Religious sisters took to the streets of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, to raise awareness about scammers increasingly using online job advertisements to lure people into human trafficking networks across Southeast Asia. Source: UCA News.
The campaign on Sunday combined a walk with an interactive talk show featuring humanitarian activist Inaya Wahid, days after the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30.
The “Talitha Kum Walk and Talk: Walking Together and Speaking Out Against Human Trafficking” program was organised by Talitha Kum Indonesia’s Jakarta network and 43 other civil society groups.
The event echoed this year’s United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s campaign theme, “Trapped Behind the Scam”, which highlights how traffickers deceive victims through high-paying fake job advertisements on social media.
Ursuline Sister Irena Handayani, coordinator of Talitha Kum’s Jakarta network, said the rise of online scams shows that trafficking is no longer limited to conventional recruitment for domestic work or factory jobs.
“Online scam cases are a concern because many victims initially do not realise they are being drawn into a human trafficking network,” she said.
Victims are often promised high-paying jobs in technology, digital services, marketing or administration, Sr Handayani said, adding that they are forced by transnational criminal syndicates to run online fraud operations after arriving in destination countries, particularly in Southeast Asia.
“They experience exploitation, confinement, threats, violence, confiscation of documents and are forced to scam others,” she said.
Sr Handayani said victims often face a double burden: they are exploited by criminal networks but may also be treated as offenders because they were forced to take part in fraud schemes.
Young workers, recent graduates, laid-off workers, migrant workers and people with limited access to safe migration information and digital literacy are among the most vulnerable, she said.
Recent cases show the scale of the problem. Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said about 10,000 Indonesians were indicated to have been involved in online scam operations in 10 countries from 2020 to the end of 2025, with 1500 verified as trafficking victims.
Indonesia also repatriated 1203 citizens from online scam compounds in Myanmar through Thailand between February 20 and July 16.
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Nuns take to Jakarta streets, warn online scams fuel trafficking (UCA News)
