Enslaved, escaped, empowered: Indonesian survivor's odyssey from captive to crusader

Gusti Awan's harrowing ordeal began with a promise of lucrative work abroad, but the 26-year-old Indonesian's dreams quickly turned nightmarish when he found himself trafficked by a criminal syndicate to a remote compound on the Thai-Myanmar border.

For months, he was forced to commit online scams under threats of violence, enduring unthinkable abuse before finally managing to escape. Yet his ordeal did not end there - a lack of action by local authorities left Awan struggling to find justice, underscoring the daunting challenges trafficking survivors face.

Awan's experience shines a light on the plight of thousands of his fellow Indonesians who remain enslaved abroad, trapped by the same criminal syndicates that lured him in with promises of high-paying overseas work.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

"I was recruited by an acquaintance back in my hometown," Awan told This Week in Asia. The tantalising offer? A Thailand-based job with US e-commerce giant Amazon paying a salary of 40,000 baht (US$1,090) per month.

But soon after landing in Bangkok on May 20 last year, the harsh reality set in. Awan was swiftly transported to Mae Sot near the border with Myanmar and had his phone and passport confiscated.

"We crossed a river and arrived at a compound guarded by armed men wearing Myanmar military uniforms," he said.

Upon his arrival at the compound, Awan soon discovered his new "job" was not with Amazon, but rather manning a centre for online scams run mostly by Chinese nationals.

Forced to pose as a successful businessman, he said his role was to cultivate relationships with victims on social media, establishing a rapport before asking for personal details such as their phone numbers and addresses.

"I was told to target individuals with an annual income of more than US$150,000," he said. "Then a separate team would act on those details by luring the victims into bogus investment, romance or gambling schemes, chosen to suit their profile."

Working under duress, often for 15 to 18 hours a day, Awan and his fellow captives - Indonesians, Pakistanis, Ghanaians and Moroccans among them - eventually revolted, staging a protest. Their captors promised repatriation, but Awan suspected another ploy and managed to orchestrate an escape with a fellow Indonesian from Sumedang while they were supposedly being transferred to Chiang Mai in November.

"We suspected we were just being moved to another facility, so we escaped on the way when we had the chance," he said.

Borrowing a taxi driver's phone, Awan managed to reach out to the Indonesian embassy in Bangkok, which referred him to Ezekiel Rain, a US anti-trafficking NGO with operations in Thailand.

The NGO took both Indonesian captives into its shelter for two weeks as they filed reports with the Thai police. Yet Awan was dismayed by the absence of any Indonesian embassy or consular staff to support them through the legal process.

When Awan finally made it back home late last year, he dutifully filed another report with the police in Jakarta, naming his local recruiter as part of the criminal syndicate.

"But so far I haven't heard back about my case," he said, lamenting the lack of interest from Indonesian authorities.

A free man once more, Awan remains determined to help other Indonesians still trapped overseas by the criminal syndicates.

In March, he co-founded Jerat Kerja Paksa (Forced Labour Entrapment) - a solidarity group comprising survivors and families of victims. Its mission is to offer emotional and practical support for Indonesians working to liberate their loved ones.

Bandung-based Yulia Rosiana is an avid campaigner with Jerat Kerja Paksa. Her older brother remains trapped somewhere in Myanmar by the trafficking syndicates.

"My brother left the country in November 2022 for Thailand, and we didn't hear from him for months before receiving a short furtive message saying he was in Myanmar working under guard," she said.

Fearing retaliation, Yulia asked This Week In Asia to keep her brother's identity secret, as her family had received threats and ransom demands of US$10,000 from the syndicates.

"There's a tendency in Indonesia to blame the victims in cases like my brother's. People would ask why the victims and their families came to trust the recruiters in the first place," she said, noting that her brother's placement had been arranged through a legal, Labour Ministry-certified agency.

He had initially trained to work in South Korea "before he was persuaded to go to Thailand instead", Yulia said.

"I've filed reports with the police, human rights commission and lobbied the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but things are moving at a slow pace, with no light at the end of the tunnel remotely in sight."

Judha Nugraha, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' director of protection for Indonesians abroad, defended his ministry's record. He said that since 2020, the government had repatriated around 3,300 Indonesian victims of human trafficking and forced labour from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

"There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this problem because each country requires a different approach," he said. "Myanmar, for one, is a conflict zone, which makes our efforts even more challenging."

However, Yulia argued the government should recognise the "invisible victims" of human trafficking - the left-behind spouses and children.

"What about the family members of those being kept under lock and key and forced to work overseas? Most left behind spouses and children," she said.

Through Jerat Kerja Paksa, Yulia said she has met women whose husbands remained trapped abroad now struggling to support themselves and their children.

Integritas Justitia Madani Indonesia, an NGO that advocates for trafficking and slavery victims, says more cases of Indonesians being illegally recruited by crime syndicates are emerging.

"While the government has no definite numbers, we estimate there are thousands of families with family members enslaved by the syndicates," spokesman Harold Aron said.

His organisation is helping coordinate victims' and families' efforts to seek justice, as well as asking Indonesian law enforcement to "map out and root out" local recruiter networks and work with neighbouring countries to combat the syndicates, he said.

The NGO and Legal Aid Surabaya filed a new case on Thursday with the police in East Java on behalf of a 22-year-old from Blitar who escaped a work camp in Cambodia.

Habibus Solihin, a lawyer with the legal aid group, told This Week in Asia that the latest cases revealed a new recruitment pattern among the traffickers.

"No longer content in using work agencies, they now employ individual agents who recruit their victims by word of mouth and personal overtures on social media," he said, urging Indonesian police to intensify their efforts and vigilance against the growing phenomenon.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime set up a regional emergency response network in May to fight human trafficking for forced criminal activities, especially scam operations.

"Southeast Asia has faced unprecedented challenges from powerful transnational criminal groups involved in money laundering, cybercrimes, kidnapping, extortion, and torture," said Rebecca Miller, UNODC's Southeast Asia and Pacific regional coordinator for countering human trafficking and migrant smuggling, at the time.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.