EVERY time there is any Indonesian migrant worker forcibly sent home to their native village in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province through Kupang-based El Tari Airport in the province’s capital city, then busy days come to engulf Sister Laurentina SDP aged 50 years.
This Indonesian Catholic nun will certainly soon be contacted by the airport’s officials and by other Indonesian Migrant Care officers in Kupang to handle these “repatriated” migrant workers.
As always, she is expected to arrive in the airport’s cargo section to take care these unlucky people. Either still alive or dead.
The cargo nun
For this very decade-long years humanitarian service and her great concern for the dignity of Indonesian migrant workers, she has been popularly known as the “Cargo Nun”.
This affectionate name has finally attributed to this Suore della Divina (SDP) nun due to her endless dedication to take care of almost everything related with migrant workers –both still alive or dead—and her utmost commitment to bring them safely to their native village respectively.
“What I do frequently in Kupang Airport’s cargo terminal is to receive human body. I want to treat deceased body in dignity,” explains the nun over her affectionate name.
Non-procedural migrant workers
But her most humanitarian works are frequently related with the non-procedural migrant workers without legal papers to work abroad. Or, those with lawful papers but fraud personal data in term of age and others.
The worst things happen when she has to deal with dead bodies of Indonesian migrant workers but without their lawful papers.
And for all these unexpected things to happen, Sr. Laurentina SDP will become the main channel by migrant care agency in Kupang so as she likely able to bring these dead migrant workers to reach their family who in most cases can only be reached in remote areas across this “archipelagic” NTT Province.
And she sometimes provides almost everything: time, commitment, days outside from the nun’s rectory, and other things including huge financial expenses.
With the help of others both technically, administratively and financially, she will always be ready to spend days of inconvenient trips from Kupang –the capital of NTT Province- to any remote location across the province to bring these unlucky people back to their family respectively.
Various obstacle and serious difficulties likely always happen to her when such perilous trips should be made to reach very remote areas in Timor Island.
Things happen riskier when the trip should be made to other islands, meaning that she has to travel from one island to another island.
Either with ferry ship or with flying jet that will be continued with inland transportation.
Experiences of both anguishes and happy feelings
Speaking with Titch TV recently, this native SDP nun from Temanggung in Central Java shares her deeply felt “emotional” feelings, religious commitment to do such good things for others.
Including several hardship as well as challenges to carry out this humanitarian jobs as officially tapped to her by SDP religious congregation.
“I have been involved in this humanitarian activities since 2012 under the umbrella of our religious SDP’s Social Foundation. This happened to me as soon as I completed my study on social works in Kupang and later on Jakarta,” she says.
Non procedural cases
Most cases that Sr. Laurentina SDP is expected by other parties to be directly involved and find quick solution are Indonesian migrant workers without proper lawful papers.
If bad things happen and for these “unexpected” things, Sr. Laurentina SDP would be the first person to be contacted by various parties so as to address this issue properly and correctly and for sure all things would also be very well done as commonly expected by all parties.
The reason is sometimes very simple.
She is a Catholic religious nun, a very respected figure in NTT Province whose majority people are also Catholic –things that would certainly make several sensitive family matters would be more easily “handled” by a Catholic nun much better than other figures.
Case 1: the deceased Rambu Tia in Johor, Malaysia
This kind of thing happened recently on mid November 2020.
To her surprise, she was suddenly contacted by the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BP2PMI) in Kupang asking her favour to help, citing that an Indonesian female migrant worker with her old pregnancy was found dead in a hospital in Johor, Malaysia.
She was tapped as non-procedural migrant worker, BP2PMI told Sr. Laurentina SDP immediately.
“It is clear for me,” the nun tells Titch TV, “that any non-procedural migrant worker will always be engulfed with various problems such as violent gestures by their foreign host, unpaid wages or -the worst scenario—she will be sent home to Indonesia already dead without proper explanation to name causes of her death.”
And this also happened with the late Rambu Tia.
She was pronounced dead in Johor, Malaysia by local police and her dead body was laid in a local hospital, while awaiting consular arrangement with Indonesian Embassy in KL.
The late Tia is a native young girl from a remote village in East Sumba Island –one hour long flight trip from Kupang with additional four hour long inland trip to reach this difficult remote area.
“I need your urgent help to repatriate the dead body as nobody claimed responsible and the family is also very poor,” the text messages read from the agency when reached her mobile phone.
Who am I?
Reading all messages, the nun spontaneously expresses her grudges.
“Who am I really that BP2PMI intentionally aimed to contact and asked my favour to address this issue (since I am only an ordinary person in the society, while the agency is an official government office to deal the case). I have no financial capacity to bring home the dead body to her native village,” she shared with Titch TV about her inner “turmoil” when BP2PMI’s messages reached her the first time.
“The State and its apparatus even have no guts to address the issue, then what am I supposed to do (without financial capacity to bring the dead body home)?” she cried her personal anguish feelings, asking that “somebody” would help her to address this humanitarian issue.
Lobbying must be first done to make things clear and she successfully made it happen. Then a quick solution is to me made.
“I was motivated to contact some parties to help, either to Church’s network and Catholic individuals who are expected to give financial help. And without further delay, the miracle surprisingly works,” the nun said, adding that some key friend had consulted the issue with Indonesian Foreign Ministry and Jakarta-based BP2PMI.
“As I can frequently assume, their response is nothing else than their common reasons, citing that Indonesian Foreign Ministry could not assist, since the victim has not lawfully based with legal papers. And Kupang’s BP2PMI could only help when the dead body has reached Indonesian soil.”
But some Catholic individuals unexpectedly channelled some large money to fund this “program” tangibly done.
“As I was told by individual donors with their financial help, I soon made a trip to Sumba. With the help from a local Redemptoris priest in Sumba, I could finally find the family’s home address in Lewa. They are protestant church-goers,” she recalled.
After one hour flying from Kupang to Sumba, she continued with another four-hour long inland travel from to Lia Hau village in the island’s easternmost part.
She suddenly felt anguished and hopeless to say when lots of unanswerable questions were blatantly posed to her by all members of family.
The nun could only say that she had the good will to bring the deceased Tia with her dead foetus to return home.
Asap.
To this present day, it is not yet clear what is the exact cause of Tia’s death, despite the presence of her sibling –another migrant worker in Johor—who has provided several but inconsistent information about the cause of her sisters’ death.
In short, all things could be finally very well addressed and the casket with two dead bodies were finally flown from Malaysia to Sumba Island so as to be able to be laid down to rest in their native village.
“This could only happen when God has answered my prayers –an urgent need to have money to return the dead body to their home and it suddenly works,” she recalls, citing that without God’s “invisible hands” to help then her intention to bring home these two dead bodies from Johor to the remote village in Island would never happen.
Case 2
How could this happen that a female migrant worker has officially declared “missing in action” for some 14 years and suddenly she emerged from her long time absence?
Such kind of thing happened with a female young Indonesian migrant worker in Malaysia. But the nun was officially report by Indonesian foreign mission in KL that the young lady has lost almost all her past memory that she could even cannot remember the name of her parents, her native village and other personal data.
She has indeed lost her connection with the family almost 14 years.
“The only remaining data at the table is just an old photo picturing her with the family,” said the nun who suddenly felt dizzy to learn the case.
“Also, it was only one letter J that directly refers to the young lady’s name.”
The Kupang-based BP2PMI has made its own initiative to “recover” the information but found no success.
In NTT, if you have the last name of J, then it is much easier to track from where she belongs to, explained the nun.
“As a Javanese native without having family name, I was really upset and doubtful to find solution,” Sr. Laurentina SDP added, citing that she finally contacted her local native friend in Kupang in favour to help her to “identify” the name and its origin village.
Then the clue was made possible as the man suddenly said, “Such a name commonly comes from Oinlansi, a very remote area in the mountainous highland in Timor Island.”
A spontaneous trip plan was then made to reach Oinlansi.
The nun also was helped by local parish priest to find the lady’s family.
But the parish priest’s initial information has made the nun more restless as the location is so far away in a mountainous area where hiking a highland is a must.
The search and identification trip has been becoming a very such lengthy and complicated experience, the nun said.
“It is like searching one needle in a haystack. But, the result of this exhausted inquiry has generated a sense of spiritual happiness when J finally was able to reunited with the family after lost contact almost 14 years,” Sr. Laurentina confirms.
The father told the nun that her daughter has left the village for Malaysia in the last 14 years ago.
“We have no idea whether she still alive or not as during her 14-year long absence the family has never got any hint information about her job and whereabouts until you brought my lost daughter back to the family,” the father as quoted as saying by the nun.
The return process ran smoothly with the help of Mr. JT a local interpreter and the presence of Father Eko Aldianto O.Carm from the Indonesian Bishop of Conference’s Justice & Peace and Migrant Care Commission who spiritually supported the nun’s action to bring the lost migrant to return home to the family.
“Sometimes I feel I don’t understand the Lord’s path as with my shortcomings and vulnerability, He always fuels me with the spirit of quitting my personal comfort zone in the nun’s rectory by doing things outside my communal life,” tells the nun.
Case 3: strong disappointment
It happened someday in the early morning when two female teenagers are spotted not around anymore in the shelter. Both have gone without any body’s consent and knowledge.
Days earlier, both gave lodged complaints to other nun that they would prefer to return to their native village and have no more interest to pursue their high school in Kupang.
Already committed with her responsibility to take care of young migrant workers and provided them with lots of “schooling” program in Kupang-based shelter, Sr. Laurentina SDP spontaneously decided to track down their whereabouts.
“It means that I should go to their native village in a very remote area to tell to the family that some fresh offenses have done by their daughters in our shelter,” Sr. Laurentina SDP says.
But it is not easy to find off-road minivan to reach this remote destination with at least 10-hour long trip to Amfoang sub district.
The perilous trip was finally made with lots of troubles and challenges during the journey as they had to pass through a river due to the “ailing” bridge.
“How many times that our trip should pass through rivers to reach the village as there are no bridges,” explains the nun, citing that the trip should pass at least 45 rivers.
The trip finally reached Kifu village.
With the help of local village chef, the nun could meet parents of both teenagers.
The nun informed the parents that their daughter had reached the nun’s shelter as being briefed by anti-human trafficking agency in Kupang Airport that they had just “found” two young migrant workers who are not in their lawful age to seek overseas job.
“Again, their working papers are also made available through non procedural protocols,” said the nun, citing a quick decision was made in October 2019 the to take care of these both teenager and brought them in the nun’s shelter.
What makes the nuns sometime disappointed is the fact that these young people frequently unwillingly follow the shelter’s rules of conduct, but suddenly to leave shelter without the nun’s consent.
Earning easy money by working in the overseas has been becoming a strong magnet to them, despite lack of knowledge about any potential risks of being exploited and other harassment abroad.
A domestic worker’s salary in Malaysia can easily be two to three times than that of Indonesia’s, but many are also not paid –things that most Indonesian migrant workers are not well informed or aware of these “bad things”.
“Experiencing such a case has disappointed me and made me stressful as if my good job has resulted nothing. Strong sense of failure sometimes also engulfs me, when thing goes wrong and derailed,” shares the nun.
It is really hard to know other’s heart. “But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root,” the nun concludes referring with Matthew 13:6.
Personal:
- 1999: Joined the SDP religious congregation as Postulant and pronounced her first vows in 2002 and perpetual vows in 2010.
- 2017-2018: Joined short program workshop on refugee and migrant worker issues both in Tokyo and Rome.
- 2017: Officially tapped as Kupang Archdiocese’s anti human trafficking task force’s chief.
- 2020: Member of the KWI’s Justice & Peace, Migrant Care and Itinerant People Commission.
