CAIRO,
January 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Asians in areas
battered by last week’s killer tsunami,triggered by a 9.0 magnitude
underwater quake, are falling prey to proselytizing and human
trafficking.
Immediately
after the tidal waves devastated several countries, a number of
Christian missionary groups rushed to the affected areas to offer not
only relief aid, but more importantly spiritual counseling.
Gospel
for Asia, a group seeking to train and send 100,000 native
missionaries into the most unreached areas of Asia, was among the
first on the scene of the tsunami disaster in India and Sri Lanka.
According
to its Web site, GFA’s volunteers are working around the clock to
bring food, clean water, medicines, clothing, shelter, and spiritual
counseling “in the name of Jesus” to those who lost everything in
the killer tidal waves.
“People's
spiritual needs must be met as well. That's why GFA takes the dual
approach of physical relief and spiritual sharing. It is the only way
to provide true hope to those who have lost so much,” said GFA
President K.P. Yohannan.
GFA
deployed at three different camps in Tamil Nadu, the second most
affected place in India, more than 60 counselors who are
“comforting, praying for and offering the hope found in Jesus to the
tsunami victims.”
Ever
since the killer tidal waves left its scares on millions of Asians,
reports were rife about proselytizing campaigns carried out under the
disguise of humanitarian assistance.
In
an e-mail sent to IslamOnline.net a group of students identifying
themselves as Achehnese studying in Malaysia and now back home to help
relief efforts complained that surviving Muslim orphans have been
approached by Christian pastors and families.
Trafficking
 |
|
The
UN warned that tsunami children are victims of a vicious
trafficking campaign (Reuters)
|
In
another related development, the UN said it had received reports of
adults posing as foster parents and children being shipped from
Indonesia to Malaysia for sale, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
John
Budd, UNICEF Indonesia Communication Officer, said that UNICEF's
Malaysian office had received an SMS Tuesday advertising 300 orphans
from Aceh aged between three and ten who could be bought.
“It's
chilling…What this indicates is that they have got children or they
have a network where they can identify a child and take them,” he
said.
The
UN official also said that Medan was a well-known center for trade in
children.
“There
are ruthless criminal gangs based out of Medan who have been involved
in this for a very long time,” he said.
The
Indonesian government estimated that 35,000 children have been made
homeless, orphaned or separated from their parents in Aceh, which
remains in chaos 10 days after the tsunamis destroyed much of its west
coast.
Vice
President Yusuf Kalla also announced a ban on adoption put in place
earlier in the week amid an increasing number of reports started
surfacing about human traffickers spiriting children out of Aceh.
He
said the children would be placed in orphanages run by the government,
Islamic foundations or Muslim boarding schools.
The
government also said Tuesday that children under the age of 16 would
not be allowed to leave Aceh without their parents.
Authorities
have in the past arrested people on child trafficking charges in
Medan, where the rings are well known for selling babies for adoption
to people in Malaysia and Singapore.
Officials
have said children and the elderly were worst hit by the disaster
because in many cases they could not flee without help.
