Local infrastructure was weak in its handling of human trafficking, Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Matalatta said Tuesday.
"It's a shame, because human trafficking is a serious a human rights violation," Matalatta said at the opening of a seminar commemorating International Human Rights Day on Tuesday.
Thousands of Indonesians have fallen victim to the trade at home and abroad, he said.
"However, we don't have a fixed reference on the total number of humans trafficked thus far," Matalatta said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Meanwhile, the International Labor Organization reports that between 2005 and 2008, 89 percent of Indonesian trafficking victims were women.
Around 80 percent of these were sent to Malaysia, while the remaining 16 percent became sex workers within Indonesia. Most of these women were from West Kalimantan and West, East and Central Java.
"Society still regards women as second-class citizens that are easily manipulated," Matalatta said.
So far, he said, the government's attempts to combat trafficking had been made through legal institutions.
"But, the fact of the matter is, law enforcement in this respect is still weak. For instance, I have yet to see a mami (pimp) being tried in court," Matalatta said.
