NGO looks for illegitimate children

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Following the recent finding of four illegitimate children in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), the Panca Karsa Foundation (YPK), a non-governmental organization that provides legal aid to migrant workers, is continuing the search for other children conceived by migrant workers who were raped during their employment overseas.

The YPK took up the noble cause, since these children have no clear citizenship status and are alienated by the community around them.

Foundation Coordinator Endang Sulistiyani told The Jakarta Post by phone on Saturday that she had just received information from reliable sources that there were three more newborns in North Lombok and Sumbawa regencies, and that a former migrant worker who was raped in Middle East was to give birth in Gemel village, Central Lombok.

"Newborns are innocent, and we have a moral obligation to take care of them, because they were born of women who were victims of rape, abuse and violence," she said.

Endang said the YPK had found four children with distinct Middle Eastern features in Gemel and Jago, two of 22 poverty- stricken villages in the province that have sent the greatest number of migrant workers overseas.

The four are Slamet Tohir, 14, Mulyani, 3, Nasruddin, 1, and Roki Winata, 4, and are being raised by their "grandparents".

Endang said Slamet, who is in fourth grade at a state elementary school in Jago, and Roki were ostracized by their peers because of their unclear nationality.

"We have lobbied the local administration and local religious leaders to help end the social discrimination and give them Indonesian citizenship," she said, saying that although the children might have been unwanted, they live and exist in Indonesia and thus have the right to life, education and protection as all other children.

She admitted it was very difficult to fight for the children's naturalization as Indonesian citizens, because under the ius sanguinis-based law, their nationality should be that of their "unknown" fathers and thus, they are not considered Indonesian.

"It may be impossible to trace their biological fathers because they are illegitimate children, and their mothers have returned overseas to work again while they are raised by their grandparents," she said.