Nurfika Osman – An official warned on Thursday that child kidnapping cases across the country had risen by an alarming 20 percent as traffickers troll the archipelago for vulnerable youngsters.

"In the past, most child kidnapping cases involved ransom money," said Arist Merdeka Sirait, the secretary general of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak).

"In the past two years however, most of the children have been kidnapped for the purpose of trafficking. At least 80 percent of the cases occurred for the trafficking of children."

He said the commission had recorded 102 abductions targeting children from January to June this year, compared to 87 such cases in the same period in 2008.

Most at risk of being taken are children under the age of 12, Arist said, noting that 60 percent of those reported kidnapped this year were girls.

Two recent child kidnapping cases have received a great deal of coverage in the media.

Bekasi Police last week arrested two suspects in connection with the kidnapping of a 4-year-old boy, identified as Michael Anthony Garcia, who is believed to be at the center of a custody battle between his parents. The child's parents divorced in 2007 and the mother has since remarried. Police suspect that the boy is with his father.

The second case revolves around a newborn boy who was taken from Semarang General Hospital in Central Java by a woman posing as a member of the family.

"This issue should be at the top of the priority list for the new state minister for women's empowerment and child protection," Arist said. "This should be a priority for the minister's first 100 days in office."

A ministry official, Wahyu Hartomo, has said that the ministry would waste no time in coordinating with the National Police, the National Commission for Child Protection and the Ministry of Social Affairs to deal with the issue.

"We are concerned about this issue and are going to immediately coordinate with these institutions on further steps that need to be taken," Wahyu said.

He added that women's empowerment agencies across the country would begin coordinating with women's organizations at the district level to educate the public about the danger of kidnapping targeting children.

"We want society to be more sensitive to this issue," Wahyu said. "Families should be able to protect their children." "Parents accompanying their children to school is one of the best ways to do this," he added.