JAKARTA - When she was promised 20 university credits and an “easy and light” job that would pay up to 30 million rupiah (S$2,550) a month, undergraduate Ramayana Monica, 22, was eager to begin an internship programme in Germany.

But she soon realised it was not the kind of overseas experience she had signed up for.

Over three months in late 2023, she was forced to toil over odd jobs in different parts of western Germany, from sorting fruits in a farm to moving heavy goods in a warehouse, and removing wallpaper and floorboards from an apartment.

“When I was there, I was no longer a student but a manual labourer... I felt fatigued and cold after working long hours, and was starving,” Ms Ramayana told The Straits Times, adding that while her school had stressed that the jobs would not align with her major in public administration, she thought she would at least get an office job.

“The (Germany-based) employment agency even forced us to sign work contracts, abandoned us and deducted our wages without any transparency,” she added.

Still, she gritted her teeth and completed the so-called internship so she could pay off most of the costs to participate in the programme. She returned to Jakarta safely on Dec 31, 2023.

Ms Ramayana, who attends the University of Jambi in Sumatra, is among some 1,900 Indonesian university students who were duped into paying huge fees for bogus internships that claimed to be part of an official German working holiday programme known as ferienjob.

The Indonesian police are investigating human trafficking allegations related to the scheme, after four Indonesians raised the alarm in May 2023. While on the “internship”, they ran out of money after being owed their wages and contacted the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin for help.

The investigations now involve at least 33 universities across Indonesia, some of which have terminated the programme, which began in 2022. All students have returned to Indonesia after the programme ended in December 2023.

Five suspects, including a professor at the university where Ms Ramayana and 86 other students were lured into joining the programme, have been named so far.

The professor allegedly promoted the “internship” to eight universities. In return for signing agreements and sending students to Germany, the universities were reportedly promised corporate social responsibility funding.

Two other suspects are the executives of two Indonesia-based agencies that allegedly promoted the “internship” on various campuses, prepared work contracts and even manipulated information to enable the students to get visas. Another two were officials at a public university in Jakarta who selected eligible students for the “internship” and facilitated their participation, including getting loans for them.

The director of general crime division in the police, Brigadier-General Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro, said the students were not officially employed and this led to exploitation. Financial benefits gained by the suspects and recruiters were also taken into account in the investigations, he added. 

“Elements in a human trafficking case, which we have collected, have been met, according to our investigators,” he told reporters on April 3. 

Many of the students had come to know of the programme through pamphlets distributed on campus and, like Ms Ramayana, assumed that it was legitimate.

The pamphlets claimed the “internship” was part of a career preparation programme under Indonesia’s Education and Culture Ministry, called the Independent Learning Independent Campus Scheme. The ministry has denied the claim.

Mr Thomas Graf, deputy head of mission of the German Embassy in Jakarta, has clarified that ferienjob is not an internship programme. He said on April 4 that ferienjob is offered to international students to allow them to gain work experience in Germany during semester breaks.

However, he acknowledged the work did not correspond with the competencies the students learnt on campus, which is “where the misunderstanding about ferienjob begins”, he was quoted as saying by local news outlet Kompas.id.

The pamphlets promised jobs in big companies such as logistics giant DHL, but many students were placed in low-level manual jobs in small firms, such as sorting agricultural produce in farms and packing goods in warehouses. Their salaries were also deducted to pay for administrative fees incurred by agencies that handled their “internships”.

The students were also asked to fork out 30 million to 50 million rupiah for application fees, according to local reports. The agencies claimed the money went to visas, work licences and contracts, and to pay for air tickets and accommodation.

Like many other students, Ms Ramayana took up a loan with an agency to make the initial payment, with the intention of paying it back from the salary she would earn in Germany.

“For me, the monthly pay of around 20 million to 30 million rupiah was very attractive, and I thought I could use the money to finance my studies later,” said Ms Ramayana, adding that the irony was that she thought the programme would help to advance her future career and financial prospects.

She ended up borrowing six million rupiah. Her parents, who are farmers, also gave her some money.

When the programme ended, Ms Ramayana had earned €1,800 (S$2,630), but after deducting fees imposed by the agency and living expenses, she had just €60 left.

Though her experience was unnerving from the beginning – she had to go through different agencies for her application and work assignments, was abandoned at the airport upon arrival, and faced contractual issues – the thought of having to repay her debt made her carry on.

“If my family were well-off, I’d have just returned home after the first day of being mistreated. But I was under pressure from the agencies and my debt, so I had to continue,” she said. 

Like others, Ms Ramayana has yet to pay off her debt.

Ms Zubaidah, director of Jambi-based rights group Beranda Perempuan, which tackles migration issues, told ST that it is helping five students from poor families, who have debts of up to 40 million rupiah, with some borrowing money from their families.  

“They have been depressed because after they returned from Germany, the agencies demanded that they repay their debt,” she said.

On the allegations of human trafficking, Ms Zubaidah, who goes by only one name, said the students were in a situation where they had no option other than to borrow money to attend the programme, and this opened them up to exploitation. There was also a power imbalance between the students and the universities and recruiters who had promised them study credits, she added. 

“In our view, the case has fulfilled the criteria of human trafficking,” she said. 

Mr Nurharsono, the coordinator of the legal aid division at migrant labour advocacy group Migrant Care, told ST that human trafficking syndicates have shifted their targets from high school and vocational school students to university students.

In 2018, Migrant Care helped 20 graduates of a vocational school in Central Java after they fell victim to a human trafficking scam in Malaysia. The recruiter, a local company, allegedly teamed up with the school to lure the students to Malaysia.

“The Education and Culture Ministry must also investigate the universities that have internship cooperation (with external parties), to ensure protection of their students, and punish any actor involved, such as those facilitating their departure,” said Mr Nurharsono.

For now, Ms Ramayana is “grateful to have survived the ordeal in Germany”. She also rejected the 20 university credits offered to her, as she felt she had not done anything to deserve them.

“I am trying to encourage myself to help uncover this case,” she said, adding that she just wants the truth to be known.