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Most victims entrapped in prostitution ring via social media: minister
Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise said victims of the recently-discovered underage, male prostitution ring for male customers were mostly entrapped in social intercourse with their recruiters through social media.
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Stay firm: Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise gives a speech to open the National Meeting on Preventing Human Trafficking in Jakarta last year. (KOMPAS/Laraswati Ariadne Anwar)
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omen’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise has said victims of a recently-discovered underage male prostitution ring had become entrapped by recruiters through social media.
She further explained most of the victims were from families that were actually financially stable that did not face difficulties in fulfilling their basic needs.
“We are accompanying the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department [Bareskrim] in investigating this case, which shows a strong connection with social media, which seemed to lead [victims] falling into AR’s trap,” said Yohana as quoted by kompas.com, referring to a suspect involved in the prostitution ring the police had arrested early on Wednesday.
The minister made the statement after she attended a work meeting at the House of Representatives Commission VIII, which oversees religious and social affairs, in Jakarta on Thursday.
Citing Bareskrim data, Yohana said it could be confirmed that the number of victims in the prostitution ring reached more than 99 underage males. It was even probable that actually thousands of children had fallen victim to this crime, she went on.
“When I collected data on male victims of child trafficking networks in several areas across Indonesia, I found out 3,000 children had been entrapped in such networks,” said Yohana.
Bareskrim personnel arrested AR, 41, in a hotel in Cipayung, East Jakarta, on Tuesday. He allegedly sold underage males for sex to men for Rp 1.2 million (US$90.31) each and only compensated the victims between Rp 100,000 to 150,000. AR sold the victims via his Facebook account. (ebf)
