The House of Representatives has finally ratified a protocol to prevent, suppress and punish those involved in human trafficking, especially those who smuggle women and chil-dren.

Once enacted, the protocol will allow law enforcers to charge those responsible for people smuggling with the maximum possible sentence in a move to crack down on trafficking syndicates.

"The House has supported this bill because it believes in strengthening the capacity of law enforcers to fight human trafficking. I am also expecting to see draft regulations being written up to back officials working in the field," legislator Fachruddin Djaya from the Reform Star Party told a plenary meeting Tuesday.

The bill requires the government take responsibility for providing protection to victims of human trafficking, particularly women and children, and compliments articles within the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime concerning people smuggling.

Under the UN Convention, all UN member countries are required to forward all intelligence information regarding human trafficking to the countries dealing with smuggling prob-lems.

"Internally, law enforcement agencies will be strengthened and legal assistance to victims increased," Adji Farida Padmo of the Democratic Party said.

To date, Indonesia has enacted four laws concerning human trafficking, they being the Human Trafficking Law, the Child Protection Law, the Witness Protection Law and the 2009 Law ratifying the UN convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

Anis Hidayah from Migrant Care said she was optimistic this new measure would empower the nation's law enforcers and support them in dealing with transnational human traffick-ing rings.

"But I must say, our law enforcers have in the past fallen short of having the political will to combat foreign syndicates," she said.

Data from the National Police Headquarters last year revealed almost 200 human trafficking cases had occurred within Indonesia, involving more than 500 victims and nearly 100 children.

Head of the National Police's women and children protection division Sr. Comr. Agung Sabar Santoso said the bill would encourage police officers and other law enforcers to solve human trafficking cases.

"At least we can now give chase wherever smugglers go because the new law requires UN member countries share information regarding the whereabouts of perpetrators," he said.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROTOCOL

Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or commodification of individuals by means of threat, use of force or other forms of coercion.

Each state party shall protect the privacy and identity of those who are trafficked.

States parties shall enact or strengthen measures, including through bilateral or multilateral cooperation, to alleviate the factors that make individuals, particularly women and chil-dren, vulnerable to trafficking.

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