Asset Recovery and Victim Restitution in Combating Human Trafficking in Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the integration of the anti-money-laundering regime and asset recovery into the effort to combat human trafficking and to fund the restitution of women and children who become its victims in Indonesia. A normative legal method was employed, combining statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches based on primary legal sources and peer-reviewed journals. The findings show that human trafficking is a predicate offence of money laundering, so that a follow-the-money approach—financial investigation, asset tracing, and asset recovery—can both dismantle trafficking networks and generate funds for victim restitution. However, the framework remains fragmented: restitution under the Anti-Trafficking Law is rarely realised, the asset-recovery regime is oriented toward punishing offenders rather than restoring victims, and a non-conviction-based forfeiture mechanism is not yet available. Examined through the value of justice and the objective of protecting property (ḥifẓ al-māl), the study concludes that strengthening asset recovery and channelling recovered assets to victims—supported by transnational cooperation—would produce a more just and victim-centred framework for protecting women and children.