

Systemic poverty caused by structural injustice has contributed to the low level of public

education in NTT. From year to year, most migrant workers from NTT are dominated by people

with elementary school education. It can be seen in the table below.

Table 6.Education Level of Migrant Workers from NTT 2017-2019

Year Elementary

School

Junior High

School

Senior High

School Diploma Bachelor Doctor

2017 1044 490 417 4 5 0

2018 1103 519 441 6 7 1

2019 584 291 259 9 4 0

Source: BNP2TKI 2019

Various studies have stated that the factors of poverty and low levels of education are

intertwined factors that are the main causes of human trafficking. As explained by ESR Daniel,

et al (2017), cases of human trafficking in NTT arise as a consequence of poverty and lack of

access to welfare. According to a study conducted by Dhosa (2017) poverty in NTT is caused

by the process of capital accumulation in the long history of colonialism in these islands which

25

has an extractive character, so that natural resources tend to be extracted out of the region

rather than for the welfare of its citizens.

Monopoly and deprivation of agrarian resources, such as land, sandalwood, and livestock

have created inequality and poverty in NTT to this day. This has raised various problems that

are interconnected with one another. For example, such as low education, knowledge, and

ability to fulfill and access the economy and sources of livelihood, and scarcity of sources of

work. This situation contributes to the vulnerability of its citizens to become victims of human

trafficking without them knowing it, because of the urgent economic needs.

The low level of education of migrant workers as shown in the table above can have

implications for situations of multiple vulnerabilities experienced by migrant workers from NTT.

This vulnerability can be experienced from the time they are recruited to the time they work

abroad and when they return from abroad. Domination, exploitation, and violence to the point

of becoming victims of trafficking in persons are more vulnerable to migrant workers.

Especially when they lack the knowledge and do not understand or are not able to fight for

their rights.

Poverty creates a situation of vulnerability for women and the poor with low education so that

they are easily trapped as victims of the crime of trafficking in persons. Penny (2019) said that

the majority of NTT residents were illegally recruited as migrant workers because they did not

have information and understanding of the dangers and risks. However, more than that,

women and the poor do not have many alternatives, so they choose to work abroad.

Social and Customary Contexts

The people of East Nusa Tenggara are among those who still uphold customary practices.

There is high compliance with customary laws and procedures that apply in the human life

cycle from birth, marriage, to death. Customary celebrations involving traditional festivals at

no small cost have been suspected to be the cause of the persistence of poverty in NTT. In a

number of articles published in the mass media, it is stated that the crime of human trafficking

in NTT uses the method of “uang sirih pinang” or literally betel nut money.

The culture of sirih pinang is attached to the daily life of the people of NTT. Ordinary residents

grow and consume betel nut and use it in traditional and cultural practices as well as daily

social life. According to a study conducted by Dwinanto, Arif, et al (2019), sirih pinang is a

mandatory tool in every traditional ritual, it is even spoken by Rato or the prayer leader in the

Marapu belief in the form of verses during rituals such as the Noba and Wulla Podu rituals.

Sirih pinang is also used in the rituals of life for the people of Sumba and NTT in general, for

example during ceremonies of pregnancy, birth, marriage, and death. In marriage rites, for

example, one of the stages of marriage called ngidipamama means bringing betel nut in the

proposal of the man to the woman's family. The women also provided betel nuts for the guests

who attended. Sirih pinang indicates a request and respect from the male family to the

woman's family, while the betel nut served by the woman's family indicates welcome and

respect for those who come. Sirih pinang is also performed at the death procession, the

mourners who are present are given betel nut, even along with the body, the family will include

a number of important items including betel nut to be buried with the body.

Apart from being present in traditional rites, sirih pinang is also present in every mutual

cooperation activity. In a marriage procession, the belis or the dowry is usually shared by the

26

male extended family. If someone agrees to provide assistance for the belis or the dowry, it

will be marked with the gift of betel nut. According to local traditional leaders, in the context of

sirih pinang is a signature on a stamp worth of Rp 12,000, not Rp 6,000 anymore, but 12,000,

so in addition to being a sign that it must also be obeyed (Dwinanto, Arif, et al, 2019).

Apart from the culture of sirih pinang, the social and cultural context that cannot be separated

from the people of NTT is the existence of belis or dowry. Belis in marriage consumes quite a

lot of community economic resources and is suspected to be the cause of the high number of

cases of violence against women. This tradition has been carried out since the days of our

ancestors, it has historical, economic, social, and cultural values. Giving belis or dowry is an

important thing in marriage. Belis is given from men to women as a measure of dignity and

socioeconomic status. Symbolically, belis shows the value, degree, and dignity of the groom

to be appreciated, respected by the bride's family (Wula, 2017). Belis, according to research

conducted by Kleden (2017) is a form of reciprocal relationship, where belis is a medium of

exchange between female givers and recipients.

According to research conducted by Boylon and Widyawati (2016), in the patriarchal and

traditional Manggarai culture, the female family has a special status since the family owns and

gives women to male families in order to continue the offspring. Therefore, male families are

obliged to give belis as a form of their gratitude and appreciation for women. Although here,

women appear to be exalted in customs, Boylon and Widyawati's research shows that the

currently practiced Belis has become a major concern and even a scourge for prospective

couples who want to marry (Pahun, 2012; W Transport, 2015; Amriatul, 2015). This particular

tradition does not only carry a burden for the groom but also for the bride.

According to Neonnub and Habsari (2017) Belis has negative and positive impacts. The

positive impacts include maintaining the dignity of the male family; the woman's family feels

valued for their services in giving birth to, caring for, and raising their daughter; then emerged

a new kinship between the male and female families. Meanwhile, the negative impact is that

the dignity of women is degraded because men seem to have the freedom on how they can

treat the women after giving belis; if they are unable to pay the belis, men feel ashamed and

must be willing to work for the woman's family; there is a conflict between the two families if

there is no agreement on the value of the belis; as well as causing debts when they do not

have assets to be used as belis so that they are stuck in a cycle of debt and poverty.

Belis or dowry is not directly related to the crime of trafficking in persons, a number of studies

have seen that belis makes women's position inferior, unequal, and helpless in the family and

society (Soares, Prabhawa and Sasongko, 2020). The belis and dowry are used by agents

who traffic people under the guise of facilitating residents to find work outside NTT. Families

of workers who are victims of trafficking are given belis or sirih pinang as a sign that their child

has worked outside NTT. The parents do not know what their children work as. Belis money

or sirih pinang are then interpreted as a substitute. This becomes an act of piracy of traditions

by labor agents in an effort to make what they do seem accepted as cultural meaning.

Piracy of this tradition then becomes one of the factors that make women vulnerable to

becoming victims of trafficking in persons. The study above is consistent with the results of

research conducted by the Women's Division of the Flores Volunteer Team for Humanity

(TRUK-F), which concluded that belis is a source of violence against women in households in

NTT (Samuel 2006). From 2012 to 2015 data from the TRUK-F Women's Division showed

that in 2012 there were 9 people, in 2013 there were 11 people, and in 2015 there were 5

27

people as victims of domestic violence caused by belis. The TRUK-F survey also stated that

belis is one of the causes of the problem of Domestic Violence (KDRT) in Sikka Regency.

Giving sirih pinang is a tactic of traffickers in NTT. Traffickers use traditional instruments, both

Sirih Pinang as a sign of agreement and Belis as a sign of exchange. The use of traditional

instruments in the form of sirih pinang has proven effective in manipulating the awareness of

the community and the families of migrant workers about the dangers of trafficking in persons

who are hidden through migration.

In most cases of trafficking, it was found that sirih pinang was used by the recruiter to

family/relatives. It is difficult to refuse sirih pinang given by recruiters, because refusing it

means disrespecting guests, not respecting kinship values that have been upheld so far. Using

the sirih pinang, the trafficker wants to be positioned as a relative, it is used as a means of

collateral to instill a bond of trust in the victim's parents and the community. The use of sirih

pinang has reduced family and community awareness of the dangers of human trafficking.

Employment

Employment Situation in NTT and in 3 Regions The employment situation in NTT, if you only look at the percentage and number of

unemployed, seems small, but this does not reflect the real situation. Out of the total workforce

in 2019, which is 2,477,703, 83,030 or 3.35% were unemployed (BPS, 2020). However, the

situation of the workforce in NTT is not ideal. First, part of the workforce only has an

elementary education, with the status of unpaid domestic workers, where most of them are

farmers who help in family farming activities and work without pay. Second, the largest

unemployment in NTT is 48% dominated by the workforce with high school education and

28.7% college education.

The large number of unemployed high school and university graduates in NTT indicates that

there are still limited employment opportunities for the workforce with higher education. In

addition, the high number of workforce with elementary level/equivalent education indicates a

high number of workers with minimum wages/income and unpaid family workers. The labor

situation that is not ideal also encourages people to become migrant workers with the hope of

getting a large salary to meet various needs.

Comparing the employment situation in the three research areas, it turns out that Kupang City

has the highest percentage of unemployment compared to the Regency of West Manggarai

and Sikka. The Open Unemployment Rate (TPT) in Kupang City in 2019 was 9.78%, which

decreased from 2018 that amounted to 10.17%. Along with this percentage, it means that out

of the 100 workforces, around 9-10 of them, are unemployed. Kupang City's Open

Unemployment Rate is the highest compared to other regencies/cities in NTT, even 3 times

that of the NTT Province's TPT which is only 3.35%. Meanwhile, the TPT for West Manggarai

Regency in 2019 is 2.42, and Sikka Regency is 3.56.

28

Table 7. The Unemployment Rate and Labor Force Participation Rate in NTT,

Kupang City, West Manggarai Regency, and Sikka Regency (2017-2019)

Year

Kupang City West Manggara

Regency Sikka Regency NTT Province

TPT TPAK TPT TPAK TPT TPAK TPT TPAK

2017 12,50 59,00 1,30 77,87 2,50 67,23 3,27 69,09

2018 10,17 57,67 1,19 67,24 2,43 70,63 3,01 70,17

2019 9,78 58,75 2,42 72,87 3,56 65,51 3,35 68,50

Source: BPS 2020

Table 8. Labor Force and Unemployment in 2017-2019

Year Labor Force (NTT)

Unemployed (NTT)

Labor Force(Sikka)

Unemployed (Sikka)

Labor Force (Mabar)

Unemployed (Mabar)

Labor Force (Kupang)

Unemployed (Kupang)

2017 2.398.609 78.548 147.434 3.687 126.162 1.641 179.561 22.442

2018 2.486.281 74.748 156.192 3.801 112.060 1.329 180.961 18.408

2019 2.477.703 83.030 146.139 5.202 124.105 3.003 189.746 18.555

Source: BPS 2020

Furthermore, the employment situation in Kupang City is different from that of West Manggarai

regency and Sikka regency. Based on BPS data (2019), the economic structure of Kupang

City is 82.22% working in the service sector, 14.04% working in the industrial sector and only

3.73% in the agricultural sector. Kupang City as the provincial capital is a destination for

internal migration and urbanization of the people of NTT, this explains why this city is the most

dense and most heterogeneous among other areas in NTT. Generally, the motivation for

people to migrate to Kupang is because of their economic motives and their motives for

seeking better educational facilities.

Meanwhile, the main employment sector in West Manggarai Regency is the agricultural sector

totaling 75,789, followed by the service sector of 29,723, and the industrial/construction sector

of 15,590. Then, according to the main types of work, the largest number of workers is

farming/gardening/livestock, reaching 75,113, followed by production/transportation

operations/manual labor with 20,519, then professionals, technicians, and other workers as

many as 11,929 (BPS, 2020). Out of the total 121,102 residents over 15 years of work who

worked, 35,457 were family workers/unpaid workers, of which 26,025 were women. This

means that the largest number of family/unpaid workers are women.

The employment situation in Sikka Regency is slightly different from that of West Manggarai

Regency, where the agriculture/forestry/fisheries and service sectors have almost the same

proportion of employment. The sector that absorbs the most labor in Sikka Regency is the

agriculture/forestry/fisheries sector, which in 2019 absorbed 55,240 people of the age 15 years

and over. The next sector is services that absorb almost as much as agriculture, namely

52,469 people, while the industrial sector is 33,228.

29

In the past one to two decades, NTT has also been recognized as one of the largest origins

of migrant workers in Indonesia. Even though the number of migrant workers in NTT is large,

this number is not included and is analyzed in the annual provincial/regency/city statistics

issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics. Therefore, there is no exact figure that can say how

many NTT residents become migrant workers each year, regardless of whether the migrant

worker is procedural or unprocedural. Below is a table of the number of migrant workers from

NTT in the last three years issued by BNP2TKI (now BP2MI). In 2019, there were 1147 migrant

workers from NTT. The main destination country for migrant workers from NTT is Malaysia.

Most of the migrant workers from NTT work as domestic workers, technicians, and plantation

workers. During 2019 the value of remittances from all Indonesian migrant workers from

Malaysia amounted to US$3.252 million.

Table 9. Number of Migrant Workers from NTT

Year Male Female Total

2017 264 1696 1960

2018 241 1836 2077

2019 95 1052 1147

Source: BNP2TKI, 2019

Based on the table above, from 2017 to 2019 the majority of migrant workers from NTT were

women. The number of female migrant workers is 6-11 times the number of male migrant

workers. Then the number of registered migrant workers experienced a sharp decline of

almost 100% in 2019. This shows that after the moratorium, the number of registered migrant

workers decreased slightly. As mentioned above, the high number of migrant workers from

NTT is caused by several things, such as the situation of structural poverty, the lack of

employment and sources of livelihood, as well as the low level of community education, in

addition to the political economic situation in NTT.

Human Trafficking in NTT and in 3 Regions Trends in migration and trafficking in NTT have also developed in line with the feminization of

migration in Indonesia in the last two to three decades. This phenomenon is marked by the

increasing number of female migrant workers from Indonesia who fill the domestic work sector

in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia (Tirtosudarmo, 2009, Tirtosudarmo,

1999). In NTT, women migrant workers generally fill domestic jobs in Malaysia. Meanwhile,

men especially those from East Flores filled jobs in the construction and plantation sectors.

The work context of women in the domestic sector is assessed as "dirty" work and does not

require "skills". In fact, the work carried out by these women is covered with pre-varied

nuances, indicated by the bad situation and working hours that even lead to slavery.

Although the number of migrant workers from NTT is not the largest (according to BP2MI

statistics), NTT is the red zone for trafficking in persons, even in the top ranks of regions that

experience trafficking in persons. During 2019, data from BP2MI recorded that from the

province of NTT, there was 1147 placement of migrant workers. These figures do not describe

the situation on the ground, because every week hundreds of migrant workers from NTT

depart for Malaysia via the ports of Maumere, Ende, Larantuka, Lewoleba, and Kupang.

30

In 2015 there were 1,667 women migrant workers from NTT who were victims of human

trafficking according to the Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC).

Meanwhile, in January-July 2016, there were around 726 migrant workers who experienced

problems or indicated human trafficking practices. This data is relevant to data on migrant

workers from NTT who died in 2016-2019, where the death rate was quite high.

Table 10. Migrant Workers from NTT who were Returned Dead

Year Male Female Total

2016 26 20 46

2017 43 19 62

2018 71 34 105

2019 (Januari-Juli) NA NA 119

Source : BP3TKI Kupang

Almost all the bodies of the migrant workers who were sent home were migrant workers

categorized as migrating illegally to Malaysia. In 2018, of the 105 migrant workers who

returned dead, 102 were undocumented workers, and as many as 100 people who died

worked in Malaysia. Then, throughout 2019 BP3TKI (now UPT BP2MI Kupang) recorded that

119 Indonesian Migrant Workers from NTT were sent home dead, an increase compared to

2018. Out of these, only two departed by procedural route, while the others were non-

procedural migrant workers. There were 117 NTT migrant workers who died in Malaysia, and

1 person each from Singapore and Senegal. Although there are various causes of death in

the documents for the repatriation of each body, this is often questioned. Because not a few

migrant workers are victims of exploitation who suffer violence from their employers abroad.

Table 11. Number of Human Trafficking Cases in East Nusa Tenggara Province

Year Total

2015 1667

2016 726

2017 137

2018 1906

2019 816

Source: processed from various media sources and victim assistance institutions.

A Tempo investigation in 2017 revealed that the case of the death of Yufrinda Selan, a woman

migrant worker from NTT who was a victim of human trafficking. After 10 months of missing,

Yufrinda returned to his hometown of Soe, TTS, on July 14, 2016, the day before her 19th

birthday, dead.7Although it was said, to the victim's family, that the victim died from hanging

herself at the employer's house, there were a number of traces of violence on the victim's

body. The Yufrinda Selan case succeeded in bringing a former police, El Tari airport security

officers, even immigration officers into custody.8

7InvestigasiCukong TKI di Malaysia, Tempo Magazine, edition 20-26 MARCH 2017 8http://irgsc.org/index.php/2018/09/14/diana-aman-dan-sakitnya-sistem-peradilan-perdagangan-orang-di-ntt/

http://irgsc.org/index.php/2018/09/14/diana-aman-dan-sakitnya-sistem-peradilan-perdagangan-orang-di-ntt/

http://irgsc.org/index.php/2018/09/14/diana-aman-dan-sakitnya-sistem-peradilan-perdagangan-orang-di-ntt/

31

The involvement of government officials in human trafficking syndicates was also revealed in

April 2014, when the Head of the Kupang Regency Labor Office Services was stated to be

involved in protecting the activity of sending of children to become migrant workers, even being

directly involved in making fake travel documents.9In addition, the suspicion of the magnitude

of corruption and human trafficking can also be seen based on the risk map of the distribution

of areas from the Suspicious Transaction Report (LTKM) by the reporting party to the

Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK). According to

PPATK, it is known that the regions with the largest alleged flow of funds for trafficking crimes

in persons are the provinces of DKI Jakarta, NTT, and West Java.10Furthermore, the trend of

submitting LTKM from reporting parties in NTT to PPATK has also increased, from only 3

LTKM in 2010 to breaking through 146 LTKM in 2014 and 138 LTKM in 2017. The highest

LTKM transaction nominal touched 12 billion, and the majority were related to corruption,

fraud, and human trafficking.11

The situation of poverty and low education of migrant workers is getting worse with minimal

government support and involvement of state officials in trafficking syndicates in NTT.

According to Penny, there are 3 reasons why human trafficking in NTT is increasing. First, the

government lacks the attention and awareness to see the issue of trafficking in persons as an

emergency situation, second is the high number of corruption cases in NTT, then the third is

the lax law enforcement.

The results of a critical study of the performance of law enforcement officials and cases of

human trafficking in Indonesia indicate that in addition to low commitment among law

enforcers, the role of the judiciary often does not side with victims and perpetuates impunity

for traffickers. One example of the bluntness of the judiciary is the failure to bring Adelina's

employer to justice, Adeline herself is a female migrant worker victim of violence who returned

dead. Perpetrators of violence get freedom and face no legal consequences. The trafficking

syndicate that trapped Adelina was also not disturbed, which is a reflection of how the state

and judiciary are absent and unable to provide justice to victims.

Adelina's case, which just happened in 2018, has become a highlight, not only for the public

in Indonesia but also for Malaysia. Adelina Lisao, a domestic worker from NTT, was found

helpless on the porch of her employer in Malaysia in a terrible situation until she later

died.12The situation that befell Adelina is not just the misfortune of a migrant worker who has

been subjected to violence from her employer to death. More than that, Adelina is a portrait

that shows the poor situation of labor and human trafficking in NTT and in Indonesia. Adelina

is also a victim of systemic and customary poverty which puts poor women in a situation of

helplessness and weakness. Due to poverty, Adelina could not continue her schooling after

finishing elementary school. Customs of the people which weakens women also weakens the

position of women, she was kidnapped by a broker who left 500 thousand rupiah as sirih

pinang with her next-door neighbor. Neither neighbors nor families with their little

understanding and information regarding migration procedures try to find out and did not even

9https://kolom.tempo.co/read/1065825/perdagangan-manusia-dan-korupsi-di-ntt 10Secretariat of the Task Force for the Prevention and Handling of TIP, 2018, Report 2018: Prevention and Handling of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons 11https://www.ppatk.go.id/siaran_pers/read/783/berantas-perdagangan-manusia-ppatk-gelar-sosialisasi-anti-tppu-di-kupang.html 12For a month Adelina was forced to sleep outside the house with her employer's dog, without food and in a condition full of wounds. Adelina was treated at Bukit Mertajam Hospital but ultimately, they were unable to help her because of her severe condition.

https://kolom.tempo.co/read/1065825/perdagangan-manusia-dan-korupsi-di-ntt

https://www.ppatk.go.id/siaran_pers/read/783/berantas-perdagangan-manusia-ppatk-gelar-sosialisasi-anti-tppu-di-kupang.html


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question this crime. The state also contributes to the poor legal protection for migrant workers

where identity falsification that facilitates trafficking in persons does not receive meaningful

prevention. The above systematic situation was balanced with the poor justice situation while

working in Malaysia until she finally passed away.13

The root of the problem that causes the situation of vulnerability of women and the poor is that

the migrant workers from NTT have never been thoroughly resolved and handled with genuine

policies and commitment from various elements, including the government, religious leaders,

traditional leaders, and other important actors. Thus, the vulnerability experienced by women

and the poor, which is so high in number in NTT, including those trapped in trafficking in

persons, is actually exacerbated by exploitative migration policies and governance, the

religion that is insensitive to problems, and patriarchal culture and customs that produce

violence based on gender.

Chapter 2 Summary Conclusions from the regional overview and the context of the problems in East Nusa

Tenggara and the three research areas described in Chapter 2 above can be summarized in

the following points:

• The economic growth of NTT is relatively low compared to other regions, one of the

reasons is that development in NTT is not evenly distributed, which benefits the elite

and the rich. This is because land, means of production, and capital are only controlled

by a handful of elites. Bappenas also found that economic growth in NTT was only

enjoyed by the upper-middle class.

• Meanwhile, infrastructure development also raises many problems, such as land

acquisition which results in the exclusion of the poor and indigenous communities and

the loss of their livelihoods as well as their sources of livelihood. Tenure of land that

is concentrated on a handful of elites and owners of capital causes farmers to have

more limited agricultural land ownership, which encourages people to migrate to

Malaysia.

• The level of financial independence of the NTT province and the three research areas

is still low, seen from the course of development and regional financing that is still

dependent on central funds, and locally-generated revenue that is still tiny, some even

below 10% of total regional revenue. Contribution of Regional Owned Companies and

Separated Regional Wealth Management to PAD also contributed the smallest figures

compared to other sources of income.

• The portrait of poverty in NTT shows a large disparity between urban and rural areas.

According to BPS as of March 2020, NTT was in the third position of the province with

the highest poverty rate, which was 20.9%. The East Nusa Tenggara Province Human

Development Index is low, which is at 65.23, however, the NTT Province Gender

Development Index is high, higher than the national figure in the 90s. A high IPG can

13Read more: Sahertian, Emmy, Adelina: Au Fain, Aku Mau Pulang, 2020, in the Memoria Passionis Bulletin Vol I - May 2020. Adelina underwent a name change and her age was raised 6 years more from 16 to 22 years old. While working in Malaysia, Adelina was also unpaid, severely malnourished and tortured, completely unable to communicate with her family, unable to fight back, even after her death she also did not recieve justice.

33

occur because the HDI of male and female is almost equal, can be both high, equally

moderate, or even both low. The latter happened in NTT Province.

• Most of the migrant workers have an elementary school level education. The low level

of education of migrant workers has many implications for situations of multiple

vulnerabilities that can be experienced from the time they are recruited, to the time

they work abroad, as well as when they return from abroad.

• The people of East Nusa Tenggara are among those who still uphold customary

practices. Customary celebrations involving traditional festivals at no small cost have

been suspected to be the cause of the persistence of poverty in NTT. One of the

customs which takes up a lot of the economic resources of the community and is

suspected to be the cause of the high number of cases of violence against women is

belis. The results of the research by the Flores Volunteer Team for Humanity (TRUK-

F) concluded that belis was a source of violence against women in households in NTT.

• The employment situation in NTT, if you look at the small percentage and number of

unemployed people, is actually not bad. Out of the total workforce in 2019 - which is

at 2,477,703 - 83,030 or 3.35% were unemployed (BPS, 2020). However, the situation

of the workforce in NTT is not ideal. First, part of the workforce who work turns out to

only have an elementary education, with the status of unpaid domestic workers, where

most of them are farmers who help in family farming activities and work without pay.

Second, the largest unemployment in NTT is 48% dominated by the workforce with

high school education and 28.7% college education.

• The situation of poverty, low education, as well as knowledge of migrant workers, is

getting worse with minimal government support and involvement of state officials in

trafficking syndicates in NTT. The root of the problem that causes the situation of

vulnerability for the women, the poor, and the migrant workers from NTT is that the

problems have never been thoroughly resolved and dealt with genuine policies and

commitments from various elements, including the government, religious leaders,

traditional leaders, and other important actors. Thus, the vulnerability experienced by

women and the poor, which is so high in number in NTT, including those trapped in

trafficking in persons, is further exacerbated by exploitative migration policies and

governance, a religion that is insensitive to problems, and patriarchal culture as well

as customs that produce violence based on gender.

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CHAPTER 3:

RESULTS OF THE SURVEY OF COMMUNITY

ATTITUDES IN THREE DISTRICTS

Through a quantitative approach, this study measures the attitude of the society towards the

moratorium policy and the human trafficking situation in the three research areas.

Measurements are made on three main aspects forming attitudes; Cognitive Aspects,

Affection Aspects, and Behavioral Aspects. The following are some general findings from the

survey in the three research areas.

Respondents Profile This study reached 1,173 respondents who were the people of East Nusa Tenggara Province with the distribution in 16 villages in three regencies/cities. The three areas include; Kupang City, Sikka Regency, and West Manggarai Regency with considerations as the base or origin area of migrant workers, but with different socio-demographic characteristics from one region to another.

Chart 1. Respondents Gender

Source: Primary Data

From the demographic characteristics related to gender, 57% of the respondents or the community sample were female. Women's views are the dominant feature of this study. Most of them have roles as mothers, relatives of migrant workers, former migrants, those who have experience in migrating, and who still have the motivation to migrate. Most of the respondents (58%) were workers, (25%) were housewives, and (9%) were students. Most of the types of work (24%) performed by respondents were farming.

The characteristics of the respondents in each region also indicate the diversity of activities. First, the population in the sample of people who have school/college activities is quite high in Kupang (15.2%) which is quite dominant among the other two regions. Meanwhile, for communities that do not go to school/work, West Manggarai Regency has the most dominant number (14.6%) compared to the other two areas. Characteristics of respondents based on gender indicate that most women and men work (33.33% and 24.64% respectively). There

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are 24.98% of women who identify themselves as housewives. Uniquely, there are more women who go to school/college than men, with the percentage of 5.2%, while men with only 3.41%. The number of men who do not go to school/work is more than women, with percentage of 6.22%.

Chart 2. Characteristics of Citizen Activities based on Gender

Source: Primary Data

The majority of the sampling population were married (75%). This marital status affects the

orientation of the attitude formation on the role/consequences and the responsibility of the

socio-economic aspects of the marital status. This also illustrates how the responsibility of the

NTT community to children and relatives is bigger after the existence of a marriage bond. This

marital status is illustrated as having a significant influence on the formation of community

attitudes regarding the object of research.

Chart3. Respondents Marital Status

Chart4. Religion

Meanwhile, related to cultural-demographic characteristics, the population sampling in this

study shows that the majority religion of the respondents is Catholic. The composition of this

religion can show the influence and outlook on the life of the community. In addition, it also

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illustrates the potential access to information as an effort to prevent trafficking in persons in

NTT.

Chart5. Crosstab of Gender and Education

Respondents in this study were dominated by female respondents with a basic education level

(elementary school and junior high school) with the percentage of 27.5%, and male

respondents by 25.5%. In addition to respondents with a basic education level, around 8.5%

of respondents did not attend school. Thus respondents with a basic education level of 9 years

or less are the main subjects of this study with a total of 60% respondents. Their educational

backgrounds and insights significantly influence the formation of society attitudes towards

moratoriums and human trafficking. Respondents at the secondary education level are a less

dominant style, but both women and men have a large composition to form a new sub-cluster,

with a total of 24.5% (women 15.69% and men 8.87%). Meanwhile, respondents with higher

education were less dominant, around 15%. Respondents with higher education are generally

in Kupang, while respondents with basic education or less are generally based on rural areas

in Sikka and West Manggarai. Variations in the education level of respondents illustrate the

level of literacy and access to media (both print and social media) which indirectly affects

access to information and knowledge related to this research object.

Society’s Attitude Toward Human Trafficking Reading on the results of the community attitude mapping in the three research areas shows

that the majority of the society of East Nusa Tenggara (in the sample areas) have a positive

degree of critical awareness of the existence of human trafficking. This is indicated by the

percentage of respondents' awareness of 50.6% who are aware of the practice of trafficking

in persons and the desire to report to the authorities to provide protection.

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Chart6. Attitudes towards Trafficking in

Persons Practices in Labor Migration

The formation of society critical awareness of human traffing is seen influenced by the degree

of knowledge of the issue in their respective regions. Measurement of attitudes in the table

above shows a balanced number between people who have critical awareness (50.64%) and

the level of critical unconsciousness which is influenced by economic considerations, as well

as ignorance of the situation due to trust in agents/recruiters (49.36%). This contradicts the

society's attitude towards human trafficking issue in East Nusa Tenggara. This contradiction

also deserves attention since the percentage of respondents who know about human

trafficking, but do not want to report it and respondents who do not know because they have

trusted the agent are quite high.

In general, respondents' knowledge about human trafficking is quite good. Especially in two

regions, Kupang and Sikka. Different results are found in West Manggarai, where 56% of

respondents do not know about human trafficking, as can be seen in the table below. More

than half of the respondents in West Manggarai are not aware of human trafficking. The low

access to information about TIP is shown by only 9% of respondents in West Manggarai who

claim to get information from the local/village government. The role of local government in

West Manggarai in providing information about TIP is the lowest compared to the other two

research areas.

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Chart7. Level of Knowledge about Trafficking in Persons in Three Regions

Information sources are an important component for society in obtaining the knowledge and

developing critical attitudes. Sources of information that sorrounded the human trafficking

indicate the dominant degree of the role of mass media and social media. In Kupang, the

significant source of information on human trafficking is the mass media, this indicates a better

literacy rate in urban areas, especially in access to media. The mass media plays an important

role in providing information related to trafficking in persons and creating awareness. Even so,

access to mass media is still minimal and limited in urban areas.

Chart8. Sources of Information on Trafficking in Persons

However, there is a different situation shown in Sikka, where the village government shows a

better role in providing information related to human trafficking compared to the other 2

research areas, although the figure of 17% is small compared to other sources of information

such as media, social media, and friends. This shows that the role of the village government

is important and needs to be increased to reach and provide information to prevent trafficking

in persons, especially in rural areas.

Then what needs to be noted is that schools and parents have the smallest role in the three

research areas in providing information about human trafficking. In fact, schools, including

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religion-based schools, as well as parents and families, are the closest sources of information

that can be accessed by the community. Apart from that, the role of churches and other

religious organizations as well as non-governmental organizations is also not mentioned here.

Furthermore, still related to the critical attitude of society towards trafficking in persons, the

results of quantitative measurements show that the degree of critical awareness of

respondents in responding to the moratorium policy on the placement of migrant workers is

divided into two, which is (46.72%) where the Regional Government must be responsible for

providing jobs because it has implemented a moratorium on outgoing migrant workers, and

(50.64%) where the Regional Government have done a correct effort in implementing a

moratorium because it is the government's duty to protect its citizens wherever they are.

Meanwhile, critical awareness that positions the moratorium policy as a violation of citizens'

rights to work abroad is shown through the low level of critical awareness.

Like the chart below, less than 3% of respondents think that the moratorium policy is a violation

of people's right to work. This means that most respondents believe that the labor moratorium

policy in NTT does not violate people's rights to work abroad. The moratorium is also seen as

the correct way to protect citizens from human trafficking. However, the community hopes that

the Regional Government will provide jobs.

Chart9. Attitudes towards the Moratorium Policy on the Migrant Workers Placement of

East Nusa Tenggara

On the other hand, as seen in the chart below, which shows a sizeable dimension of

measurement of value (38.18%) related to public support for the moratorium policy which

states that "The government's effort for a moratorium on placement is right" – as a solution to

the problem..

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Chart10. Critical Awareness of the Practice of Giving “Thank You” Money as a Start of

Human Trafficking

However, support for this moratorium policy is quite contradictory to the level of parents'

permissiveness towards “uang sirih pinang” or "thank you money". The transfer of money to

parents and relatives is one of the modes of recruitment for undocumented migrant workers

and an early form of human trafficking. The results of this study indicate that the majority

(49.57%) of respondents stated that the parents (victims) did not know that the money they

received was a payment in modes of trafficking in persons. This means that some respondents

think that the “thank you money” given is unknown or not categorized by the community as

part of the mode of trafficking in persons.

Furthermore, below are the quantitative results of the respondents' answers in the research

area regarding the three aspects used in measuring people's attitudes, including cognitive

aspects, behavioral aspects, and affective aspects.

Cognitive Aspects The survey results on the cognitive aspect showed that most respondents (47.78%) did not

agree that the moratorium was a form of violation of rights, while the second-largest opinion

was Strongly Disagree (17.15%), meaning that around 65% of respondents understood that

the existence of the moratorium doesn't violate anyone's rights. This shows that more

respondents believe that the existence of a moratorium does not violate people's rights and

has more positive than negative aspects. The data above shows that information on

widespread trafficking in persons has not been accompanied by the strengthening of a rights

perspective. Another conclusion of the analysis is that the moratorium policy is not seen as a

violation of rights, because there are alternative conditions that do not degrade a person's

rights.

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Chart11. Cognitive Aspects – TheMoratorium on Sending Migrant Workers

from East Nusa Tenggara is a Violation of Rights

In addition to a large number of disagreement that says the moratorium is a violation of rights,

the results of the survey also indicated that 46.29% of respondents disagreed that local

governments do not need to make moratorium policies on migrant workers because

employment opportunities in the regions are still limited. This means that some respondents

feel that local governments need to make a moratorium policy as a form of protection for

citizens.

This result is in line with the attitude of the respondents towards the community's right to work

abroad. Most of the respondents (56.31%) disagreed and 25.94% strongly disagreed that

everyone, regardless of age, has the right to work abroad to improve economic conditions.

This means that most respondents are aware that the community has the right to work abroad

to improve the economy, but this right is still limited to members of the community who meet

the requirements, one of which is the age requirement, that is, not under 18 years old or more

than 45 years old.

Chart12. Cognitive Aspects – Every Family Member regardless of Age can

Work Abroad to Improve the Economic Conditions of the Family

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Specific readings related to community attitudes towards child labor issues in each region

show a variety of situations. Out of the three research areas, the attitude of Sikka Regency

shows the most positive degree (disagreeing that family members regardless of age can work

abroad to improve economic conditions) compared to West Manggarai and Kupang.

Chart13. Cognitive Aspects per Region –Every Family Member regardless of

Age can Work Abroad to Improve the Economic Conditions of the Family

From the chart per region above, it appears that respondents in Kupang City have the highest

percentage of approval in the community's statement regardless of age, they can work abroad

to meet the economic needs. This is a paradox, considering that respondents in Kupang City

have the highest knowledge (related to human trafficking) compared to the other two areas

regarding trafficking in persons. This means that public knowledge of the issue of trafficking

in persons has not been able to or cannot be the only aspect that shapes people's attitudes

regarding the dimensions of awareness of child rights/age restrictions in work which have the

potential to become the practice of trafficking in persons.

Chart14. Gender Aggregation – Informationon Safe Migration from the

Government is Not Important, Because Everyone Has the Right to Migrate to

Improve Family Economic Conditions

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Furthermore, the opinion of the next respondent is related to information on safe migration

from the government. Most of the total respondents reached 81.33% of respondents stated

that they disagreed with the statement that information on safe migration from the government

was not important. Women's groups had the strongest opinion on the importance of safe

migration information from the government compared to men's groups. Thus, most

respondents supported the right to migrate in order to improve the economic conditions of the

family, but information on safe migration from the government is crucial in migration. From the

large number of opinions that agree, it shows public awareness, especially women, of the

importance of safe migration information.

Respondents also considered that the moratorium on migrant workers abroad had prevented

people from becoming victims of human trafficking. This is indicated by the survey results

where 40.31% of respondents agreed and 23.06% of respondents strongly agreed that the

moratorium had prevented people from becoming victims. This finding partially shows that

most people are able to link knowledge about moratoriums with the objectives of the

moratorium.

Chart15. The Moratorium on Sending Migrant Workers Abroad Has Prevented

Members of the Community from Trafficking in Persons

Affective Aspects In the affective aspect, this study looked at responses that indicated the degree of like/dislike

of the respondents towards human trafficking. There were a number of respondents' opinions

that were explored in this aspect, one of which regarding the existence of “thank you money”

from recruiters to the families of migrant workers, the choice of attitudes towards illegal agents

who recruit migrant workers, who are informed about the dangers of trafficking in persons

abroad, and how respondents behave towards events in the environment that indicate


The survey results showed that 58.62% of respondents disagreed and 30.46% strongly

disagreed with a statement that says ““thank you money” from recruiters/brokers is reasonable

for each family to receive. Therefore, I don't have to tell my neighbors/relatives that there is

potential for human trafficking.”This is in line with the respondent's answer to the statement "I

44

do not want to interfere in the affairs of neighbors/relatives who offer work abroad to their

daughters, as long as the broker has given "thank you money"." Where, 57.26% of

respondents disagreed, and 28.29% of respondents stated that they strongly disagreed with

the statement. This means that most respondents do not agree that: a) "thank you money"

from recruiters or brokers to migrant workers' families is acceptable, b) it is not important for

respondents to inform neighbors/relatives of the potential for trafficking in persons, c) it is not

important for respondents to care with neighbors/relatives who have the potential to

support/become victims of trafficking in persons.

Chart16. "Thank you money” from

recruiters/brokers is reasonable for

each family to receive. Therefore, I

don't have to tell my

neighbors/relatives that there is

potential for human trafficking

Chart17. I do not want to interfere in the

affairs of neighbors/relatives who offer

work abroad to their daughters, as long as

the broker has given "thank you money"

Furthermore, most respondents also seems to pay attention to prospective migrant workers.

This is indicated by the large number of respondents who disagree (57.85%) and strongly

disagree (26.19%) with the statement "I allow illegal agents to recruit migrant workers, as long

as they do not harm prospective migrant workers." Respondents also expressed disagreement

with the statement "I tell the dangers of trafficking abroad only to my immediate family," as

well as the statement "I do not need to participate in the anti-trafficking campaign because I

do not have any young female relatives who are potential victims of trafficking in persons".

45

Chart18. I tell the dangers of trafficking

abroad only to my immediate family

Chart19. I do not need to participate in the

anti-trafficking campaign because I do not

have any young female relatives who are

potential victims of trafficking in persons

The two tables above also show the amount of respondents' disagreement with the last two

statements in the survey conducted. This shows a) most of the respondents >80% do not

allow illegal agents to recruit workers even though it is not detrimental to migrant workers, b)

75% of respondents think that informing about the dangers of human trafficking should not

only be to their immediate family, c) 85 % think it is necessary to take part in the anti-trafficking

campaign even though they do not have relatives who are potential victims of trafficking in

persons. The number of female respondents who supported the anti-trafficking campaign for

the entire community, both of those who strongly agreed or agreed reached 47.7%, while the

number of men with the same opinion reached 37.8%.

In one component of measuring the affective aspect, this study also portrays the respondent's

attitude towards the role and existence of Law Enforcement Officials (APH) in trafficking cases

which show a degree of preference (50.64%) to stop the criminalization of law enforcement

officers who are solving cases of trafficking in persons through law supremacy against the

parties who does those criminal acts.

So in general, the survey results for the affection aspect in the three regions showed that most

respondents did not agree with the existence of illegal recruiters who were indicated to have

a role in trafficking in persons. Although there is a "thank you money" there and although the

labor is not harmed. Then, most respondents also really care and feel that information about

the importance of the dangers of trafficking is not only for immediate family or relatives who

have the potential to be victims.

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Behavioral Aspects Behavior that is reviewed in this aspect involves a person's response in doing something about

the object of attitude in the form of human trafficking in their social environment, whether it is

considered good or bad by the respondent.

The survey results, as seen in the table below, show that most of the respondents, which is at

the percentage of 42.78% agree and 29.17% strongly agree that brokers should not recruit

workers in the village at all. This is in line with the response to the next question, where 48.29%

of respondents disagreed and 29.27% of respondents strongly disagreed that brokers were

allowed to recruit in the village if they did not harm the residents. This means that on average

70% of respondents are consistent with the opinion that brokers should not recruit workers in

the village, even though the recruitment does not harm the community.

Chart20. Brokers are completely

prohibited from recruiting migrant

workers in the village

Chart21. Brokers may recruit and earn

profits, as long as they don't harm the

community

In this aspect, the respondent also received questions related to how the respondent felt about

the responsibilities of the family, community, village government, and community leaders. The

survey results show that there is a slight difference between those who agree (36.81%) and

disagree (33.05%) with the statement that the community has a greater responsibility than the

government in tackling trafficking in persons in NTT. This means that respondents are quite

divided between who is most responsible for tackling this problem in NTT, whether it should

be the government or the community.

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Chart22. The Village Government

does not need to play a maximum

role in preventing human trafficking

Chart23. Community /Societyleaders need

to be actively involved in combating

trafficking in persons, but it is their families

who decide

Most of the respondents disagreed (63.16%) and strongly disagreed (28.55%) with the

statement that the village government does not need to play a maximum role in preventing

human trafficking. This means that around 90% of respondents think that the village

government need to take a maximum role in preventing trafficking in persons. Most

respondents also agreed (63%) with the statement that community/local leaders need to be

actively involved in combating human trafficking, as well as from the families. The women's

group had a stronger opinion on this matter than the male group. This means that most

respondents think that family, community leaders, and village government have an important

role in preventing and combating trafficking in persons in NTT. However, the demands of the

community on the state through representation in the regions, which is through the village

government, are far greater than the demands on the role of community leaders.

Analysis between Variables and Clusters Cross tabulation (crosstab) in this study was conducted to see the potential linkages between

socio-demographic aspects of the formation of individual attitudes in responding to the

phenomenon of human trafficking and the moratorium policy on the placement of migrant

workers from East Nusa Tenggara Province. The analysis concluded from the measurement

of society's attitudes in East Nusa Tenggara shows that the people of East Nusa Tenggara (in

the sampling area) have a positive critical awareness of the human trafficking phenomenon

that occurs. This positive critical awareness is associated with a social learning process of

developing values involving individual or inter-citizen interaction, stakeholders, mass media,

and social media.

Even though it shows the formation of a positive attitude, the measurements carried out saw

an association with the local context related to demographic aspects which included the

dynamics of the social and economic situation. One of the highlighted findings is the specific

condition shown in Sikka Regency for the low level of knowledge about human trafficking.

Mapping the measurement results also shows the relationship between aspects (affective,

behavioral, and cognitive) and causality between them to form an attitude. This mapping also

confirms and refines the analysis on each of the aspects presented earlier.

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In the cross-tabulation table below, it can be seen the relation between cognitive-affective-

behavioral aspects that shape attention to the formation of positive society attitudes to be

involved in efforts to combat human trafficking. On the other hand, the measurements that

have been taken also show that people's attitudes in dealing with the phenomenon of human

trafficking still have a high degree of trust/confidence in the structural institutions of policy

stakeholders (government and law enforcement at the local level). This is indicated by the

measurement of the cognitive aspect which shows the trust in the role of the local government

in providing information and protection for migrant workers in East Nusa Tenggara, including

believing in the moratorium on the placement of migrant workers implemented by the

government as one of the protection measures for migrant workers from East Nusa Tenggara.

Table 12. Cross-tabulation of Cognitive-Affective-Behavior Aspects (1)

No. Aspects Questions Strongly Agree

Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q47 COGNITIVE Safe migration information from the government is not important, because everyone has the right to migrate to improve the economic conditions of the family.

1.20% 11.20% 6.24% 58.80% 22.56%

Q59 AFFECTIVE I don't need to participate in the anti-trafficking campaign, because I don't have any young female relatives who could potentially become victims of trafficking in persons.

0.34% 6.31% 7.94% 58.19% 27.22%

Q54 BEHAVIOR Community leaders need to be actively involved in combating trafficking in persons, but it is their families who decide.

13.76% 49.23% 10.34% 18.38% 8.29%

Measurement of cognitive aspects in this study is associated with aspects of affection which

indicate a positive degree of attention. This is indicated by the degree of dislike from the

respondents regarding the involvement of brokers or parties, who have the impression that

49

they are detrimental to migrant workers or have the potential to open up opportunities for

trafficking in persons. This is confirmed through the cross-tabulation which tries to map the

causality between the cognitive-affective-behavioral aspects that form an attitude below.

Table 13. Cross-tabulation of Cognitive-Affective-Behavior Aspects (2)

No Aspects Questions Strongly Agree

Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q49 COGNITIVE The temporary terminal (moratorium) on sending migrant workers abroad has prevented members of the community from trafficking in persons.

23.06% 40.31% 20.58% 10.67% 5.38%

Q58 AFFECTIVE I do not want to interfere in the affairs of neighbors/relatives who offer work abroad to their daughters, as long as the broker has given "thank you money"

0.26% 5.98% 8.21% 57.26% 28.29%

Q51 BEHAVIOR In my opinion, brokers are allowed to recruit and earn profits. As long as it doesn't harm us.

1.28% 14.76% 6.40% 48.29% 29.27%

Then in the behavioral aspect, the measurements taken also show a degree of positive

behavior as a significant part of attitude formation. This can be seen in the measurement

components that show significant attention to actions to support the Village Government and

community leaders to play more roles in combating human trafficking. In one specific

component, the results of the attitude measurement indicate the degree of preference for

actions or behavior as a community to be actively involved in efforts to prevent human

trafficking.

Cluster Analysis The cluster analysis in this context is intended to identify potential categories in the formation

of attitudes of the people of NTT regarding the moratorium policy and the phenomenon of

human trafficking. The survey results showed that there were at least three cluster mappings

based on the topics/variables used in this study. First, variable analysis with topics related to

knowledge about the phenomenon of trafficking in persons in the form of attention to attitudes

and cognitive aspects as seen in the table below.

50

Table 14. Component of Cluster Analysis Variable (A)

No. Aspects Variables Dominant Values

Q40 Critical Awareness 2

Knowledge of human trafficking in labor migration

Know and want to report if they find cases (50.64%)


Response on human trafficking as an emergency

Government and community leaders must promote public awareness (50.47%)


Opinions regarding the police criminalization against human trafficking

Police who criminalize must be punished (50.64%)


Opinions regarding the giving of "thank you money"

Parents do not know the potential for trafficking in persons (49.57%)


Responses related to high cases of the death of migrant workers from NTT

The government must protect citizens (65.13%)

Q45 COGNITIVE 1 Moratorium Policy is a violation of rights

Disagree (47.78%)

Q46 COGNITIVE 2 Every family member may work regardless of age

Disagree (56.31%)

Q47 COGNITIVE 3 Safe migration information is not important

Disagree (58.80%)

Q48 COGNITIVE 4 Local governments do not need a moratorium because employment is still limited

Disagree (46.29%)

Q49 COGNITIVE5 The moratorium has prevented the public from trafficking in persons

Agree (40.31%)

The results of the cluster analysis of variables (A) using a divider for the three clusters show

that there is a degree of attention that maps the different characteristics of each cluster. The

first characteristic is the sub-clusters (1) and (2) that have significant concerns regarding

knowledge of the issue of human trafficking and its relation to labor migration. Meanwhile, in

sub-cluster (3), there are sub-dominant characteristics in the community who do not know

about human trafficking because they still believe in labor agents/recruiters.

The community's knowledge base regarding issues in the characteristics of the sub-cluster (1)

shows the formation of society's attitudes that think the government and community leaders

need to encourage public awareness regarding human trafficking become an increasingly

emergency situation that is detrimental to humanity. Meanwhile, the sub-clusters (2) and (3)

tend to have the attitude that there was a lack of knowledge regarding the issue of human

trafficking because the government and community leaders did not provide information

regarding the issue. However, in general, the characteristics in the sub-clusters (1) and (2)

agree with the moratorium policy and believe that the government at the provincial to village

levels has full authority to protect their citizens from human trafficking.

In the analysis of cluster (A), the cognitive aspect shows attention to the characteristics of the

sub-cluster (1), in addition to agreeing with the moratorium policy on the placement of migrant

workers, which is the understanding that the moratorium policy does not violate a person's

human rights. Meanwhile, in sub-clusters (2) and (3), there is a potential tendency of attention

51

that positions the moratorium policy as a form of rights violation. Likewise with the belief that

there is no need to consider the age limit for working abroad. Characteristics of the sub-cluster

(1) tend to agree that there is no need for consideration of age limits. Meanwhile, sub-clusters

(2) and (3) were more likely to disagree and believe that there is a need to consider the age

limit for working abroad. Out of the three sub-clusters of characteristics of society attitudes,

cluster (2) actually shows potential attitudes in countering or preventing trafficking in persons.

Along with sufficient critical awareness regarding the issues and problems of trafficking in

persons, the formation of society attitudes in sub-cluster (2) is supported by cognitive aspects.

Second, cluster analysis is carried out to read the characteristics of the variable of behavior

and affection aspects related to the role of the society, village government, and the response

to the role of agents/recruiters in non-procedural migration which is related to the act of human

trafficking.

Table 15. Component of Cluster Analysis Variable (B)

No Aspects Variables Dominant Value

Q52 BEHAVIOR 3 The community has a bigger responsibility than the government

Agree (36.81%), Disagree (33.05%)

Q53 BEHAVIOR4 Village government does not need to play a role Disagree (63.16%)

Q54 BEHAVIOR5 Community leaders need to be actively involved Agree (49.23%)

Q55 AFFECTION 1 "Thank you money" is reasonable, therefore there's no need to tell it to potentially trafficked people

Disagree (58.62%)

Q56 AFFECTION2 Allowing illegal agents to recruit as long as it’s not detrimental

Disagree (57.85%)

From the measurement results of this analysis, the attitude of the society sub-cluster(2) has a

dominant degree with a positive tendency on aspects of behavior that are divided between

agreeing and disagreeing that the community has a greater responsibility than the

government. However, in the next variable, cluster (2) shows a dominant characteristic of

disagreeing that the village government does not need to play an active role in combating

human trafficking.

In the cluster analysis (B), the affection component shows the most significant characteristics

of society's attitudes, especially in the sub-cluster (3) which disagrees that “thank you money”

is reasonable, therefore there is no need to tell relatives if there is potential for human

trafficking. This is interesting because even though it has sub-dominant characteristics in the

aspects of previous attitude formation, the formation of community attitudes in the sub-cluster

(3) on the affective aspect has a positive concern. Out of the three characteristics of the

cluster, sub-cluster (2) still shows the most dominant degree of attitude formation with positive

tendencies in the behavior and affection aspects.

Third, cluster analysis is carried out to map the characteristics of the society’s attitudes

formation on variables related to the potential for active participation or activism against

trafficking in persons. Reading the results of mapping the characteristics on the three sub-

clusters shows that the attitudes of the community in the sub-cluster (1) dominate the

52

formation of affective attitudes that agree that they need to participate in the campaign against

human trafficking, compared to clusters (3) and (2).

Table 16. Component of Cluster Analysis Variable (C)

No. Aspects Variabels Dominant Value

59 AFFECTION 5

I don't need to participate in the campaign because I don't have any relatives who could be potential victims

Disagree (58.19%)

If it is related to the characteristics of the attitude formation cluster through analysis (A) and

(B), the minimal tendency of activism in the attitudes of the society cluster (2) can be read as

an implication of the dominant attitude in believing that combating trafficking in persons is the

responsibility of the government, so that people do not need to have a significant role.

Although it shows a positive concern in the formation of attitudes including cognitive aspects,

affective aspects, and behavioral aspects, the results of quantitative attitude measurements

show a paradox. The paradox shown is the contradiction between positive attention to the

formation of society attitudes towards the phenomenon of trafficking in persons and the policy

of a moratorium on the placement of migrant workers as well as the high potential for trafficking

in persons in East Nusa Tenggara. Further explanation of this phenomenon will be explained

in Chapter 4.

Chapter 3 Summary The results of the measurement of community attitudes conducted through a survey of 1,173

respondents (505 men and 668 women) in the three research areas of Kupang City,

Manggarai Regency, and Sikka Regency, showed a number of findings. These findings

illustrate how critical awareness and society attitudes towards human trafficking are in

accordance with the context of their respective situations and regions.

First, in general, public knowledge is still limited regarding to human trafficking, except in urban

areas such as Kupang where 80% of respondents already know about the issue of human

trafficking. This situation is different from West Manggarai where more than 50% of

respondents do not know about trafficking in persons.

Second, one of the reasons for the low level of public knowledge about human trafficking is

the lack of socialization, according to the survey, most information comes from the mass media

and social media, as well as friends. Results from Kupang shows a better level of media

literacy and exposure than the other 2 regions, as nearly 80% of respondents in Kupang City

cite mass media as their main source of information. Meanwhile, the village government has

a small role in providing information, the highest is in Sikka Regency which reaches 30%.

Third, 50.54% of respondents knew and would report to the authorities if they found out about

trafficking in persons, however, 23% of respondents said they did not need to report and 25%

of respondents said they did not know about trafficking and believed in

agents/brokers/recruiters. This shows that there are some respondents who do not have the

awareness and critical attitude to report when they encounter or experience cases of trafficking

in persons, and 1 in 4 respondents believe in brokers/recruiters.

53

Apart from the three general findings above, this study also explores 3 aspects of attitude,

including cognitive aspect, affective aspect, and behavioral aspect. On the cognitive aspect,

related to the moratorium on stopping the sending of migrant workers in NTT, some

respondents considered that the moratorium did not violate community rights, but the

government needed to provide employment opportunities. The survey also shows that some

respondents agree that despite economic hardship, everyone, regardless of age, can work

abroad.

The community has sufficient knowledge and empathy that children should not be migrant

workers. The largest proportion of respondents who stated that they did not agree came from

Sikka Regency, on the other hand, those who agreed that people could become migrant

workers regardless of age were actually the most respondents from Kupang City. Then most

respondents also agreed that the existence of a moratorium could prevent people from

becoming victims of trafficking in persons.

Furthermore, on the affective aspect, some respondents agreed that: a) "thank you money"

from recruiters or brokers to the families of migrant workers is not acceptable, b) it is important

for respondents to inform neighbors/relatives of the potential for human trafficking, c) it is

important for respondents to participate in the affairs of neighbors/relatives who have the

potential to become victims of human trafficking. In addition, respondents also pay attention

to potential migrant workers even though they are not relatives or their families. This is

indicated by the survey results: a) most of the respondents >80% do not allow illegal agents

to recruit workers even though it does not harm migrant workers, b) 75% of respondents think

that informing about the dangers of trafficking abroad should not only be to their immediate

family, c) 85% think it is necessary to take part in the anti-trafficking campaign even though

they do not have relatives who are potential victims of human trafficking.

Finally, on the behavioral aspect, an average of 70% of respondents were consistent with the

opinion that brokers should not recruit in the village, even though the recruitment did not harm

the community. Then, respondents are quite divided between who is most responsible for

tackling trafficking in persons in NTT, whether the government or the community. There are

those who believe more that the government has a bigger responsibility and there are those

who see that the community has a bigger role and responsibility here. Most of the respondents

also considered that families, community leaders, and village government had an equally

important role in preventing and combating trafficking in persons in NTT.

In the cross-tabulation analysis between the main activities and people's attitudes, almost all

indicators of the main activities of the community tend to have a positive attitude towards the

moratorium policy on the placement of migrant workers. They consider this action as the duty

of the government to protect its citizens. Even though it shows the formation of a positive

attitude, the measurements carried out saw an association with the local context related to

demographic aspects which included social and economic dynamics. One of the salient

findings is the specific conditions shown in Sikka Regency for the low level of knowledge about


The survey results show that the affection aspect is the strongest aspect compared to the

other two aspects. There is high affection and concern for the importance of information about

the dangers of trafficking, not only for relatives but also for other members of the society who

are potential victims. In addition, the results of measuring this quantitative attitude indicate a

paradox. The paradox shown is the contradiction between positive attention to the formation

of people's attitudes towards the phenomenon of human trafficking and the policy of a

54

moratorium on the placement of migrant workers compared to the high potential for human

trafficking in East Nusa Tenggara.

55

CHAPTER 4:

GENERAL PATTERNS OF HUMAN

TRAFFICKING IN THE MORATORIUM PERIOD

Migration, Remittances, and Moratorium The results of this study find relevance that migration is still a strategy for obtaining security,

both economically and culturally for individuals and families. The amount of remittances

calculated by the state generally only includes procedural migration, not including

undocumented migration which is a characteristic feature of migration in NTT, especially

Flores. Remittances are not only for the economic but also social and cultural. These

economic remittances from undocumented migrant workers have a major impact on

development at the village, community, and particularly family levels. These undocumented

migrant workers support their family and village income in the midst of the lack of employment

opportunities in the village/region.

Thus, the moratorium has an impact on reducing remittances that previously played a major

role in regional development and the family economy. Although there are doubts about the

management of remittances and their impact on poverty alleviation, compared to the income

structure of the community which is agrarian-based, remittances have a big socio-economic

impact on the people of NTT. The existence of remittances as a source of income for the

families left behind, both for the nuclear family and the extended family. In addition, the

existence of remittances becomes a tool to facilitate individual cultural practices, norms, and

identities to integrate with the culture of origin area. Remittances sent to families are also a

means of transforming family care. Remittances, at the same time, measure attention and

their relationship with family and relatives in the hometown, even though this means

impoverishment because remittances are used for consumptive needs (Gallo, 2013).

Economic, social, and cultural remittances for communities in NTT are a strategy to bind tightly

on the purpose of getting their existence acknowledged and recognized by local

communities.14The people's submission to their customs is manifested in the community's

obedience to carry out a series of traditional events/ceremonies which actually costs a lot of

money. In NTT and in their society, there is a tradition of paying belis from the groom to the

bride, belis in the form of elephant ivory and traditional equipment, which is huge in nominal

value, reaching thousands to hundreds of dollars.15For the migrant worker community from

14In this cultural practice that has been replicated for generations, how remittances are spent on traditional ceremonies or family/relatives is an indicator of the recognition of the community of origin to PMI. 15The people of Flores and Timor are bound by three important entities: religion, customs, and the State. Out of the three institutions, customs has greater control than the other two entities. Religion through church institutions became the second reference for society before they submitted to the state. Belis and the financing of traditional ceremonies are borne jointly by the bride and groom and the male family (Maribeth Erb,...). Paying belis and holding wedding ceremonies are the activities that absorb the largest remittances, followed by paying debts for departure fees, especially high-interest debt through loan sharks, building houses, wedding expenses, education costs, and daily needs. The church, as the second influential institution, has issued an edict so that the community does not force itself to hold traditional ceremonies and pay the expensive belis request, but this appeal has not been paid much attention to by the community.

56

NTT, organizing marriages under customary law, belis, and other traditional parties is a

bonding strategy with their community. Customary traditions are part of impoverishment, but

on the other hand, communities bound by this customary unit have strong community solidarity

even when they are outside their geographic area.

This research found that a large number of people did not know about the moratorium. The

research team was almost always bombarded with questions by respondents about what a

moratorium on the sending of migrant workers was, even though after getting an

understanding of the community, they could determine their attitudes or approvals and

disagreements regarding the moratorium. The number of respondents who agreed with and

gave notes to the moratorium was split in two. Respondents who gave notes to the moratorium

was also split into 2 groups, a larger number tend to be more permissive about the moratorium

as long as the government provided employment opportunities, while a smaller number

refused because the moratorium on sending migrant workers was a violation of rights.

Availability of employment is the key, as long as employment and living wages are not yet

available in NTT, the community will continue to strive to use existing socio-cultural modalities

to break through the moratorium limits.

There are some respondents who see the moratorium on labor abroad as a policy that violates

a person's right to work. Respondents who stated that the moratorium was a violation of the

right to work were generally located on an urban basis, especially in Kupang City. However,

one of the Village Heads from Sikka who was present at the stakeholder FGD also had the

same opinion, stating that the moratorium was a violation of rights.

“So I did state that I do not agree, because it violated human rights. If they

want to go there, we can't possibly prohibit them, we're in the village

asking people to go through clear rules. Going through the steps from the

neighborhood, to the village, and then to the related department. From

those steps, I agree. Second, in the past, there were quite a lot of cases of

illegal workers already, imagine what happened if the moratorium exists.

That's why we disagree. According to us, these artificial reasons are going

to keep increasing. There are so many illegal things, especially now, they

can't go because of the moratorium, this case will keep increasing even

more. Therefore, I said this moratorium shouldn’t exists.”

Head of Done Village, 22 September 2020

The view of the village head is based on an understanding of a rights-based approach where

work is a human right of citizens that must be fulfilled by the state. Therefore, the state cannot

prohibit its citizens from working abroad. In a rights-based approach, migration should not be

prohibited, especially when the state fails to provide decent employment at the local and

national levels. A rights-based approach requires clear and strong rules to protect citizens.

However, this moratorium actually strengthens the state's paternalistic approach where the

state only prohibits but does not provide real solutions to problems related to basic rights of

citizens, such as providing employment opportunities. The paternalistic approach shown in

this moratorium has had a real impact on the increasing number of cases of human trafficking,

especially on women and children, not only abroad but also domestically.

57

Efforts to break the moratorium limit can at least be proven based on the data on the number

of the non-procedural Prospective Indonesian Migrant Workers (CPMI) "secured" by the Task

Force for the Prevention and Handling of Non-Procedural Workers in NTT Province. The task

force, in a series of field operations, has secured 1379 non-procedural CPMI people from NTT

in 2018, and as of July 2019 as many as 684 people.16This shows that the old loophole, which

is returning to migrate through non-procedural channels, has also been tried, even during the

moratorium period.

Chart24. Non-Procedural Prospective Migrants Failured Departure

Source: Speech of the Governor of NTT, 2019

Through the moratorium, the local government tries to stop the sending of non-procedural/non-

governmental prospective migrants/CPMI. Meanwhile, the competent CPMI is also

experiencing hurdles. On the other hand, based on employment data at the provincial and

district levels, the source of employment in NTT has not significantly expanded. This

contradiction in the context of employment makes people try to find employment gaps that

they might still get.

These gaps include re-entering agricultural work, working in the tourism support sector which

is currently increasing in potential, especially in West Manggarai. A moratorium also does not

simply mean that people stop migrating, there are strong indications of a change in destination

or transit area as well as the mode of migration. Besides that, the impact of the moratorium

on villages has also begun to be felt where the reduction in working CPMI resulted in reduced

remittances and the increasing poverty, hunger, and also the potential become victim of

human trafficking within the region/country.

The cases of non-procedural CPMI departures by the anti-trafficking task force show that

during the moratorium period, the people of NTT were still trying and having the motivation to

work as migrant workers. On the other hand, this shows that people still need jobs and income

that is difficult to obtain from their place of origin. Alongside that, custom-related needs also

continue to go along with the life cycle. This factor causes undocumented migration to remain

an attractive channel when the procedural channels are formally closed. However, this data

does not reflect migrant workers who continue to depart through the new recruitment mode

and the old recruitment mode, which are not secured by the Task Force for the Prevention

16Based on the Task Force for the Prevention and Handling of Non-Procedural Workers, the Province of NTT has secured 3168 non-procedural CPMI from NTT from 2016 to July 2019. In 2016 there were 443 people, in 2017 there were 662 people.

58

and Handling of Non-Procedural Workers and the Anti-Trafficking Task Force for NTT

Province.

This can happen because the moratorium is not in a vacuum. In fact, kinship, customary, and

cultural ties have dominated the largest mode of migration for sending undocumented migrant

workers out of the country, particularly Malaysia. The strong bonds of community solidarity in

self-help or undocumented migration, which has been operating since 70 years ago, have

actually operated beyond the state. As evidence, procedural migration data from NTT are

always smaller than the projection of non-procedural/cultural migration actors. In large

numbers, people still feel that these kinship ties will save them from economic limitations and

restrictions by the state.

Moratorium and Governance Improvement, Are They Really

Connected? As the NTT Governor's decision in 2018, the moratorium aims to improve migration

management so that it can reduce the number of TIP cases. However, until the second year

since the enactment of the moratorium in NTT, there are no indications and evidence that

show improvements in migration governance. Migration management until the second year of

the implementation of this moratorium has not received significant attention. LTSA as a form

of procedural migration governance has not yet been optimized for its function, it has even

been freezed and stopped working.17

In the FGD with stakeholders from 3 districts/cities in the research area including the NTT

provincial government, it was found that the state had not really optimized its efforts to

eradicate trafficking and exploitation in a comprehensive and systematic manner. The efforts

made by the NTT government through a moratorium are still in the form of an ad hoc policy to

reduce the situation amid the high spotlight on the many cases of criminalization and the death

of PMI from NTT. In terms of human resources, the task force is a tactical step taken by the

NTT government, the amount of budget for both the operation of the Task Force and for

outreach to the community is still minimal.

The socialization of the moratorium by the government is still weak, causing many parties at

the community level to not know about it. Government representatives from 3 research areas

confirmed the lack of socialization regarding the moratorium. Funds are one of the main

obstacles to socialization. The still limited public knowledge about trafficking in persons shows

that so far the governments of the 3 districts and cities are weak in disseminating information

about trafficking in persons. The Head of the Family Planning Population Control Office for

Women Empowerment and Child Protection (P2KBP3A) of West Manggarai Regency

17Based on the monitoring of the NTT Ombudsman (27/10/2018), the LTSA office is not yet operational because there are still several things that need to be addressed. This visit was conducted to see the readiness of the unit to provide services when the PMI moratorium was reopened. (Source: Object Lewanmeru, 2018, This article has been published on pos-kupang.com with the title of Hasil Pantauan Ombudsman NTT di Kantor LTSA TKI NTT, https://kupang.tribunnews.com/2018/10/27/ini-hasil-pantauan-ombudsman-ntt-di-kantor-ltsa-tki-ntt). In 2017, the Ministry of Manpower opened One-Stop Integrated Services (LTSA) in Kupang, with the hope that CPMI will receive adequate information regarding the overseas labor market and the required competencies. (Source: https://www.floresa.co/2017/09/04/ltsa-untuk-tki-dibuka-di-kupang-ini-manfaatnya/).

https://kupang.tribunnews.com/2018/10/27/ini-hasil-pantauan-ombudsman-ntt-di-kantor-ltsa-tki-ntt

https://kupang.tribunnews.com/2018/10/27/ini-hasil-pantauan-ombudsman-ntt-di-kantor-ltsa-tki-ntt

https://www.floresa.co/2017/09/04/ltsa-untuk-tki-dibuka-di-kupang-ini-manfaatnya/

https://www.floresa.co/2017/09/04/ltsa-untuk-tki-dibuka-di-kupang-ini-manfaatnya/

59

confirmed that the socialization from the government regarding trafficking in persons was still

lacking so that the community's knowledge regarding this issue was still limited.18

The provincial government's moratorium policy to prevent human trafficking through this

moratorium has received support from the DP3KBP3A of District/City.19However, further

information was obtained that the coordination between the district government and the

provincial government was also not running intensively and sustainably. Local governments

also have difficulty interpreting and implementing the governor's decision regarding the

moratorium on sending CPMI with a lack of real support from the provincial government,

particularly in expanding access to work at the local level, provision of BLKs, and of course,

for outreach.20The number of BLK as a medium to facilitate CPMI training is also inadequate

compared to the number of workers who depart through procedural and non-procedural

channels. Currently, only 3 BLKs in NTT are operating. Meanwhile, decent work based on

official government data shows that the number of jobs is not yet proportional to the number

of the workforce.

The local government seeks to establish a series of procedures for the recruitment and skills

improvement of prospective workers, both inter-country and inter-regional migrant workers.

The recruitment of labor between countries is carried out by P3MI/Indonesian Migrant Worker

Placement Company together with the Manpower Office, in this case, a legal entity is

appointed, a limited liability company that obtains written permission from the minister to

provide placement services for Indonesian migrant workers. The recruitment process begins

with socialization starting at the level villages, however, this was admitted by the Sikka

Regency Manpower Office that it had not reached all villages due to limited funds. In addition,

all districts, including Sikka, do not have BLK.

“In addition to socialization, the company also recruits workers to be sent to

conduct training at the BLK in Kupang, after training there are 1/3/6 months,

then they obtain a certificate, they will complete the document. If the

document is appropriate, then an interview is conducted, after that, the labor

office provides recommendations in issuing passports for prospective migrant

workers. Meanwhile, for between regions, LPKTS, private employment

placement agencies, together with the labor office have the same recruitment

process, as between countries. The training is at the BLK in Keo, because

Sikka does not have a training center for workers yet”

Department of Manpower and Transmigration of Sikka Regency,

22 September 2020

DP3KBP3A from 3 districts, cities, and provinces in the research area also admit that this

moratorium policy alone is not enough because human trafficking is involved an international

network, across countries, and supported by large capital. The state tends to admit the

18Source: West Manggarai FGD, 16 September 2020 19Dinas Pengendalian Penduduk Keluarga Berencana Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak (DP3AKB) 20Especially during this pandemic period, the budget transfer in handling Covid-19 was quite large, so that the budget for activities outside of Covid-19 was significantly reduced, such as the budget for empowerment.

60

weakness of its capacity to reach cross-state actors wrapped in transnational crime without

showing any concrete steps that can be taken to reach the individual/corporate actors behind

the transnational crime. However, the state was quick to point out that human trafficking was

simply due to a lack of prevention and awareness at the base level. Even though the problem

point is that the case is not resolved because the state has not made serious efforts to improve

migration governance as the goal of the migrant worker’s moratorium.

"...therefore, at the root level, the families, the neighborhood can prevent

(the occurrence of trafficking in persons), so they can face this doubt.

When this (trafficking) cannot be prevented, even if the moratorium exists,

will continue. The point is that the moratorium is great, but that all

components at the base level must be able to prevent it and that the public

awareness is still given."

DP3KBP3A of Sikka Regency, 22 September 2020

A year after the implementation of the moratorium, the Governor of NTT has not shown that

he has strategic and comprehensive steps to reduce or resolve TIP cases. Even responding

to the increase in cases of death of migrant workers from NTT in 2019, where around 98% of

them are migrant workers, the Governor still tends to blame the perpetrators of

undocumented/cultural migration. This problem in neglecting the rights of migrant workers to

obtain protection and fulfillment of rights by the state is actually being ignored because the

state dichotomizes between procedural migrant workers and non-procedural migrant workers.

As quoted by Kompas (2019),21"This is the result of those who want to become illegal migrant

workers. So if they die there, we'll just bury them, what else can we do." This opinion shows

that the NTT provincial government does not yet have an adequate perspective regarding the

protection and fulfillment of the rights of migrant workers, both departing and returning through

procedural and non-procedural channels. Thus the moratorium is merely a populist policy but

does not address and resolve the root of the problem.

Thus it can be said that the state has the opportunity to strengthen its legitimacy in migration

regulation. However, the state does not take this opportunity by not improving governance,

providing jobs, and solving inequality problems.

Victims of Human Trafficking, Risky Migration, and Moratorium Why is undocumented migration is still attracting the people of NTT? In fact, the public has

often heard the news of the death of migrant workers from NTT who migrated through non-

procedural channels due to exploitation and trafficking of people and trafficking of organs. The

relationship with people's attitudes, mindsets, and behavior will be described below:

Socialization of the moratorium by local governments is still weak, as indicated by the small

outreach and budget for socialization. In-depth interviews were found to be different from the

survey results. In-depth interviews and data triangulation results actually found that the NTT

21https://regional.kompas.com/read/2019/11/26/13383081/soal-tki-ilegal-gubernur-ntt-kalau-sukses-syukur-jika-tewas-dikubur

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community's understanding of trafficking in persons was still quite weak. First, the community

always refers to researchers to first provide information about the moratorium and trafficking

in persons to then be able to show understanding, affection, and possible actions to respond

to the problem.22Lack of information about the moratorium causes migrant workers and their

families to not understand the prohibition to migrate. This is shown by the work of brokers from

inside and outside the village, although the number has decreased to recruit migrant workers

during the moratorium from 2018-2019.

This weak public trust in government-regulated procedural migration is in contrast to the high

level of public trust in brokers. This practice is driven by a large international migration

business that uses brokers to reach poverty-based villages. In addition, brokers become

entrenched because most brokers are former migrant workers from local villages who are

often labeled as successful migrant workers. So that the brokers with the prospective migrants

they recruit often still have close familial ties or acquaintances. This context is in line with the

findings of this research that public awareness of trafficking in persons is caused by the high

level of trust in brokers/recruiters. This research found that prospective migrants and their

families were not critical of the need for documents/procedures for migration because they

fully trusted intermediaries.

This research also found that the practice of human trafficking began during the recruitment

process by brokers. Sr. Eustochia from TRUK F, an advocacy organization for women and

migrant workers in NTT said this was because of the lack of socialization from the government.

So far, most of the socialization has been given to village governments, neighborhoods, but

there is no guarantee that this information reaches the general public. This is in line with Romo

Rikard who stated that the involvement of religious elements in the smallest government

elements such as the neighborhoods and villages has not been maximized.

“The public believes in brokers because government socialization is

lacking, there are but not many. There is no guarantee whether the

neighborhoods transmits information to the public or not because the

evidence is that a lot of people trust brokers. For example, the

neighborhoods say don't go, you will be sold later. They thought people

didn't understand. People would think, no way they are so poor in Sikka

that people sell people. With such limited thinking, it is difficult for the

public to grasp the meaning of human trafficking."

Sister Eustochia–Truk F, 22 September 2020

The community generally recognizes trafficking in persons from the death cases of migrant

workers from NTT who are victims of violence/exploitation while working. The community does

not pay too much attention to the fact, that generally, human trafficking victims are migrant

workers who migrate illegally. The most popular sources of information about human

trafficking are mass media, social media, and friends. This shows the magnitude of the

influence of the mass media, friends, and social media in providing information related to

22The results of the in-depth interviews differ from the survey results. The results of the in-depth interviews show a lack of public knowledge about the moratorium. In the triangulation with the enumerator team, it was found that the enumerator team and in-depth interviewers even had to explain the moratorium before the respondents stated their stance on PMI's moratorium policy.

62

human trafficking to the public. Mirsel, Robert, and John Manehitu (2014) stated that local

media played a big role in raising the issue of human trafficking in NTT, but there were few

opinions on the issue of human trafficking in 2010-2013. This shows that there is little

intellectual interest in studying and sharing about human trafficking in NTT.23Local media

interest also seems to have increased in the last few years considering that cases of trafficking

in persons before and after the moratorium are still ongoing. Representatives from Media

Timur Express, a local media in NTT, said that human trafficking is no secret, but difficult to

penetrate due to a lack of socialization, from the government and the lowest levels of

government such as neighborhoods and villages, so that many people are still being conned

by labor brokers..24

The Victims, and Society's Attitude to Human Trafficking The family becomes a micro context which is indicated as one of the driving factors for human

trafficking in East Nusa Tenggara Province. In this case, the obedience of children to their

parents causes them (although sometimes they are still minors) to give up entering the world

of work, become migrant workers to improve the family economy, and get out of poverty. It is

not uncommon to find cases of parents allowing underage children to go to become migrant

workers, even parents receive a certain amount of money as payment for their child's

departure abroad/sirih pinang.

Parents in rural areas are easily tempted by the lure of money that will be obtained if their

children go abroad without considering the risks faced. On the other hand, research conducted

by Kiling and Bunga (2019) shows that the motive for trafficking victims about why the victim

decided to work abroad is family. Four out of five victims stated in the study their reasons had

to do with helping and pleasing their family. On the other hand, there are factors such as a

patriarchal culture that discriminates against women and vulnerable groups. The strong

paternalism in NTT resulted in women having weak access and control in making decisions,

subordinate so that they were easily manipulated into victims of trafficking in persons. From

the explanation above, it can be concluded that apart from the cultural context, human

traffciking is difficult to eradicate because of the large number of mafias playing, government

officials are involved and parental awareness is low (Penny, 2019).

This study found that even female migrant workers who work through regular/documented

channels still experience vulnerability to exploitation during work, such as working excessive

working hours, short rest periods, being excluded from the outside world, and being cut off

from communication with their families. worship. This research also found that migrant workers

who go through procedural channels still experience other vulnerabilities, such as being

employed in 2 families. One migrant worker who migrated through the procedural process

even said that he had never experienced violence from his employer, but was diagnosed with

paralysis due to excessive working hours. Generally, they are only given 15 minutes of rest

during the day. So that actually and maybe without realizing it, the respondents experience

exploitation.

23Source: Mirsel, Robert and John Manehitu. 2014. Komoditi yang disebut Manusia: Membaca Fenomena Perdagangan Manusia di NTT dalam Pemberitaan Media. Ledalero Journal Vol 13 No 2. December 2014. 24Source: FGD in Sikka Regency, 22 September 2020

63

"(I) wake up early at 04.00-11.30 lunch break. Take a 15-minute break,

then work again until 22 at night. Salaries are received every month but

are kept by the employer. Until the time my employer asked me to go to

the bank to see the total and change it to the rupiah value. In the work

contract, there is a point that says I can worship according to my beliefs

but in reality, I don't go to church because there is a long history of

domestic workers running away when they go to church so my employer

doesn't allow it."

Access to and control over money is also severely restricted. Employers pay salaries but

access and control over money are not granted to migrant workers until before the contract is

completed.

For migrant workers who migrate through non-procedural channels, there is a tendency to

experience a bad situation since departure. During the recruitment process, the victim was

persuaded by a broker who promised them a good salary. The broker is a woman from Kupang

who lives in Bali. The victim did not know her, but did know the broker's siblings and parents

who were police. Victims do not have ID cards and family registries, brokers are the ones who

take care of all documents. They went to Surabaya, Tanjung Pinang, and Malaysia by

speedboat. There is no training, the victim is also not asked for a fee. The process is swift,

they only wait 1-2 nights in each transit city.

"When she (the broker) looks for people, we immediately look for

information about who MAL is, our broker. From there, the information we

got was that she was the daughter of a police officer (who is well known in

our village). So I decided to come because we are Kupang people, there

was no way they would con us. They said to go to and be a migrant

worker, but they actually sold us. The broker promised me what salary I

could give to my mother and children. There is no fee whatsoever to go to

Malaysia. At that time I did not have an ID and family registry, all of which

were taken care of by the broker. I do not know anything."

The results of the interviews indicated that brokers were generally known to migrant workers.

They are neighbors/relatives of a village or at least they are family members with whom they

recognize their kinship line. This often results in prospective migrant workers not critical of the

departure mechanism, the need for documents and work contracts. The results of this

research triangulation show that until now these brokers still live in the village and their

reputation is still recognized as brokers who arrange the departure of migrant workers to

Malaysia.

Migrant workers who are recruited by brokers through undocumented or non-procedural

channels are generally in conflict with their spouse/family or in situations of extreme poverty.

Respondents have a background of dropping out of school, living in poverty, and are victims

of domestic violence (KDRT). They generally have no experience working in foreign countries,

but their economic condition is what motivates them to take offers from brokers. In general,

64

brokers promise a large amount of money so that migrant workers are attracted to accept the

offer.

Apart from that, brokers also pay some sirih pinang money to the family. They give up to

Rp2,000,000 to the respondent's family when they arrived at the transit location in

Batam/Nunukan. This situation causes migrant workers to have the burden of continuing the

work agreement to Malaysia, especially when all documents are handled and held by the

recruiter. During the Tempo investigation, it was found that trafficking in persons involved

bribery and corruption from officers at the airport who arranged for migrant workers to depart

at the airport so that they would not be suspected. These officers are well paid by the trafficking

network. Part of the money earned is used to give sirih pinang to the families of the migrant

workers.

Based on Henny's statement (TRUK-F), the moratorium has absolutely no impact on the

situation of labor migration or migrants from Sikka. Henny agrees that there is a "new pattern"

in recruitment so that it is increasingly difficult to know the modes and methods.

The Sika people don't care and there is no impact. The village head also

cannot prohibit, "if the village head does not handle it then can the village

head gives us something to eat?" The decline was due to the recruitment

system with phase and cut off method. Now they use “new pattern” to

recruit individuals. The recruitment method using cut off network.

The high demand for migrant workers coupled with the need for employment opportunities

keeps the recruitment of migrant workers going. Recruitment has been carried out using

various modes, the emergence of new challenges, including the existence of a moratorium,

has made the mode of recruitment constantly changing. More details will be explained below.

Old Strategy Modes and Kinship Pathways For families in NTT, especially the Flores region, migrating outside the island/abroad to help

their parents is a common thing to do, the same is done by their parents (Kiling and Bunga,

2019). This habit has been passed down from generation to generation as a behavior that is

common in families and communities, across generations. Second, NTT has a strong tradition

of inter-island mobility in the form of a long historical legacy of cross-island shipping from the

Lamaholot people (NTT land and sea). The purpose of the voyage was to trade and migrate

as plantation workers on the island of Borneo/Kalimantan. The transition of Indonesia's status

to a country has implications for migrant workers who work in Borneo, part of which later

becomes Malaysian territory. The tradition of cross-island shipping began before Indonesia's

independence and has survived to this day to become a type of migration known as self-

help/independent/non-procedural migration.

In the tradition of self-help/cultural migration, those who come from the same area act as

intermediaries for migrant workers who need assistance in obtaining passports and visas,

providing shelter until prospective migrant workers obtain work visas, providing temporary

accommodation at their work locations in Malaysia, providing training work, to bring in cash

remittances to be handed over to his family. These solidarity networks are often brokered by

brokers who are usually successful former migrant workers who come from the same village

as the prospective migrant workers' origin.

65

Through self-help migration, people mobilize themselves for inter-island-between-country

mobility, they sometimes go alone or in small and large groups by boat from Adonara,

Maumere, and Larantuka to Nunukan as the border gate to Tawau, Malaysia. In Nunukan,

migrant workers take care of passports and visit/work visas with the help of relatives or

acquaintances who are also from NTT who act as brokers. Brokers also play a role in

accommodating and facilitating the daily needs of prospective migrant workers until they get

a visa to cross to Tawau, West Malaysia. Relatives who have previously worked in Sabah are

a social network that has a central role in finding jobs, accommodating them before getting

work, including providing job training.

Although the role played by brokers is similar to rent-seekers in the process of arranging the

departure and processing of documents, the results of this survey indicate that brokers are

still trusted figures to provide migration information and make arrangements for migrant

workers' departure. In this solidarity, traditional and ethnic ties have filled the empty space for

protection that is not provided by the state. In the context of saying 'thank you' for the help of

one island, one tribe, one custom, migrant workers hold traditional wedding ceremonies, held

from 3-7 days of slaughtering many pigs and cows to feed many people. Thus, remittances

are both a goal and a means to meet family needs as well as an investment in the area of

origin. These two models develop to form new models, such as tempered altruism and

enlightened self-interest models, where emittance as a direct result of migration is aimed at

the increasing attachment to the area of origin. So that remittances in this model are a way to

diversify the risk of migration from private risk to communal risk.

Even in the case in Done Village, which is the village in the implementation area of the

Productive Migrant Village (Desmigrative) program where the village head has stated that

there are no brokers who enter the village, but the village head finds it difficult to control those

who leave the village to work in Kalimantan or Batam. Even though the community also knows

that those who work in Kalimantan or Batam are one step before crossing to Malaysia by using

the kinship route. This can be seen from the departure process of these migrant workers.

“Since departing from Done Village, we have used a motorcycle to

Maumere. After that, using a ship to Batam. We stayed one week in Batam

to take care of passports.” (TIP victim)

The existence of kinship/community networks in the recruitment and placement of migrant

workers is a network as well as a guarantor of social protection for perpetrators of irregular or

non-procedural migration. However, this aspect is what the state fails to provide for migrant

workers who are categorized as non-procedural. The state also does not do much at a time of

economic impoverishment because these cultural impacts are profound. From the results of

the FGDs, it was found that the state that was embodied in the local government could not do

much other than provide appeals. There is no state policy that is specifically produced to

reduce the impact of this cultural impoverishment. The weakness of the State in the

transparency of implementing safe migration has actually become an opening for members of

the Adonara community to provide a 'new protection' role for members of their community,

even though this is done in violation of State regulations, for example: falsification of passport

identities, bribes to State officials to issue passports that are not compatible identity.

66

At the time of this research, several operating modes were found in order to leave the region

and enter Malaysia. This mode still takes advantage of the old kinship network, they move

from the island to the location of their relatives in Nunukan or Batam. Generally, move

individually or in separate groups. It is this non-procedural prospective migrants continues to

try to leave the village but is caught by the anti-trafficking task force. As stated by the anti-

trafficking task force, most of these non-procedural prospective migrants escaped arrest, while

others continued to try again until they managed to leave the area. Outside these areas the

document processing process is carried out, using both calling visas and falsification of

documents.

Migration practices like this are not easy to overcome with a moratorium, considering that

some people have been dependent on remittances for so long and have made working abroad

an important source of livelihood, despite the many risks. On the other hand, the efforts of the

migrant worker community to continue trying to migrate is due to information from their

relatives that there are job opportunities in Malaysia, especially in the plantation and

household sectors. As explained in the previous chapter, Malaysia is the main destination

country for migrant workers from NTT. The demand for migrant workers in both construction,

plantation, and domestic workers in Malaysia is quite high. Out of the 84% of workers in

Malaysian oil palm plantations, most of them come from Indonesia, this makes Malaysia,

especially the palm oil sector, very dependent on Indonesian migrant workers.25

New Strategy Modes During this moratorium period, it is suspected that a new recruitment mode was developed to

avoid the task force. The non-procedural migrant workers' departure mode occurs individually

with a cut off network system. Brokers in the new recruitment mode did not play the role of

picking up prospective migrants to the villages. Brokers encourage them to meet up at the

airport/port individually. Brokers also have intermediaries/messengers who are tasked with

meeting CPMI at airports/ports in Timor, Flores, Surabaya, or Jakarta. So that in this new

recruitment mode, the physical contact between brokers and prospective migrants is very

limited.

As stated by the anti-trafficking task force from 3 research areas, the mode of departure of

migrant workers is no longer as collective as it used to be. At this time they departed

individually and not through the airport. The land routes and sea routes are chosen by brokers

to dispatch migrant workers illegally.

Brokers do not only come from neighbors/relatives but can come from completely new people.

The introduction between prospective migrants and brokers was mediated by friends or even

through social media.

25Malaysia has repatriated 14,072 Indonesian migrant workers (antaranews.com) due to government

policies in dealing with Covid-19. The Malaysian government has tried to recruit local workers but has

encountered difficulties because working on oil palm plantations is considered dirty, difficult, dangerous,

and degrading.https://katadata.co.id/ekarina/berita/5f155f22ec261/kekurangan-tenaga-kerja-produksi-

sawit-malaysia-terancam-anjlok-25. This labor scarcity threatens to reduce Malaysian palm oil production

by 25%.

https://katadata.co.id/ekarina/berita/5f155f22ec261/kekurangan-tenaga-kerja-produksi-sawit-malaysia-terancam-anjlok-25

https://katadata.co.id/ekarina/berita/5f155f22ec261/kekurangan-tenaga-kerja-produksi-sawit-malaysia-terancam-anjlok-25

67

“The last few years, recruiters are getting smarter. (The workers are) sent

to Jakarta for theological studies or holy book studies. Every month there

is a sending of (religious) leaders to serve "spiritually" in the plantation.

Migrant workers have donations to build a church in Timor. In Timor, it can

be seen from the homes of migrant workers. They went overseas because

one of the members in the village was a foreman from a plantation in

Malaysia. Some time ago, some bodies were sent to the village."

Information from Yanto, IRGSC activist, in a group interview in

Kupang, 19 February 2020

The above statement shows that the involvingprospective migrants mode of recruitment is

increasingly diverse, ranging from the mode of education, service to the community, to fraud

and kidnapping.

Human trafficking has also found a new pattern in this moratorium, which is shown by the

increase in TIP cases in the NTT region as well as within Indonesia. In 2020, the NTT province

was shocked by the case of trafficking of women and children from NTT to become domestic

workers and restaurant workers to Jakarta or Medan. Some of them are still in school, but they

are promised to work for big wages. Some of them left the house secretly.

In this new mode, brokers have a much bigger role as criminals. A kind of kidnapping to move

women and children who are potential victims of human trafficking is done by manipulating

their awareness. Some even use manipulation in the form of intimate relationships in the form

of dating, to rape, and to force the victim to leave the area of origin.

"From the results of our assistance, we found that the mode currently used

is that field officers contact boys in the village, the method is to start dating

girls. So the mode of dating continues to be carried away. However, before

they are taken away, they made love to each other first. On average, they

were brought to Medan and Kalimantan. These children are minors.”

Sarci, companion of human trafficking victims

The case above shows that villages are still targeted by human trafficking because of the weak

access to information on the moratorium and human trafficking. This has resulted in brokers

still coming to the villages freely. The change in the recruitment mode used by brokers is also

intended to deceive migration officers and the anti-trafficking task force. One of the

respondents of this study is a victim of human trafficking where he was moved to his “training”

location from Surabaya, Jakarta, Medan, to Batam. During the training period, they were not

paid. Even victims who were already employed in the household did not receive wages.

The newest mode of recruitment and sending of migrant workers who are indicated as

trafficking in persons is to give a certain amount of betel-areca money, but on the condition

that the parents of the victims take prospective migrants to the airport to trick the officers. The

recruiter has provided the parents so that they can answer the officer's question that they are

sending their children on vacation outside the area. Parents are also prohibited from providing

68

information if this mode is known by officers.26Vacation and study reasons are also carried out

by giving airplane tickets to prospective migrants so that they can go alone, therefore they are

not detected by officers at the airport. Recruiters are devising a new strategy by using high

levels of family affection to break the boundaries of the migrant worker moratorium. With these

new modes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to prevent trafficking in persons in NTT. Police

admitted the difficulty of detecting trafficking in persons with these new modes in the FGD

conducted in this study.

“Indeed, the mode has changed, the nowadays mode is that they go

separately, not in groups, so they have followed developments, making it

is difficult to detect. If one group holds the ticket, it's easier to prevent."

UPPA Polres Sikka / Police Unit in Sikka Regency

This study also found an increase in cases of trafficking of women and children to become sex

workers in the closest tourism enclave, such as Labuan Bajo. Acute poverty conditions in the

villages, as a result of the moratorium and the absence of decent work opportunities, have

contributed to the increase in TIP at the regional and national levels. This is as stated by the

following local leaders, "The impact of this moratorium is very pronounced on the community's

economy. My village. People are having difficulty looking for work, so there is hunger.

Especially when more and more people are unemployed."

Society Attitudes and Human Trafficking during the Moratorium

Period This study found that key informants, mostly former migrant workers and their families who

experienced indications of trafficking or exploitation, also supported the government's decision

to impose a moratorium on the placement of migrant workers. However, key informants

provide this support with 2 prerequisites, which are improving migration governance and

providing decent work opportunities.

Interestingly, although the state has not succeeded in providing adequate employment in a

decent number, the support for the government regarding this moratorium policy is quite high.

This is inseparable from the bad experiences of migrant workers who experience indications

of trafficking and exploitation. This study found that this bad experience was not only

experienced by migrant workers who departed through non-procedural channels, but also

migrant workers who departed through procedural channels. What distinguishes the two

routes is that in the procedural route, the departure of migrant workers tends to be clearer in

terms of rules, costs, procedures, and the route from the origin to the sending area. However,

when working abroad until returning to their place of origin, indications of trafficking in persons

also exploitation continue.

In both procedural and non-procedural channels, sponsors and brokers alike apply betel nut

money that is given to parents or spouses when migrant workers approach the sending area.

On the other hand, the families of the migrant workers do not know what this betel money

26https://voxntt.com/2019/01/08/uang-sirih-pinang-dan-tiket-liburan-ke-luar-daerah-jadi-modus-baru-perekrut-tki/39099/

69

means. In this study, it was found that betel nut money became a kind of money to "buy"

migrant workers to be employed abroad or in the context of an agrarian society who

understood it as "mengijon", where they could get results even before harvest time, of course,

at a price that was not feasible. The recruiter's attempt to use the traditional instrument of sirih

pinang is a syncretism between sirih pinang and the belis money, which is culturally aimed at

respecting a given family, but the recruiter uses the instrument to manipulate family’s vigilance

over family members who go outside the area. Neither the migrant worker nor his family is

aware that this money will later be deducted from the deduction of wages the migrant worker

receives. Transparency and accountability in financing and sending PMI is still a big problem,

not only in NTT but also in Indonesia. The size of the deduction charged indicates that migrant

workers are not the beneficiaries of employment in this sector categorized as 3D (dirty,

dangerous, and difficult).

Apart from the debate over the authority in the PPMI Law regarding the authority of local

governments to implement a moratorium, local governments have not made serious efforts to

block the use of traditional instruments as instruments of human trafficking. There is no

strategy specifically carried out by the local government to prevent the use of uang sirih

pinang, although, in one of the largest human trafficking cases in NTT involving officers, it was

found that money was poured out, most of which was distributed to PMI families as sirih

pinang.

Key informants also suggested that brokers should be part of the evaluation in improving

migration governance. Nearly all key informants recruited from the procedural/non-procedural

pathways had a poor experience with brokers/recruiters. Although the survey results indicated

that the community did not agree with the existence of brokers, the results of further data

mining showed that the community saw brokers as outsiders who entered the village. What is

neglected from this statement is the existence of brokers who are generally neighbors in the

same village, even if they are still their relatives or people they know their family line. For

brokers who have this kinship relationship, the community tends to be very permissive.

Moreover, some brokers are also former migrant workers who are considered to have a better

knowledge of migration regulations. This weakens public awareness of indications of

trafficking in persons disguised as migration.

The above conditions indicate that the NTT government's decision to impose a moratorium on

only migrant workers who migrate illegally is incorrect. If the aim is to reduce cases of

trafficking and exploitation then this effort should be done by evaluating the departure

mechanism on the procedural route. In addition, both local and central governments must also

coordinate with governments in sending countries to ensure that migrant workers who migrate

through procedural and non-procedural routes are protected from human trafficking and

exploitation. The NTT government did not make efforts to coordinate with the governments of

the sending countries.

Chapter 4 Summary To date, the state also does not have a relevant mechanism to take back the authority that

was taken over by local communities through self-help migration. Although local regulations

related to safe migration have been made in several districts in NTT from 2011-2012, these

regional regulations are not effective because they are not supported by adequate

implementing regulations, budgets, and infrastructure. This is indicated by the low number of

migrant workers who enter through the procedural placement mechanism and cannot describe

70

the size of migrant workers who migrate through undocumented channels. Even the number

of migrant workers who departed through procedural channels was insignificant when

compared to the number of migrant workers who died from NTT. This shows that

undocumented migrant workers who are not protected by the NTT government through the

moratorium are much larger than procedural migrant workers. This contradicts the protection

mandate stated in the PPMI Law.

This study found that trafficking in persons continues to occur, one of which is the attitude of

the public which is still permissive towards brokers/recruiters. The old mode of recruitment

through kinship channels still persists. There is a potential for greater critical awareness in

sub-cities or because it is driven by programs that promote safe migration interests such as

Desbumi. On the other hand, the kinship network in Batam and Nunukan is stil l the modality

for penetrating Malaysia. A new recruitment mode with an increasingly open crime mode also

seeks tactics in the moratorium.

Progress occurs in villages where the village government has a good level of a critical

awareness on the issue of human trafficking, they can block recruitment brokers from entering

the village. However, recruiting brokers who came from the local village were not seen as part

of the traffickers because they were relatives, so there was no need to be suspected. Whereas

brokers in the new mode are moving more and more agile, they do not need to go directly to

the village to recruit. On the basis of rural poverty, brokers from outside can still enter by using

acquaintances from the local village. Traffickers have even used advances in technology and

social media to manipulate victims. During the moratorium period, cases of human trafficking

with rape were still occurring, persuasion to work with high wages outside the island so that

teenagers/girls suddenly left Soe, to then transit to Kupang to Jakarta or Medan. In these big

cities, they are forced to work as sex workers or domestic workers without wages. From the

Flores area, there is also still recruitment where teenagers/girls are recruited through

introductions on social media/other introduction channels to work as migrant workers or

domestic workers in the country. They were moved to cities under the pretext of training but

without being paid for months. Some who want to work as restaurant workers or domestic

workers end up as sex workers in new tourist destinations in Labuan Bajo and in Bali.

The attitude of society that makes it less critical in combatinghuman trafficking is that the

society is still willing to accept it, and many do not even question the intention of giving sirih

pinang. The use of customary practices by brokers causes the community to see uang sirih

pinang as something that should not be suspected. Respondents in this study and more trust

sources of information other than the government. In urban-based communities with better

literacy levels, the media has become the main reference. However, information from

successful relatives overseas is still the main reference. The lack of socialization by the

government regarding the moratorium and human trafficking has made several invalid

reference sources such as social media and friends heard by the community, especially on

the basis of poverty in villages.

Non-procedural routes experienced restrictions on entering Malaysia during the Covid-19

pandemic. The imposition of restrictions on movement and border closings by the Malaysian

government means that many migrant workers who migrate both procedurally and illegally

cannot enter Malaysia. They are then deported back to Indonesia together with migrant

workers who are caught without documents or have expired visas. Nonetheless, migrant

workers who continue to try to enter Malaysia via mouse routes remain as jobs on oil palm

71

plantations in Malaysia continue to require additional labor.27Many migrant workers have left

the village before the Covid-19 pandemic and are staying in transit areas while waiting for

gaps to enter plantations. This is in line with the data of secured non-procedural prospective

migrants by the anti-trafficking task force. As the task force stated that many more escaped

arrest.

However, many prospective migrants also experienced difficulties in getting out of Timor Island

and Flores because transportation routes outside the area were closed during the Covid-19

pandemic. Traffickers schemed by recruiting labor for employment on the island for both low-

wage tourism support and sex work. When Indonesia reopened transportation routes outside

the region, traffickers again recruited prospective migrants with individual lines breaking up

with destinations to big cities and to Malaysia with many transit points in big cities.

The moratorium has directly eliminated the income of the people who have been relying on

income from remittances. The decline in community income from work at the regional level as

a result of Covid-19 and limited access and community expertise to re-enter the

agricultural/plantation work sector has worsened the living situation of the community. Even

now, hunger and malnutrition apart from dropping out of school have been the impact of the

moratorium on migrant workers and the Covid-19 pandemic.28On the other hand, access to

employment at the provincial/regional level is also limited, as shown in data on the labor force

and job opportunities. The tourism sector until this research has not yet recovered so that it

has not been able to absorb a lot of employment. Thus the community becomes the victim of

being cut off from access to livelihood sources.

The situation described in this chapter shows that a moratorium on migrant workers was

carried out by the NTT government without contingency planning to prepare decent work

opportunities for those who are motivated to migrate, fail to carry out repeated migration, or

those who experience deportation.

The provincial government has also not made significant improvements in migration

management. For example, LTSA as the spearhead of improving migration governance as

mandated by the PPMI Law has yet to function optimally, while the number of BLKs is

inadequate, even some city districts are constrained in activating work services. The task force

that was formed also did not receive adequate budget support, so its function was only optimal

in the early days of the Governor's decision on the moratorium on NTT migrant workers. City

districts also do not have intensive budget support and policy references related to steps that

must be taken during the moratorium period.

From the above explanation, it can be concluded that the steps of the NTT provincial

government to address the problem of high human trafficking with a moratorium on the

placement of migrant workers shows the paternalistic character of the government which is

far from being an effort to fulfill citizens' rights and protect migrant workers from human

trafficking. This moratorium actually caused a variety of bad effects that the government did

not anticipate. As a result, migrant workers, their families, and communities must bear the

risks, one of which is the depth of poverty due to the unavailability of decent work opportunities

27Plantation, agriculture, and infrastructure work are 3 fields in Malaysia that are not closed for migrant workers. 28As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the community's income decreased and some experienced layoffs. Some of them work odd jobs and rely on government BLT assistance and assistance from the church.

72

at the local level. CPMI also carries the risk of being trapped on the undocumented migration

which is riskier because of the limitation of procedural migration in areas requiring

competence. Whereas the job opportunities available in Malaysia are precisely in fields that

do not always require high competence. During the Covid-19 pandemic, plantations and

construction in Malaysia as fields of work entered into by many migrant worker’s from Flores

and Timor still needed manpower. Thus the government's efforts to arrest migrant workers

who migrate through undocumented routes are in vain because as long as the transportation

mode for human mobility continues to be available. So that migrant workers will continue to

try to find a way out, even though the mode and means of transportation are becoming

increasingly sophisticated, complicated, and require multiple transits. This condition made

migration for the undocumented prospective migrants from NTT even more complicated.

The above conditions have yet to include the 'sophistication' of the tactics carried out by

brokers/recruiters and human trafficking perpetrators who take advantage of the moratorium

by recruiting teenagers and girls to work as workers on islands or in other big cities. The cases

found in this study actually found that the potential for human trafficking on the pretext of

working across islands is also getting higher. The sophistication of brokers/recruiters in

manipulating family affections so that families unwittingly allow their family members to

become victims of trafficking are not responded to with an equally sophisticated strategy.

Not to mention that the kinship system which has proven effective as a network for prospective

migrants is also continuously used as a safety valve when many gaps in migration are closed

by the Government. In fact, this shows that the state is still failing to provide a mechanism to

protect migrant workers that is able to reach the unique traditions of self-help migration that

are unique to NTT. In the context of communal communities in NTT which have a long history

of self-help migration, the moratorium is ineffective. As long as there are no decent work

opportunities in the regions, as long as there is strict adherence to the payment of Belis and

traditional ceremonies, the migrant worker community in NTT always has the motivation and

modalities to carry out undocumented migration. Moreover, this is supported by various modes

of transportation that are still running throughout the moratorium in 2018-2019 and also at

some time during the moratorium on responding to Covid-19.

73

CHAPTER 5:

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions The study, which was conducted in three regions, Kupang City, West Manggarai Regency,

and Sikka Regency, concluded that public knowledge is still limited regarding human

trafficking, except in urban areas such as Kupang where 80% of respondents already know

about the issue of trafficking in persons, while in West Manggarai more than 50% of

respondents do not know about trafficking. One of the reasons for the low level of public

knowledge about human trafficking is the lack of socialization, both from the government and

from parties with authority and influence such as churches, non-government organizations,

traditional leaders, and other community leaders.

According to the survey, the most information related to human trafficking comes from the

mass media, social media, and friends. Nearly 80% of respondents in Kupang City cited mass

media as their main source. This shows that literacy and public exposure to media in urban

areas are higher and better than in suburban and rural areas. Meanwhile, the village

government has a small role in providing information, the highest is in Sikka Regency which

reaches 30%. This lack of socialization was acknowledged by all parties who attended the

stakeholder FGD, both from representatives of local government, church representatives, and

non-governmental organizations.

Lack of public knowledge regarding human trafficking is also associated with society's

attitudes towards human trafficking. Although 50.54% of respondents answered that they

knew about human trafficking and would report to the authorities if they knew of the cases,

23% of respondents said they did not need to report, and 25% of respondents said they did

not know about human trafficking and believed in agents/brokers/recruiters. This shows that

some respondents do not have the awareness and critical attitude to report when they

encounter or experience cases of trafficking in persons, and 1 in 4 respondents believe in

brokers/recruiters.

On the cognitive aspect, related to the moratorium on stopping the sending of migrant workers

in NTT, some respondents considered that the moratorium did not violate community rights,

but the government needed to provide employment opportunities. The survey also shows that

some respondents agree that even though there is economic hardship, everyone regardless

of age can work abroad. There is awareness in society that children should not be migrant

workers. The largest proportion of respondents who stated that they did not agree came from

Sikka Regency, on the other hand, those who agreed that people could become migrant

workers regardless of age were actually the most respondents from Kupang. Then most

respondents also agreed that the existence of a moratorium could prevent people from

becoming victims of human trafficking.

Furthermore, on the affective aspect, some respondents agreed that: a) "thank you money"

from recruiters or brokers to the families of migrant workers is not acceptable, b) it is important

74

for respondents to inform neighbors/relatives of the potential to become victim of human

trafficking, c) it is important for respondents to participate on the affairs of neighbors/relatives

who have the potential to support/become victims of trafficking in persons. In addition,

respondents also pay attention to potential migrant workers even though they are not relatives

or their families. This is indicated by the survey results: a) most of the respondents >80% do

not allow illegal agents to recruit workers even though it is not detrimental to migrant workers,

b) 75% of respondents think that informing about the dangers of human trafficking should not

only be to their immediate family, c ) 85% think it is necessary to take part in the anti-trafficking

campaign even though they do not have relatives who are potential victims of human

trafficking.

So in general, the survey results for the affection aspect in the three regions show that most

respondents do not agree with the existence of illegal recruiters who are indicated to have a

role in trafficking in persons. Although there is "thank you money" there and although the labor

is not harmed. Then, most respondents also really care and feel that information about the

dangers of trafficking in persons is important not only for immediate family, or only if the

respondent has relatives who are potential victims.

Finally, on the behavioral aspect, an average of 70% of respondents were consistent with the

opinion that brokers should not recruit in the village, even though the recruitment did not harm

the community. Then, respondents are quite divided between who is most responsible for

tackling human trafficking in NTT, whether the government or the society. There are those

who believe that the government has a bigger responsibility and there are those who see that

the society has a bigger role and responsibility here. Most of the respondents also considered

that families, community leaders, and village government had an equally important role in

preventing and combating human trafficking in NTT.

The survey results show that the affection aspect is the strongest aspect compared to the

other two aspects. There are high affection and concern for the importance of information

about the dangers of human trafficking not only for relatives but also for other members of the

community who are potential victims. In addition, the results of measuring this quantitative

attitude indicate a paradox. The paradox shown is the contradiction between positive attention

to the formation of society attitudes towards the phenomenon of trafficking in persons and the

policy of a moratorium on the placement of migrant workers and the high potential of human

trafficking in East Nusa Tenggara.

In the cross-tabulation analysis between the main activities and the attitudes of the community,

almost all indicators of the main activities of the community have a tendency towards a positive

attitude towards the moratorium policy on the placement of migrant workers as the

government's duty to protect its citizens, especially in the main activities of school/college

which show a significant degree.

Even though it shows the formation of a positive attitude, the measurements carried out saw

an association with the local context related to demographic aspects which included the

dynamics of the social and economic situation. One of the most prominent findings is the

specific conditions shown in Sikka Regency for the low level of knowledge about trafficking in

persons.

75

Although it shows a positive concern in the formation of attitudes including cognitive aspects,

affective aspects, and behavioral aspects, the results of quantitative attitude measurements

show a paradox. The paradox shown is the contradiction between positive attention to the

formation of society attitudes towards the phenomenon of trafficking in persons and the policy

of a moratorium on the placement of migrant workers and the high potential for human

trafficing in East Nusa Tenggara.

This study found that the high critical awareness or attitude of the community against human

trafficing has not been able to become a strategic modality to solve the cases in East Nusa

Tenggara. However, this modality becomes less useful because the state is still negligent in

providing protection to its citizens. The moratorium policy on the placement of migrant workers

emerged as an expression of typical paternal protection. However, this protection does not

appear in a structural framework in the spirit of protecting and fulfilling the rights of citizens.

This is indicated by the expression of protection which is not followed by improvements in the

governance of the protection and placement of migrant workers, provision of employment

opportunities, improvement of information dissemination on the protection of migrant workers,

and trafficking in persons or other alternative conditions to cut off trafficking in persons. On

the other hand, private agencies (brokers) have the potential for bad trafficking in persons due

to poor governance of migration and the prevention of trafficking in persons. The paternalistic

expression contained in this moratorium ignores the position of society as a "public force" that

can actively change the phenomenon of trafficking in persons in East Nusa Tenggara.

Furthermore, this study found that migration is still a strategy to obtain economic and cultural

security for people in NTT. Migration then generates remittances which not only help the family

and community economy but also support development at the local level. The existence of a

moratorium inevitably has an impact on the economy of families and communities by

decreasing remittances.

Through the moratorium, the local government is trying to stop sending prospective migrants

through non-procedural channels. However, there is no visible expansion of employment in

NTT, so that people try to find other sources of livelihood, such as returning to the agricultural

sector or entering the tourism sector. However, public knowledge about the moratorium is still

limited. This research finds that the socialization of the moratorium by the government is quite

weak. One of the reasons is budget problems, lack of coordination, and real support from the

provincial government, particularly in expanding access to work at the local level, providing

BLKs, and expanding outreach.

Weak socialization is in line with people's weak trust in the government. Meanwhile, the

community still has high trust in brokers. The survey findings show that the community's

negative attitude towards brokers only applies to brokers/recruiters from outside the village.

There is a strong indication that the community sees recruiters from within the village/relatives

not as brokers. In the old recruitment mode, most recruiters were complete migrants from local

villages who were known as successful migrant workers and the community already knew

each other, so that they were easy to trust. In the new recruitment mode, the recruiter is not

always family but acquaintances who are connected by relatives or friends or people they just

met on social media. The findings of this research emphasize the vulnerability of migrant

workers that the public is not aware of trafficking in persons due to the high level of trust in

brokers/recruiters, both relatives and acquaintances.

76

This research found that a large number of people did not know about the moratorium. After

getting to an understanding, the community can determine their attitude about the moratorium.

The attitude of the community in a larger number tends to be more permissive with the

moratorium as long as the government provides employment opportunities, while a smaller

number refuses because the moratorium on sending migrant workers is a violation of their

rights. Therefore, the availability of jobs is the key in reducing the urge to go abroad.

Public support regarding this moratorium policy is quite high because of the bad experiences

experienced by migrant workers who migrate through non-procedural channels. In fact,

migrant workers who go through procedural and non-procedural channels alike face

vulnerabilities when working abroad and returning to their places of origin. This shows that the

government's decision to impose a moratorium on non-procedural channels is inappropriate.

Moreover, coordination with destination countries is also not carried out to ensure the safety

of migrant workers.

To date, the state also does not have a relevant mechanism to take back the authority that

was taken over by local communities through self-help migration. This is indicated by the low

number of migrant workers who enter through the procedural placement mechanism and

cannot describe the size of migrant workers who work through undocumented channels. This

shows that the undocumented migrant workers who are not protected by the NTT government

through the moratorium are much larger than the procedural PMI. This contradicts the

protection mandate stated in the PPMI Law.

This study found that trafficking in persons continues to occur, one of which is the attitude of

the public which is still permissive towards brokers/recruiters. The old mode of recruitment

through kinship channels still persists. In suburban areas or those with better critical

awareness due to being a Desbumi (Village Cares for Migrant Workers) village, kinship

network in Batam, Nunukan is still a method to penetrate Malaysia. A new recruitment mode

with an increasingly open crime mode also seeks tactics in the moratorium.

Progress occurs in villages where the village government has a good level of critical

awareness on the issue of human trafficking, they can block recruitment brokers from entering

the village. However, recruiting brokers who came from the local village were not seen as part

of the traffickers because they were relatives, so there was no need for suspicion. Whereas

brokers in the new mode are more agile, they do not need to go directly to the village to recruit.

Traffickers have even used advances in technology and social media to manipulate victims.

During the moratorium period, cases of human trafficking for the purpose of rape, and where

they are persuaded to work with high wages outside, actually increased. In these big cities,

they are forced to work as sex workers or domestic workers without wages. The victims of

human trafficking were moved to cities under the pretext of training but without being paid for

months.

The attitude of society that causes them to be less critical in fighting trafficking in persons is

that they are still willing to accept, even many do not question the purpose of giving sirih

pinang. The use of customary practices by brokers causes the community to see sirihpinang

as something that should not be suspected. Respondents in this study believe more in other

sources of information rather than the government. In urban-based communities with better

literacy levels, the media has become the main reference. However, information from

successful relatives overseas is still the main reference. The lack of socialization by the

77

government regarding the moratorium and TIP has made several invalid referral sources, such

as social media and tall-tale of friends heard by the community, especially on the basis of

poverty in villages.

Non-procedural routes have restricted access to Malaysia after the Covid-19 pandemic. The

implementation of restrictions on movement and border closing by the Malaysian government

prevented many procedural Indonesian migrant workers from entering Malaysia. They were

then deported back to Indonesia together with migrant workers who were caught without

documents or their visas had expired. However, Indonesian migrant workers, which continues

to try to enter Malaysia through hidden routes, is still around because jobs in oil palm

plantations in Malaysia continue to require additional labor.29Many migrant workers who had

left the village before the Covid-19 pandemic remained in transit areas while waiting for gaps

to enter the plantations. This is in line with the prospective migrants data, which shows that

they migrated illegally and was 'caught' by the anti-trafficking task force. As the task force

stated that many more escaped arrest. When Indonesia reopened transportation routes

outside the region, traffickers again recruited prospective migrants using individual lines with

destinations to big cities and to Malaysia with many transit points in big cities.

The moratorium has directly eliminated the income of the people who have been relying on

remittances. Even now, hunger and malnutrition, apart from dropping out of school, have been

the impact of the moratorium on migrant workers and the Covid-19 pandemic.30On the other

hand, access to employment at the provincial/regional level is also limited, as shown in data

on the labor force and job opportunities. Thus, the community becomes the victim of being cut

off from access to livelihood sources.

The situation described in this chapter, shows that the NTT government has implemented a

moratorium on the placement of migrant workers without a contingency plan to prepare decent

work opportunities for those who are motivated to migrate, fail to carry out repeated migration,

or deported.

The provincial government has also not made significant improvements in migration

management. For example, LTSA, as the spearhead of improving migration governance as

mandated by the PPMI Law, has yet to function optimally, while the number of Work Training

Center / BLKs is not yet adequate, and even some districts and cities are constrained in

activating work services. The task force that was formed also did not receive adequate budget

support, so its function was only optimal in the early days of the Governor's decision on the

NTT moratorium. Cities and regencies also do not have budget support and intensive policy

references related to what steps that must be taken during the moratorium period.

From the explanation above, it can be concluded that the steps of the NTT provincial

government to address the problem of high human trafficking with a moratorium on the

placement of migrant workers shows the paternalistic character of the government which is

far from efforts to fulfill citizen rights and protect migrant workers from human trafficking. This

29Plantation, agriculture, and infrastructure work are 3 fields in Malaysia that are not closed for migrant workers. 30As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the community's income decreased and some experienced layoffs. Some of them work odd jobs and rely on government BLT assistance and assistance from the church.

78

moratorium actually caused a variety of bad effects that the government did not anticipate. As

a result, migrant workers, their families, and communities must bear the risks, one of which is

the depth of poverty due to the unavailability of decent work opportunities at the local level.

Prospective migrants also carries the risk of being trapped at the risk of undocumented

migration which is riskier because of the limitation of procedural migration in areas requiring

competence. Thus, the government's efforts to arrest non-procedural migrant workers are in

vain, because as long as the mode of transportation for human mobility continues to be

available, migrant workers will continue to try to find a way out, even though the modes and

means of transportation are becoming increasingly sophisticated, complicated and require

multiple transits. This condition made migration for the undocumented prospective migrants

from NTT even more complicated.

The cases in this study actually found that the potential for human trafficking on the pretext of

working across islands is also getting higher. The sophistication of brokers/recruiters in

manipulating family affections, so that the families unwittingly allow their family members to

become victims of trafficking, are not responded to with an equally sophisticated strategy. Not

to mention that the kinship system which has proven effective as a network for CPMI is also

continuously used as a safety valve when many gaps in migration are closed by the

Government. In fact, this shows that the state is still failing to provide protection mechanisms

capable of reaching the uniqueness of the tradition of self-help migration that is unique to NTT.

In the context of communal communities in NTT which have a long history of self-help

migration, the moratorium is ineffective. As long as there are no decent work opportunities in

the regions, as long as there is strict adherence to belis and traditional ceremonies, the migrant

worker community in NTT will always have the motivation to undertake undocumented

migration. Moreover, this is supported by various modes of transportation that are still running

throughout the moratorium in 2018-2019 and also at some time during the moratorium

responding to Covid-19.

Recommendations Indonesia’s National Government:

• The national government, through the Ministry of Manpower ot the Republic of

Indonesia and BP2MI, needs to immediately evaluate the impact of the moratorium in

NTT. This needs to be done immediately so that other regions do not repeat the

moratorium as a 'fire fighting' strategy for the high number of human trafficking cases.

NTT Provincial Government:

• The NTT government needs to evaluate the moratorium on the placement of migrant

workers by looking at the authority in the law, its effect on reducing human trafficking,

and its impact on decreasing the economic capacity of the community.

• The Provincial Government needs to immediately coordinate and evaluate the

moratorium with local governments to hear about the situation in the regions and

equalize steps in preventing human trafficking.

• The Provincial Government needs to immediately coordinate and evaluate the

moratorium with other provincial governments considering that, during the Covid-19

Pandemic, the departure of people to be trafficked abroad was increasingly limited so

79

that they were sent to other provinces. This is important, in regards to know about the

situation in the regions and strengthening the steps in preventing human trafficking.

• The government needs to respond to the high hopes and trust of the public in the state

by positioning itself as the main actor in preventing human trafficking.

• It is necessary to intensify the socialization regarding trafficking in persons, its modes,

dangers, risks, and ways of preventing it.

• The government's efforts to prevent human trafficking must be carried out by the

government by involving more strategic parties and gaining the trust of the community,

including: churches, schools, non-government organizations, customary communities,

and government to the smallest scope such as the neighborhood.

• The government must listen to and involve the voices and needs of the community,

including indigenous peoples and other communities to strengthen the community's

economy based on local potential.

• Provide employment/community sources of livelihood that are more sustainable, and

do not damage the ecology. Revitalization of the agricultural sector and agricultural

diversification need to be done immediately so that it can become a source of a decent

livelihood for the community.

• It is necessary to improve regional decent wages by making a Universal Basic Job

(UBJ) policy and implementing Universal Basic Income (UBI), the feasibility of this

wage must consider the net income that people get from the migration sector. This

effort is important to do to reduce public interest in out-of-country migration.

• Long-term social and economic protection needs to be provided to all residents, but

not in a charity scheme or direct cash assistance but empowering assistance based

on local potential and community potential.

Interfaith Groups:

• Interfaith groups need to increase attention and strategic efforts to prevent and tackle

human trafficking.

• Interfaith groups need to take a more serious role in preventing the use of traditional

instruments as a means of human trafficking.

• Interfaith groups need to be involved in building a community vision for the protection

of migrant workers, including developing new interpretations of loving family through

migration and remittances.

Traditional Figures:

• Customary/traditional figures need to be enlightened about the impact of the use of a

traditional instrument in the form of uang sirih pinang (betel nut money) on the

trafficking of women. Thus customary leaders can transform customs within the

indigenous communities, so that people are more aware of human trafficking, including

being aware of the sirih pinang approach in the context of human trafficking.

• Customs needs to listen to women's voices and interests more, protect women and

children from becoming victims of human trafficking.

Non-governmental Institutions:

80

• Non-governmental organizations need to maximize socialization to their assisted

communities about the dangers of human trafficking through migration using both

procedural and non-procedural migration.

• Advocacy for regional policies regarding budgets and implementation regulations for

the regional regulation on the protection of migrant workers, the regional regulation on

prevention of human trafficking, or the regional regulation on protecting women.

• Non-governmental organizations must have the capacity to voice the interests and the

situation of communities through advocacy tools that enable the state to hear about

the negative impacts of moratoriums and human trafficking in migrant worker

communities.

81

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LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Distribution of Respondents___________________________________________________ 8 Table 2. Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Test Result_________________________________________ 9 Table 3. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis _______________________________________ 9 Table 4. Realization of Government Revenue of Kupang, Manggarai Barat, Sikka, and NTT

Provinces in 2019 by Type of Income (in Thousand Rupiah) ______________________ 22 Table 5. Table of Number and Percentage of Urban-Rural Poor in East Nusa Tenggara, 2015-2020

______________________________________________________________________ 23 Table 6. Education Level of Migrant Workers from NTT 2017-2019 __________________________ 24 Table 7. The Unemployment Rate and Labor Force Participation Rate in NTT, Kupang City, West

Manggarai Regency, and Sikka Regency (2017-2019) ___________________________ 28 Table 8. Labor Force and Unemployment in 2017-2019 ___________________________________ 28 Table 9. Number of Migrant Workers from NTT _________________________________________ 29 Table 10. Migrant Workers from NTT who were Returned Dead ____________________________ 30 Table 11. Number of Trafficking Cases in East Nusa Tenggara Province _____________________ 30 Table 12. Cross-tabulation of Cognitive-Affection-Behavior Aspects (1) ______________________ 48 Table 13. Cross-tabulation of Cognitive-Affection-Behavior Aspects (2) ______________________ 49 Table 14. Component of Cluster Analysis Variable (A) ____________________________________ 50 Table 15. Component of Cluster Analysis Variable (B) ____________________________________ 51 Table 16. Component of Cluster Analysis Variable (C) ____________________________________ 52

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1. Respondents Gender _______________________________________________________ 34 Chart 2. Characteristics of Citizen Activities based on Gender ______________________________ 35 Chart 3. Respondents Marital Status __________________________________________________ 35 Chart 4. Religion __________________________________________________________________ 35 Chart 5. Crosstab of Gender and Education ____________________________________________ 36 Chart 6. Attitudes towards Trafficking in Persons Practices in Labor Migration _________________ 37 Chart 7. Level of Knowledge about Trafficking in Persons in Three Regions ___________________ 38 Chart 8. Sources of Information on Trafficking in Persons __________________________________ 38 Chart 9. Attitudes towards the Moratorium Policy on the Migrant Workers Placement of East Nusa

Tenggara _______________________________________________________________ 39 Chart 10. Critical Awareness of the Practice of Giving “Thank You” Money as a Start of Human

Trafficking ______________________________________________________________ 40 Chart 11. Cognitive Aspects – TheTemporary Terminal (Moratorium) on Sending Migrant Workers

from East Nusa Tenggara is a Violation of Rights _______________________________ 41 Chart 12. Cognitive Aspects – Every Family Member regardless of Age can Work Abroad to Improve

the Economic Conditions of the Family _______________________________________ 41 Chart 13. Cognitive Aspects per Region – Every Family Member regardless of Age can Work Abroad

to Improve the Economic Conditions of the Family ______________________________ 42 Chart 14. Gender Aggregation – Information on Safe Migration from the Government is Not Important,

Because Everyone Has the Right to Migrate to Improve Family Economic Conditions __ 42 Chart 15. The Temporary Terminal (Moratorium) on Sending Migrant Workers Abroad Has Prevented

Members of the Community from Trafficking in Persons __________________________ 43 Chart 16. "Thank you" money from recruiters/brokers is reasonable for each family to receive.

Therefore, I don't have to tell my neighbors/relatives that there is potential for human

trafficking _______________________________________________________________ 44

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Chart 17. I do not want to interfere in the affairs of neighbors/relatives who offer work abroad to their

daughters, as long as the broker has given "thank you money” ____________________ 44 Chart 18. I tell the dangers of trafficking abroad only to my immediate family ___________________ 45 Chart 19. I do not need to participate in the anti-trafficking campaign because I do not have any young

female relatives who are potential victims of trafficking in persons __________________ 45 Chart 20. Brokers are completely prohibited from recruiting migrant workers in the village ________ 46 Chart 21. Brokers may recruit and earn profits, as long as they don't harm the community ________ 46 Chart 22. The Village Government does not need to play a maximum role in preventing human

trafficking. ______________________________________________________________ 47 Chart 23. Community leaders need to be actively involved in combating trafficking in persons, but it is

their families who decide __________________________________________________ 47 Chart 24. Non-Procedural CPMI Departure Failure _______________________________________ 57

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