Police in Indonesia have arrested 12 people after uncovering a human trafficking ring that has sent more than a dozen babies to Singapore for adoption.
The West Java police told reporters on Tuesday that the case was discovered after a parent reported an alleged baby kidnapping, which led them to a suspect who admitted to trading 24 infants.
Surawan, the police’s director of general criminal investigation, who goes by one name, said the perpetrators took most of the infants from their biological parents in West Java province.
They are accused of moving the babies to Pontianak city on Borneo island and then sending more than a dozen of them onwards to Singapore.
“Based on documents, 14 [babies] were sent to Singapore,” he said.
“The age range is clearly under one year old, with some three months old, five months old, and six months old.”
Authorities managed to rescue five babies in Pontianak and one in Tangerang, a city near the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. They also arrested a dozen suspects across Jakarta, Pontianak and the Javan city of Bandung.
“They are a syndicate, a baby trafficking syndicate. They each have their own roles,” said Surawan.
Some of the suspects were allegedly tasked with finding the babies, he said, while others cared for them, sheltered them or prepared civil registration documents, such as family cards and passports.
The police officer added that the infants were to be sold for 11 million Indonesian Rupiah ($676) to 16 million Indonesian Rupiah ($983) to buyers for adoption in Singapore.
The syndicate had been in operation since 2023, he said, based on suspect statements.
Police said they sought out “parents or mothers who refuse to care for their children” in return for money.
Surawan said the parent who reported a kidnapping “actually had an agreement” with the smugglers before their child’s birth, but reported them when they did not receive payment afterwards.
He added that police in Indonesia intend to coordinate with Interpol to “locate possible trafficked infants in Singapore”.
Human trafficking is also a domestic problem across Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, a sprawling nation of more than 17,000 islands.
In one of the worst cases in recent years, at least 57 people were found caged on a palm oil plantation in North Sumatra in 2022.
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