The workers, comprising 18 men and eight women, were rescued in a raid last Friday by officers from the criminal investigation department in Deli Serdang.

“The three suspects will be detained for the next 20 days,” the department’s director Sumaryono said in a statement.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the workers, who hail from several provinces, were promised employment as domestic workers, factory workers and plantation labourers, with a supposed monthly wage of RM1,500.

“Each of them paid five million rupiah (around RM1,300) to the syndicate. The plan was to smuggle them into Malaysia by barge,” Sumaryono said.

Before their planned departure, the workers were temporarily housed in a village called Tumpatan, in Batang Kuis, after arriving from their home regions.

The victims have since been handed over to the North Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency.

The three suspects are being investigated under Indonesia’s 2007 anti-human trafficking law and the 2017 law on migrant worker protection, and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.