FLORES (UCAN): Catholics and rights activists in East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, have criticised the relatively light sentence imposed by courts on Yuvinus Solo, a legislator from Flores Island, found guilty of committing human trafficking.
The activists are opposed to the three years’ imprisonment and 200,000,000 rupiah [US$12,300] fine levied on Solo was found guilty of offenses under trafficking laws by the Maumere District Court in December last year.
Prosecutors appealed for a review in the Supreme Court, seeking a tougher sentence. Under existing laws, an offender charged with human trafficking faces up to 15 years in jail and a fine. However, the court dismissed the plea in its July 30 verdict, which was received by the state prosecutor on August 20.
Solo was accused of involvement with a syndicate that sent 70 workers to a palm oil plantation in Kalimantan, in the Indonesian part of Borneo Island, without following legal procedures in March last year.
Anti-trafficking campaigner. Divine Word Father Otto Gusti Madung regretted that the sentence did not reflect any justice for the victims.
“This sentence cannot serve as a deterrent to other perpetrators,” the rector of the Ledalero Institute of Philosophy and Creative Technology in Flores said.
Holy Spirit Sister Maria Fransiska Imakulata, coordinator of the Flores Island-based Humanitarian Volunteer Team, said justice was denied to the victims.
Human trafficking is part of the syndicate’s work. When law enforcement officers cannot reach the syndicate, it means we are still surrounded by perpetrators
Sister Maria Fransiska Imakulata
“Human trafficking is part of the syndicate’s work. When law enforcement officers cannot reach the syndicate, it means we are still surrounded by perpetrators,” she said.
The workers reported facing abuse and neglect, including denial of promised salary, food, and lodging.
One worker, Yodimus Moan Kaka, reportedly died of starvation. His wife, Meri Herlina Mbani, filed a case with the police with support from nuns and priests working for safe migration.
Despite being a suspect in a human trafficking case at the time, Solo was sworn in as a parliamentarian last August and was not detained for investigation.
After he was named a suspect last May, priests, nuns, activists, and students protested the police decision not to detain him by citing an illness.
They also alleged that the lawmaker and his associates had reportedly approached the victims to withdraw the case and resolve it through customary laws, and not trafficking laws.
East Nusa Tenggara Province is one of the country’s most impoverished regions and a hub of human trafficking, according to the National Human Rights Commission.
Traffickers active in the province send hundreds of workers illegally to other parts of Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia, where they face abuses and rights violations, reports say.
In 2023, provincial police recorded 256 trafficking cases. But rights groups say the actual number is much higher.
Between 2018 to 2022, at least 516 workers from the province died in Malaysia, according to the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Protection Agency. Of them, 499 workers were illegal migrants.
Last year, the dead bodies of 151 migrants were returned to the province, the highest in five years. Since January, the bodies of 82 migrants have been returned home.
