Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Desperate to get away, some female migrant workers now camped in Nunukan close to the Sabah border have resorted to selling their babies to raise money to pay for their return journey to homes in Sulawesi and Java.
While the number of such instances is in dispute, church workers confirmed that one migrant worker deported from Sabah sold her baby for one million rupiah (US$100) to a local woman from Nunukan, a port town in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province.
An aid worker from the Humanitarian Volunteers Network, Mr Najib Abu Nasser, said he received reports that another two babies had been sold by their mothers for as little as 300,000 rupiah.
This comes amid reports that some 31 adults, children and prematurely born infants had died in Nunukan in the past five weeks, while hundreds of other illegal migrants were seeking medical treatment. Confirming the sale of the baby, Mr Alloysius Ratukellen from the local Catholic Church said: "Kristina, the woman who bought the baby, lives near my house and she told me that she bought the baby just two days ago. The baby had a fever and was sick and I think the mother was scared the baby would not survive in the camps." He said the migrant woman's husband had abandoned her within a month of the baby's birth.
The mother felt comfortable selling the baby to Kristina, who is originally from the eastern Indonesian island of Flores, because the baby's father is also ethnic Florinese, he said, adding that the mother reportedly needed the money to return to her hometown. No further details were available about the sales of the other two babies.
Other aid workers said many such workers have used all their savings just to get to Nunukan, and now lack money to pay for food or their journey home.
Meanwhile, there was no change in the conditions at the holding camp, with many migrants continuing to stay in tents. "Most of the tents are made of plastic, and are open to the wind, the rain, the heat. If it rains they can't sleep as they are just sleeping on the earth," Mr Najib said.
A Nunukan health clinic worker said at least 18 children were in critical condition and although there were no new deaths on Monday or yesterday, many migrants were succumbing to disease. "Many are hungry and only 50 per cent have access to fresh drinking water," said health worker Siti Sumarti.
She said there were only nine doctors for around 80,000 deportees camped around Nunukan, and additional doctors who were supposed to come from Makassar in Sulawesi, and Samarinda, the East Kalimantan provincial capital, had not yet arrived. An Indonesian navy vessel has been sent to the area, even as Indonesian Red Cross chief Mari'e Muhammad lashed out at the Social Welfare and Labour departments for reacting too slowly to the humanitarian crisis.
The Antara news agency quoted Health Minister Achmad Suyudi as saying the ship, with 10 doctors and dozens of paramedics on board, was equipped with 200 beds.