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n Indonesian migrant worker who reportedly died from abuse in Malaysia may have been a victim of human trafficking, as police suspect her recruiters may have falsified her identity.

Police have arrested two people, a woman identified as FL and a man initialed HP, who allegedly recruited Adelina Sau (previously reported as Adelina Lisao) and sent her to Malaysia.

They were arrested at their houses in Maulafa district, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Wednesday, NTT Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Jules Abas said. “We are digging deeper into the two’s alleged involvement in a human-trafficking syndicate in NTT,” Jules told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, adding that police would question more witnesses.

Adelina, 21, died on Sunday in Penang, Malaysia, after allegedly suffering torture at the hands of her employer. Besides being deprived of food, she was also reportedly forced to sleep outside with her employer’s rottweiler for more than a month.

Police launched the investigation in response to a police report filed by her mother, Yohana Banunaek, alleging that her daughter’s documents had been counterfeited so that she could be sent to Malaysia.

The initial investigation suggests that Adelina’s personal details were altered. Her real name and birth year, Adelina Sau born in 1998, were allegedly changed to Adelina Lisao born in 1992 in the documents. Adelina was reportedly 17 years old when she flew to Malaysia in 2015.

Yohana filed the report on Monday, after hearing the news of her daughter’s death.

Meanwhile, the head of training and placement at the Kupang branch of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement, Protection and Monitoring Agency (BP3TKI), Siwa, said the agency had run into difficulties in locating Adelina’s house to inform the family about the death, because of the false address and name stated in initial reports.

“We can be sure in this case that Adelina was a victim sent illegally to Malaysia,” he said.

The agency would help with the repatriation of her body through the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia. The body was scheduled to arrive in Kupang on Saturday.

Her death added to a long list of migrant workers from the province who had died in Malaysia, Siwa said. According to the agency’s records, eight people have died up to February this year, while a total of 67 workers coming from various areas in NTT died throughout 2017.

Wahyu Susilo, executive director of workers rights group Migrant Care, urged law enforcement officials and the administration to look deeper at the suspected involvement of officials helping create counterfeit documents used to send workers abroad.

The government’s commitment to protecting migrant workers would not be fruitful unless firm action was taken against corrupt officials abetting human trafficking. (gis)