Police say the suspects sent more than ten children to Singapore for adoption.
Police in Indonesia arrested 12 people after revealing a human smuggling ring that sent more than ten children to Singapore for adoption.
West Java police told reporters on Tuesday that the case was discovered after one of the parents reported the kidnapping of an alleged child, prompting them to a suspect who confessed to circulating 24 infants.
Sorwan, the director of the Police General Criminal Investigation, who has one name, said that the perpetrators took most of their biological parents in the West Java Province.
They are accused of transporting children to Pontianak, on the island of Borneo, then they send more than ten of them onwards to Singapore.
He said, “Based on the documents, 14 (child) were sent to Singapore,” he said.
“It is clear that the age group is less than one year, when it is about three months old, five months old, and six months.”
The authorities managed to save five children in Pontianak and one in Tangrang, a city near the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. They also arrested dozens of suspects throughout Jakarta, Pontianak and Bandung Javan.
“They are a union, the children’s smuggling union. They have their own roles,” Sorwan said.
He said that some suspects were charged with finding children, while others were interested in them, protected them or prepared civil registration documents, such as family cards and passports.
The police officer added that infants will be sold for 11 million Indonesian rupees ($ 676) to 16 million Indonesian rupees ($ 983) for buyers for adoption in Singapore.
He said that the union has been operating since 2023, based on suspected data.
Police said they sought “parents or mothers who refuse to care for their children” for money.
Sorwan said that the father, who was informed of the kidnapping “had an actual agreement” with the smugglers before the birth of their child, but he informed them when they did not receive the payment after that.
He added that the police in Indonesia intend to coordinate with Interpol “to determine the potential infants trafficking in Singapore.”
Human trafficking is a local problem also throughout an economy in Southeast Asia, a sprawling country of more than 17,000 islands.
In one of the worst cases in recent years, at least 57 people have been found on the palm oil farm in northern Sumatra in 2022.
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