Jakarta, IO – Resident of Bantar Gedang village, West Bandung regency, West Java, is trapped in the Myawaddy conflict zone in Myanmar. Wildan Rohdiawan (36) became a victim of the crime of human trafficking after being promised a job at a company in South Korea.
“We have been fighting for the last year until today, continuing to fight so that my brother can return home safely,” said Wildan’s sister Yulia Rosiana (34), per Kompas, Tue (6/2).
The family has lost contact with Wildan since January 25. They were asked for a certain amount of money by the company if they wanted Wildan to be sent home.
“In that chat, if we couldn’t prepare Rp150 million, our brother would be at risk and being held captive underground. Upon hearing this, we became even more panicked,” said Yulia.
Wildan was lured to work at a company in Myawaddy and became an online scammer after leaving through a legal employment agency in Sukabumi. Yulia explained that her brother intended to work in Korea in 2018.
Wildan’s departure to work in South Korea was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic so he chose to pursue a career in West Bandung as an honorary teacher.
“In 2021, the school contacted my brother and my brother was still interested in working in South Korea, but had to take up a loan of around Rp20 million,” recounted Yulia.
“But he never left until finally in 2022 the school informed us again that there were still no trips to South Korea and finally he had to leave first for Thailand before leaving for South Korea,” he added.
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Wildan was promised a salary of Rp17 million per month with a one year work contract at a South Korean branch of an electronics company in Thailand.
But he ended up in Myanmar instead. “We were shocked because as far as we knew, my brother was in Thailand. Because our communication was not smooth until finally he told us the true condition and he sent us a share location in Myanmar,” she said. The family struggled for a year before reporting Wildan’s condition to the relevant authorities so he can be repatriated. “We have reported to the regional police, National Police Criminal Investigation Bureau (Bareskrim), Agency for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BP2MI), Manpower Bureau (Disnakertrans),” she said. (rr)