Looking for Work!

And they thought it could not happen here!

Young women from North Sumatra and East Java left their homes for the lure of good jobs and a better life, but instead ended up trapped in the hellish world of forced prostitution.

For three young women from Binjai, North Sumatra, the promise of work ended in a brothel in Pekanbaru, Riau, where they were forced to serve male clients in the Cirim Manis 2 red-light district. I've been in Pekanbaru may times, never ever heard of this area, but, I think it is best left unexplored!

Amei, Tina and Nunu said they were offered jobs as restaurant workers by a neighbor, who they identified as Rita, with a monthly salary of Rp 700,000 (about US$73). According to this neighbor, the jobs were in the North Sumatra regency of Pematang Siantar.

Tina, an elementary school dropout, said she jumped at the chance, and had no reason not to trust Rita. "Who would not be interested in a job with good pay?" she said. Tina said she, her younger sister Nunu and Amei, a distant relative, left home on Jan. 18.

After driving for a day in a Kijang van, however, the three girls found that instead of Pematang Siantar, they were in the Cirim Manis 2 red-light district.

Tina said the three were taken out of the van and handed over to a brothel owner, identified as Nana, who made the girls immediately begin serving clients.

Tina said that most days she had to sexually serve four men. "I served everyone from a becak driver to a police officer. For a short period each client was charged Rp 150,000, and Rp 300,000 for overnight service," she said in Medan, North Sumatra.

Nunu said the brothel owner made all 11 women working there take crystal methamphetamine so they could service more customers.

The ordeal of Tina, Nunu and Amei lasted for about two weeks. They were released from the brothel after their families paid the owner Rp 1.5 million.

A similar tale was told by dozens of women from Surabaya, East Java, who found themselves forced to work as prostitutes in Makassar, South Sulawesi, after also being lured from their homes by false promises of good jobs.

This particular trafficking ring was uncovered late last month after four of the women managed to escape the hotel where they had been forced to service clients. The women were eventually able to report the case to police in Makassar.

Sofi, one of the women, said she had made several earlier unsuccessful attempts to flee the hotel, which was always tightly guarded.

Then one night, about a month after being forced into prostitution, Sofi and 15 other women were able to escape through a backdoor in the hotel.

"We managed to get out and ran off in different directions. I managed to meet up with three of my friends ... the others I don't know," Sofi said.

She said at least 70 women had been forced to work as prostitutes at the hotel, a noted center for the sex trade in Makassar. The women, between the ages of 18 and 30, were recruited by a man in Surabaya identified as Jimmy.

When they arrived in Makassar, the young women were not aware they were to be employed as sex workers. They had been promised restaurant jobs with a monthly salary of Rp 900,000.
"I accepted the offer because I was only making Rp 400,000 a month working at a restaurant in Surabaya. So without thinking twice I signed a work contract with Jimmy," Sofi said.

On the ferry that took her to Makassar, Sofi was full of thoughts of making enough money in the restaurant to help support her family back in Surabaya.

But her journey of hope, like those of many other girls and young women, ended in the nightmare of sexual slavery.

Again, just another instance of Indonesians doing what at times they do best, taking advantage off their own!

The police forces turn a blind eye to this situation because, guess what, they have a vested interest in the locations where the brothels are located and without the rent and protection money they may have to work!