INDONESIA’s National Board for The Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers is now helping various authorities to conduct a study on the extent of human trafficking in the Asean region.

The outcome of the study would be handed over to the Asean grouping secretariat to help member countries come out with systematic measures to check the problem.

Board deputy director Lisna Yoeliani Poeloengan said among the main causes of human trafficking in Asean were poverty, unemployment, migrant workers entrapped in forced labour as well as personal debt.

Most of the victims, particularly women, end up as either forced labourers or sex workers in the region.

“It is difficult for us to get a consistent and reliable data on victims of human trafficking but Indonesia (the board) is currently running a study to assist our Asean counterparts. We hope to have a proper methodology for the compilation of statistical data in this area soon,” she said in a telephone interview.

According to a Penang-based manpower recruitment and management company Inter IRC Global Search’s managing director Michael Heah (pic), human trafficking is a modern form of slavery and it is widespread.

For instance in the hiring of maids, Malaysian employers who hold their passports are condoning a form of human trafficking, Heah said in an interview.

He urged employers to treat their maids with care and respect.

“Such good deeds would be reciprocated by most of them,” Heah said.

He added that a seminar would be held on Sept 28, from 9am to 5pm at the Eastin Hotel to address the issues of human trafficking and smuggling of migrant workers.

“Such activities involve the acquisition of people through force, fraud and deception with the aim of exploiting them for various purposes including forced labour. It is common in Malaysia.”

Explaining further, he said: “For example, a worker is hired solely as a maid to work in households here.

“After arriving in Malaysia, the maid is instead forced to work as a service worker to clean up various houses or work in restaurants for unlimited hours.

“This is a form of trafficking as the worker is cheated and misled by agents,” he added.

“Another form of deception is on salaries and benefits. When the workers were recruited overseas, they were promised high salaries by their agents but after arriving, the wages they received were lower.

“There are also cases where foreign workers without passports can return home through illegal means,” he said.

For more details about the seminar, call 04-646 2020.