“The majority of them are
migrant workers who were tricked into becoming couriers by international drug
syndicates and most of them are women,” BNN chief Anang Iskandar said as quoted
by Antara news agency on Sunday.
The BNN has appealed to
Indonesian citizens, especially migrant workers in Hong Kong and Macau, to
remain alert over the danger of drug syndicates in the countries in which they
work.
“They should not be
easily duped. They should be careful when someone wants to entrust something to
them. Also be very careful with strangers,” he said.
Anang earlier warned
women in the country to be careful when dating foreigners, suggesting they
could be tricked into becoming drug mules.
He said that many
Indonesian women were languishing in prisons abroad because they were “easily
tricked into drug-trafficking”.
On Sunday, Anang also
called on Indonesian nationals who use drugs abroad to immediately stop and
seek help from an Indonesian representative office. The office, he said, could
recommend them to a rehab center.
“We are cooperating with
a number of countries on a bilateral and multilateral basis to prevent and
eradicate drug abuse, and to unravel international drug networks that use
Indonesian citizens as mules or consider Indonesia a part of their smuggling
route,” he said.
Anang also said that the
demand for drugs in Indonesia remained very high, making the country one of the
main destinations for drug smuggling.
The BNN estimates that
there are more than 4.2 million active drug users in the country.
“If one of them consumes
0.2 grams a day, it means 80 kilograms of drugs is needed every day to satiate
demand, or 2.4 tons per month and 29 tons per year,” he said.
Indonesian consul general
in Hong Kong, Chalief Akbar Tjandraningrat, said there were 28 Indonesian
citizens currently embroiled in drug cases in Hong Kong.
“Twelve of them are still
in detention, while 16 others have been sentenced. In Macau the number is 10,
and most of them are couriers and most are women,” he said.
Under President Joko
“Jokowi” Widodo’s administration, the government has implemented tougher
measures on drug offenders.
Declaring a “drug emergency”,
President Jokowi has called for the death penalty for drug dealers and has
rejected clemency pleas from convicted traffickers. Despite protests from human
rights campaigners and the international community, his administration executed
14 convicts — including foreigners of multiple nationalities — in January and
May of this year.
Jakarta Post 24th August 2015
