NUNUKAN, Indonesia (UCAN) - Indonesian Catholics on Nunukan Island, East Kalimantan, are providing help to Indonesian deportees stranded there, some reportedly so desperate that they have sold their children.
Since Aug. 5, parishioners of St. Gabriel Church on Nunukan, near the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, have ministered to the needs of deportees, many of whom live in shabby camps with limited sanitation, food and medical facilities. Malaysia launched a drive to deport illegal migrant workers beginning Aug. 1.
Father Mateus Rampai from St. Gabriel's told UCA News a parish youth team "uses cars to distribute food and medicines to the migrant workers lodged at temporary camps and the hospital," while an adult team provides breakfast for those treated at the government-run community health center. "The health center provides lunch and supper for patients but not breakfast. So, we take that opportunity" to do so, he added.
About 100 Catholic families have opened their homes to house some of the migrant workers, the priest said. The parish has 1,164 parishioners.
According to Father Rampai, the workers badly need food, temporary shelter and medicines.
The Indonesian government has allocated some 120 tons of rice and 350 million rupees (US$39,325) to be distributed among the deportees on the island.
According to reports, some deportees are so desperate to return to Malaysia that they raised money for the trip by selling their infants. Palupi, a relief worker with Humanitarian Volunteers' Network, told the press Sept. 3 some mothers on Nunukan were selling their babies at prices ranging from 300,000 rupees (US$34) to 1 million rupees.
"I've had three cases this week," said Palupi, as "The Jakarta Post" reported. "They need the money to be able to go back to Malaysia," she said. The same story was also carried in "Kompas," the country's largest-circulating daily.
According to the reports, the parents use the money to try to obtain passports, work documents and other immigration papers so they can return to Malaysia to work.
Reacting to the news reports, Father Rampai told UCA News, "If the government's assistance for the workers goes smoothly, I believe the practice of child selling will stop."
He added that some mothers apparently sold their children for another reason, to secure a better future for them, as the women cannot afford to raise these children without jobs.
Since 2000, when Nunukan became a regency, an administrative level higher than district, it has gradually become a transit point for Indonesians wishing to enter Tawau in Sabah, eastern Malaysia, to purchase goods.
The island is 1,650 kilometers northeast of Jakarta.
