Indonesian authorities have apprehended 12 individuals, including a policeman and an immigration officer, for allegedly trafficking 122 people to Cambodia to sell their kidneys, as reported on Thursday.
The suspects are facing charges of violating Indonesia’s human trafficking law, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to 600 million rupiah ($40,040) if convicted.
According to Hengki Haryadi, director of the criminal investigation unit at Jakarta Police, the accused recruited people from different parts of Indonesia through social media and facilitated their travel to Cambodia for kidney transplant surgery.
The victims were promised 135 million rupiah ($9,009) each, and most of them agreed to sell their organs due to financial hardships caused by the pandemic-induced job losses.
Indonesia has faced issues related to human trafficking, particularly for labor purposes, often involving debt-based coercion. In 2019, authorities arrested eight individuals involved in the country’s largest-ever human trafficking case, which saw about 1,200 victims sent abroad as domestic workers.
