Jakarta, April 27 -- Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi affirmed that Indonesia must join multilateral efforts to prevent South East Asia from becoming a safe haven for human traffickers targeting Indonesian citizens.

"It is so important for us to cooperate to ensure that our region will not become the safe haven for human traffickers," the minister stated at the 2023 Hassan Wirajuda Indonesian Protection Award event here, Friday evening.

Marsudi highlighted a rising trend of recruiting foreigners, including Indonesians, to be employed in online scam operations in Southeast Asia over these past years.

Indonesian workers were vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking operations and got exploited by those running online scam busine...