A Catholic priest has received a national award for tackling human trafficking in Batam, a transit region for illegal migrant workers in Indonesia’s Riau Islands.
Fr Chrisanctus Paschalis Saturnus, head of Pangkalpinang Diocese’s Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, received the Witness and Victim Protection Agency Award on 28 August. The agency is an independent government body which provides protection to witnesses and victims of crimes during criminal investigations.
Since 2013, Fr Paschalis and his team have rescued more than 500 victims. They are generally women and children hired to become domestic workers in other countries, particularly Malaysia. Some migrants have in reality been recruited to become sex workers in the region. In recent years, predominantly Catholic East Nusa Tenggara province has recorded the highest number of trafficking cases in the country – more than 7,000. Thanks to Father Paschalis’ efforts, at least 10 traffickers have been convicted and imprisoned over the last six years.
Fr Paschalis says fighting human trafficking has become a priority for Pangkalpinang Diocese. He reports that, victims “don't have documents and are deceived by recruiters with the lure of big salaries". And above the recruiters “are the big players who are difficult to catch". Twenty volunteers work with him and parishioners in Batam are asked to contact them if they come across anything suspicious. "By involving them, I want to remind them that this is part of the church's mission," he says.
And, as Indonesia handed down its first sentence of chemical castration to a convicted child rapist last week, church opinion has been divided. The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) said none of its members would carry out the punishment, saying it goes against their ethics. While the Indonesian Catholic Church supported that stance, Dominican Sister Natalia Sumarni, secretary of the Indonesian Bishops’ Gender and Woman Secretariat, took the opposing view. She said, “it is important that he be punished this way so that he does not sexually abuse children again”.
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