JAKARTA: The Central Java Police have exposed a human trafficking ring accused of deceiving Indonesian job seekers and sending them to European countries without proper documentation.

Detectives from the Central Java Police’s General Crimes Directorate arrested two people identified as KU and NU, from Tegal and Brebes, as suspects.

The two suspects were arrested after allegedly swindling 83 people by promising to send the victims to work abroad legally, causing a loss of around Rp 5.2 billion (US$316,700), said General Crimes Directorate chief Sr. Comr. Dwi Subagio.

Dwi said the arrests were made after two victims, identified as AM and AKB, filed police reports.

“The modus operandi was promising that the victims would work as ship crew or restaurant servers in Spain with a salary between €1,200 [US$1,383] and €1,500 per month,” Dwi said during a case expose at the Central Java Police headquarters on Thursday (June 19), as quoted by kompas.com.

“The victims are mostly from various regions in Central Java and were sent to several countries, such as Spain, Portugal, Greece and Poland.”

The suspects also promised that they would manage and apply for the workers’ residence permits in the countries of destination.

However, the victims were forced to work in improper conditions and without legal documents, Dwi said.

The Central Java Police have coordinated with the National Police’s International Relations Division to track the whereabouts of other workers who have been sent abroad, Antara news agency reported.

One of the victims said they had to work 24 hours per day for five consecutive days with a salary much lower than promised.

Restaurant owners also told the workers to hide if there was a police raid, the victim added.

Feeling unsafe and suffering from improper working conditions, the victims finally decided to return to Indonesia with their own money.

As soon as they arrived in Indonesia, they filed police reports. For their actions, KU and NU face charges based on Articles 68, 69, 81 and 83 of Law No. 18/2017 on the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, as well as Article 4 of Law No. 21/2007 on Human Trafficking.

The offences are punishable with prison terms from three to 15 years with a fine of up to Rp 5 billion.

Recently, many Indonesian job seekers have fallen victim to bogus recruiters who promise good paying jobs abroad as looking for a job in Indonesia is becoming increasingly difficult.

Some were tricked into working for online gambling syndicates, both legal and illegal, or forced to work in online scam call centres.

The Indonesian Embassy in Cambodia recorded that there were some 1,300 cases involving Indonesians in the first three months of 2025, most of which involved exploitation, violence and human trafficking.

The majority of the workers were told they would work in hotels in Thailand but were instead sent to Cambodia for various illegal jobs, kompas.id reported.

Similar schemes were also used for syndicates operating in Myanmar.

The government repatriated about 400 Indonesians from Myanmar in March who had been working as operators in a fraud call center managed by a Vietnamese syndicate.

The situation has led the government to ban Indonesians from working in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. - The Jakarta Post/ANN