Church leaders in Indonesia have praised prosecutors for seeking a prison term for a Catholic lawmaker from the Christian majority East Nusa Tenggara province in a human trafficking case.
Prosecutors on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores are seeking a nine-year prison term and a fine of 200 million rupiah (US$13,000) for Yuvinus Solo, a local lawmaker in Sikka Regency. They are also seeking an additional six months in prison if he does not pay the fine.
One prosecutor, Ahmad Jubair, said Solo sent workers to a palm oil plantation in Kalimantan, in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, without following legal procedures in March this year.
Solo sent 70 workers who were later found to be victims of abuse and neglect. One of them, Yodimus Moan Kaka, died of starvation. His wife, Meri Herlina Mbani, filed a complaint on May 17 with support from nuns and priests.
Besides the jail term, the prosecutors are demanding Solo pay compensation to the victims.
The prosecutors’ prison demand gives “a glimmer of hope that the state is slowly realizing its responsibility to side with the victims of human trafficking,” said Father Otto Gusti Madung, who is known locally for helping human trafficking victims.
Father Madug said human trafficking is a serious crime against humanity.
Divine Providence Sister Laurentina Suharsih, who is also involved in anti-human trafficking efforts, said she was happy with the prosecutors’ sentence demand for Solo.
Solo should have set an example, but he was more interested in “his own profit,” the nun said.
“I strongly condemn his acts which are inhumane.”
Valens Pogon, an attorney for Catholic group, Flores Volunteer Team for Humanity, urged prosecutors to detain Solo, who remains free on bail.
Pogon said that prosecutors should not treat Solo differently from others.
Okky Prastyo Ajie, Intelligence section head of the Sikka district attorney’s office, claimed Solo’s detention rests with the court.
Solo’s supporters held a protest on Nov. 19, before the Sikka district attorney’s office and Maumere diocese office.
Ruben Albertus, one of Solo’s supporters, told Bishop Ewaldus Martinus Sedu of Maumere to tell Church people not to get involved in anti-human trafficking cases.
However, Bishop Sedu defended the priests and the nuns.
“When other people cannot speak out about human trafficking cases, then priests and nuns should speak,” the prelate said.
East Nusa Tenggara province is one of Indonesia’s most impoverished regions and a hotbed of human trafficking, according to the National Human Rights Commission.
Trafficking syndicates recruit victims to work in palm oil plantations in Kalimantan and neighboring Malaysia.
Police in the province recorded 256 trafficking cases in 2023. However, rights groups said the number could be much higher.
At least 516 workers from East Nusa Tenggara died in Malaysia between 2018 and 2022, according to the provincial branch of the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Protection Agency.
Of these, 499 were “non-procedural workers,” who did not follow government procedures while migrating, it said.
Last year, the bodies of 151 migrant workers were returned to their hometowns in the province, the highest in the past five years.
In the first six months of this year, the bodies of 62 migrant workers were returned home, the agency added.
