JOHOR BARU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A family in Indonesia is eager to meet their kin who was found abandoned in Malaysia. She has been missing for almost two years.
The woman, identified as Risa Marisya, 35, was found without any travel documents outside a convenience store in Taman Mount Austin last month.
Ms Risa's sister, Ms Lala Wijayanti, 42, said she was overwhelmed when told that her sister would be home soon.
"One of the people who has been taking care of my sister in Johor called to inform us that they had sent her to Batam on Nov 21 and that she would later be sent to Jakarta. I was overjoyed, as I never thought that I would ever see Risa again.
"My 67-year-old mother could not believe it too. It took us a while to convince her that it was true, " she said, adding that they have been missing her dearly.
Ms Lala said her sister, who has suffered from schizophrenia since she was a teenager, was last seen by the family in January last year when she went to a shop near her village in East Jakarta.
"She never returned after going out that evening. We tried to look for her all over the kampung but could not locate her. Then we lodged a police report.
"We were told by other villagers that she had been taken away and sold to traffickers. We did not know how true that was. We were so close to giving up before finally receiving a phone call from Johor last month.
"I don't know how she ended up in Malaysia. She has never been out of the country and does not have a passport.
"I am shocked to find out that she is four months pregnant and I wonder who could have done something like that to my sweet sister," she said.
Ms Lala said her sister has now reached Batam after getting a passport from the Indonesian Consulate-General's office in Johor Baru.
Ms Risa's case came to light when a concerned member of the public called Johor Calvary City Church's Pastor Benedict Rajan to help a mentally challenged woman who had been living on the roadside in the area for some time.
The church members then cleaned her up and took her to one of their shelter homes, where she was placed in an isolated room as a precaution.
Ms Risa had been living at the home for about a week before she was taken to the Indonesian Consulate-General's office in Johor Baru.
Mr Prayogo, the consulate official assigned to the case, managed to track down Ms Risa's sister and made contact with her in Jakarta.
"Lala told us that Risa had been missing for more than one year and the family has been looking for her ever since," he said, adding that the consulate believed she was a victim of sex trafficking.
