REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Indonesian government will repatriate its 82 citizens falling victim to human trafficking from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Monday (Jan 28), a Foreign Ministry official said.

"Shortly after arriving in Indonesia, the Indonesian citizens will be handed to Bareskrim (the National Police Criminal Investigation Directorate) in the capacity as a task force upholding the law against human trafficking to investigate their cases in Indonesia and later to the Social Service Ministry in the capacity as social rehabilitation task force to send them to their respective hometowns," the ministry`s information and media director, PLE Priatna said here on Friday.

They are among the 104 Indonesian citizens freed by the security and immigration authorities in the Malaysian state of Selangor from human trafficking. They were later handed to the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Priatna said in a press statement.

He said the Indonesian citizens who were earlier employed in Malaysia were supposed to be sent to a number of Middle Eastern countries to work as domestic helpers without legal recruitment procedure. The Middle Eastern countries included Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan to which Indonesia is imposing a moratorium on the travel of Indonesian migrant workers indefinitely. 

The victims of human trafficking hailed from various provinces in Indonesia including East Nusa Tenggara, Central Java and East Java. The 104 Indonesian citizens were recruited by 14 private employment recruitment agencies (PPTKIS) in Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya.

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