Tempo Magazine No. All said that they were offered jobs in Sorong by someone they knew called Linda. However, upon arrival in Sorong they were placed in a night club belonging to a woman called Norma. There were forced to serve men looking for sex. They had previously met someone from North Sulawesi who was a passenger on the vessel. The North Sulawesi Regional Government, upon receiving information about the three refugees ordered that the victims be picked up. They were successfully brought to Manado from Sorong.
However, the police were unable to locate the party who took the three victims to Papua. This was the news in the press three years ago. Until today, nevertheless, human trafficking practices-especially young women-from Sulawesi to Papua and West Papua continue.
The modus operandi is the same: trickery. Many women are not as lucky as them who successfully escaped. Many were trapped and had no choice but to live the hard night lives in Sorong, Timika, Jayapura and Merauke.
Their findings cite Papua and West Papua as "receiving areas" of this human trafficking crime. Most of the women and girls sold are placed to work in karaoke bars and some in the red light districts. All of them were sexually exploited. An estimated 50 to 70 karaoke bars and four red light districts were established in the four researched areas Sorong, Timika, Jayapura and Merauke. Around to woman and young girls worked there. The working conditions faced by the trafficked persons in Papua are a far cry from what the traffickers promised.
Once they arrive at the karaoke bars and red light districts, the bar owners and pimps tell them that they have to work to pay off their debts. Their freedom is curtailed. They can't leave their place of work unless they have settled their debts. The amounts vary from Rp2 million to Rp5 million per person and most of it is to repay the transportation costs from their place of origins to their place of work in Papua and West Papua.
