HELPING MIGRANTS: RISKY BUT REWARDING

HELPING MIGRANTS: RISKY BUT REWARDING
Fr. Ranulfo T. Salise, CS
The work for the protection and the promotion of the rights and welfare of the migrants, seafarers and the victims of human trafficking from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines is risky but rewarding. The Stella Maris International Service Center is the office for legal, para-legal and counseling intervention that shelter migrants and seafarers in distress striving to be faithful to its thrust.

Within the first floor of the five story building is the Apostleship of the Sea (AOS) the office dedicated for the rest-recreation, bar refreshments, store for souvenir items, money exchange, internet service, phone service, crisis intervention in cooperation with SMISC, free shuttle services and most of all the coordination of liturgical and sacramental ministries within the harbor of Kaohsiung or on board a ship upon request. Both of these offices are under the mandate of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kaohsiung for the care of the human and spiritual needs of the migrants and seafarers. (1 Home Away from Home)

The NGO work for the care of the human and spiritual needs of the migrant exposes the staff (3 Scalabrinian Father’s, Taiwanese, Filipino and Vietnamese case workers) of the center to all sorts of tensed and very often face to face encounter with abusive employers, opportunistic brokers and the perpetrators of human trafficking. The lobbying and advocacy works we do forced us to fight for the recognition of human rights and the common humanity we share. This advocacy work leads us even to the extent of breaking friendship for the sake of protecting migrants and often times the reception of a death threat. My experience tells me that NGO work for migrants is definitely not for the faint hearted and the weak in faith.

These natures of NGO work therefore demands that the academic and linguistic composition of our staff should be varied. The cultural background and NGO seminar-workshop skills acquisition of our staff should be seriously considered. These considerations will definitely make the services of our center and the crisis intervention to be consolidated, integrated and comprehensive.

In the course of our crisis intervention, some of us felt afraid but we are forced to be strong for the sake of the migrants. The SMISC for several years of its existence cascaded a unique feature into the NGO work through its pluricultural, interreligious and multi-linguistic approach in its services because of our sensitivity toward the complexity of people’s culture but also as a robust figure in research and lobbying advocacy for the protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of the migrants.

The residents of our shelter are both male and female from different sectors of migration namely: household service workers, entertainers, foreign spouse, seafarers and fishermen, factory workers, farm workers, caregivers and nursing home assistants. Most of them are victims of contract substitution, untimely or unreasonable repatriation, unpaid salary, illegal deductions, illegal work, maltreatment, discrimination, rape, sexual abuse/molestation, physical beating and finally the victims of human trafficking. (2 Risks and Demands)

Thus, the nature and the reason for their presence in our shelter call us (staff, apprentices, volunteer workers and collaborators) to be very creative but faithful in our ministry. The daily immersion into the life of our residents invites us to be constantly gentle and person centered in our counseling intervention schemes. The uniqueness of each one calls us to receive others in solidarity and to praise God who delights in difference. In His providence indeed he leads and provides for us.

The work that we do in the center do not only mean para-legal assistance, multicultural counseling, welcome and care through the shelter, socialization of our residents to ease down homesickness and distress; it also mean for us NGO workers opportunity oppose the logic of discrimination and the rejection of one’s neighbor and for us religious missionary priests to show that we do not only take care of our own. The center is in fact a venue of cultural exchange and at the same time the unique forum for modern evangelization which is no longer in the context of conversion rather in and through the dialogue of life. There is a daily interplay of “a help for a help” encounter of people in the center.

The final invitation then is what do we do with the available time and opportunity we have? We believe that our best is not enough. But this does not impede us to do more. Every time our residents come to bade goodbye, after being compensated, with a smile on their face, we feel so happy and that is for us a reward. When they return to our center after being transferred that is a confirmation that we have created a difference into the migrants life.

The experience of risk, the emerging forms of abuses and the uncertainty as to how far can we do charity is a constant challenge. The establishment of a blue print as how a crisis intervention should proceed is a long battle to wrestle with and often frustrating. Therefore, the ministry is not just risky, rewarding, relevant and urgent but it is for us emerging. We are very much aware that the establishment of a complete pattern of intervention is difficult and elusive but this does not impede us to do more and deepen our resolve. We are convinced that this is not our mission but it is God’s. Our experience tells us all these years that He will not abandon us. That is the most rewarding and worth trusting thing. (3 Rewards)