APPLICATION OF THE LEX SPECIALIS PRINCIPLE TO THE NON-PROCEDURAL PLACEMENT OF INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS THROUGH BATAM: BETWEEN THE MIGRANT WORKER PROTECTION LAW AND THE ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAW (A STUDY OF BATAM DISTRICT COURT DECISIONS)

Irpan Husein Lubis (3Universitas Batam)
Erniyanti (Universitas Batam)
Etty Sri Wahyuni (Universitas Batam)

Multidiciplinary Output Research for Actual and International Issue (Morfai Journal)
Vol. 6 No. 6 (2026): Multidiciplinary Output Research For Actual and International Issue

Batam is one of the main departure points for Indonesian migrant workers who leave for Malaysia and Singapore outside official procedures. Prosecutors can charge the same conduct under Law Number 18 of 2017 on the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (the PPMI Law) or under Law Number 21 of 2007 on the Eradication of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons (the TPPO Law), yet the two laws protect different interests and carry different penalties. This study examines how the lex specialis principle determines which law applies and how the Batam District Court has chosen between them. It uses normative legal research with statutory, conceptual, and case approaches, and it analyzes five Batam District Court decisions issued between 2020 and 2025. The findings show that the two laws do not stand in a general and special relationship, because neither contains all the elements of the other. The PPMI Law punishes placement outside the lawful procedure, while the TPPO Law requires proof of an exploitative purpose. In all five decisions the court convicted under the PPMI Law, and in one case it rejected the trafficking charge because exploitation was not proven. The study recommends treating such conduct as a concurrence of offences, investigating indicators of exploitation before departure, and issuing Supreme Court guidelines on charging.