Jakarta: Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Indonesia unite to tackle climate migration

During a recent meeting in the Indonesian capital, Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Alistair Dutton highlights the devastating effects of climate change on vulnerable communities. Caritas Indonesia, which was set up in response to a natural disaster, as Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo said, continues its commitment against malnutrition and human trafficking.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - In a meeting held in Jakarta on 25 October, the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, Alistair Dutton, warned of the increasingly serious consequences of climate change, which is fuelling climate migration and could also have dramatic effects in Indonesia.

Arriving from Rome, Dutton met with Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo, President of the Indonesian Bishops' Conference and leader of Caritas Indonesia (Karina KWI), emphasising the need to address this global emergency.

‘We are used to talking about migration in economic terms, which actually affects a small number of people,’ said Dutton. In contrast, ‘thousands or even millions of people are potentially affected by climate change, which makes the planet an increasingly uninhabitable place,’ he continued, adding that with less and less fertile land and dwindling resources, the risk of large-scale forced migration becomes inevitable.

Indonesia is also particularly vulnerable, being in the ‘Ring of Fire’, a geographical area prone to frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. During the meeting, Cardinal Suharyo explained how Caritas Indonesia was established in 2006 in response to a natural disaster: at that time, the archdiocese of Semarang, in the Yogyakarta region, mobilised to bring aid after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake that claimed more than 5,700 lives and caused .1 billion in damage.

Thanks to the support of the local parishes and the leadership of the late Bishop Johannes Pujasumarta - ‘a priest with a strong spirit of compassion for others’, as Suharyo called him - an emergency response network was set up that led to the creation of Caritas Semarang, known locally as Karina KAS.

‘Special thanks go to Bishop Pius Riana Prapdi, the current bishop of Ketapang, who was then vicar general of the archdiocese and who contributed significantly to the founding of Caritas Semarang,’ Suharyo added.

The meeting between Dutton and Suharyo represented a new impetus to the collaboration between Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Indonesia in managing humanitarian crises and implementing disaster mitigation measures, working towards a safer and more dignified future for Indonesian citizens and migrants. Also present at the meeting were Mgr Aloysius Sudarso, President Emeritus of Caritas Indonesia, Executive Director Fr Freddy Rante Taruk and several staff members.

Recently, Caritas Indonesia launched a programme to combat malnutrition on the island of Sumba in East Nusa Tenggara province (NTT), which resulted in the distribution of food parcels to 373 mothers and children and six pregnant women in Weetebula diocese. In addition, as Fr. Freddy Rante Taruk explained, the foundation is active in the implementation of plans to combat human trafficking, a phenomenon that mainly affects Indonesian migrant workers.