NGO looks for illegitimate children

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.