Each of the girls earned 150,000 rupiah ($11) for every male guest they served, but they could only collect their money every two months. Of that sum, they had to give the ‘mamis’ 90,000 rupiah and could keep the remaining 60,000 rupiah. PUBLIC DOMAIN

Child prostitution ring in Jakarta broken up by police

The Jakarta Police have broken up a suspected child prostitution ring in Penjaringan, North Jakarta.

The police arrested on January 13 six perpetrators and removed 10 suspected victims aged 14-18 years old. Another suspect was arrested on Friday.

The six suspects, who are accused of human trafficking, have been identified only as R or Mami A, Mami T, D or F, TW, A and E. The police have yet to reveal details about the seventh suspect.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Senior Commissioner Yusri Yunus said each of them had different roles. Mami A, for example, was the owner of the cafe in which the underage prostitution allegedly took place.

“She [Mami A] allegedly was the one who forced the children to have sex with the cafe customers,” Yusri said as quoted by kompas.com.

She shared a similar task with Mami T. However, Mami T also acted as the pimp who collected money from the guests.

D or F and TW as well, as the newly arrested suspect, were allegedly responsible for recruiting new children by scouting them on social media and later selling them to the two “mamis” for 750,000 to 1.5 million rupiah ($55-110) per child.

“A and E, meanwhile, were janitors at the cafe,” Yusri said, without revealing their particular roles in the operation of the child trafficking. He said there could be more than 10 victims.

Each of the girls earned 150,000 rupiah for every male guest they served, but they could only collect their money every two months. Of that sum, they had to give the “mamis” 90,000 rupiah and could keep the remaining 60,000.

Yusri said the business had been running for two years. The children lived in a makeshift dorm and were neither allowed to leave nor possess a mobile phone – prompting the police to suspect that their parents might not know about their children’s whereabouts or conditions.

“The children came from various provinces, some were from Central Java. They were contacted through social media and offered a good job with a big salary,” he said, noting that they had to pay 1.5 million rupiah if they wanted to leave their job.

The police’s Teens, Children and Women’s Protection Unit chief Senior Adjutant Commissioner Piter Yanottama said the suspects allegedly also forced the children to consume pills to delay their period and they had to serve 10 men per day. Should they fail to meet their daily quota, they were fined 50,000 rupiah.

“The pill was for girls who were about to reach the age where they began menstruating. They had to take the pill to delay the onset of their periods. Such a practice is against the body’s metabolism,” Piter said.

The police, according to Piter, are investigating where the suspects got the pills as they most likely obtained them illegally.

The six suspects are now at the Jakarta Police detention centre and have been charged under the Child Protection Law and articles 296 and 506 of the Criminal Code on facilitating prostitution.

Neneng Heryani, the head of Handayani Children’s and Social Rehabilitation Center run by the Social Ministry, said they had taken eight out of the 10 children into their care. No details were provided about the two other victims.

The organisation has started conducting health and psychological checks as well as psycho-social therapy.

“There’s an indication that they suffering from genital infections. They will be in our safe house for seven days. The eight children have also been receiving therapy to heal their trauma.”

THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK