TANGERANG, RAKYAT NEWS – The Indonesian Ministry of Migrant Worker Protection (PPMI) successfully intercepted five non-procedural Indonesian migrant worker candidates (CPMI) who were allegedly being sent to Cambodia to work as online gambling operators.

“Today, we stopped five individuals; previously, there were four, and this happens daily. The victims are from Aceh and North Sumatra,” said Deputy Minister of Migrant Worker Protection Christina Aryani in Tangerang on Tuesday.

The five individuals included Ricky Harmansyah (18) from North Aceh, Aceh; Muhammad Fadil (25); Nanang Barokah (21); Lokanta Bangun (19); and Yulia Aulia (24) from Langkat, North Sumatra. The young victims were planning to travel via Jakarta and Malaysia before heading to Cambodia to work as administrators or sales agents for online gambling operations.

“The group was set to depart from Jakarta to Malaysia and then continue to Cambodia the following day,” Christina revealed.

The interception was made following a rapid response team’s investigation at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s Terminal 2 on Monday (December 30). The team acted on a tip about a non-procedural CPMI departure.

“At 7:30 PM on December 30, 2024, at Terminal 2, our team received information about the illegal departure and successfully stopped five individuals,” she said.

Preliminary investigations revealed that recruitment was conducted through social media platforms like Facebook, with a page named ‘Neon99’ offering promising job positions with a monthly salary of IDR 6 million. Some were recruited by neighbors or relatives, with candidates trained to disguise themselves as tourists heading to Malaysia.

“Our team has identified individuals responsible for the illegal recruitment, with suspects identified by the initials ‘M,’ ‘S,’ and ‘D.’ Efforts are underway to track them down,” Christina stated.

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