The Achilles’ heel of RP’s
Of the estimated 8 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) worldwide, women, who outnumber the men, are the most vulnerable to employers’ abuse and exploitation. They are the Achilles’ heel of the country’s migration program.Female OFWs have spread all over the globe to find work. Nurses and caregivers abound in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and other rich nations suffering from the acute shortage of medical workers. South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore teem with women factory workers. Domestic helpers are found in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, Italy and the Middle East.
Many DHs are exposed to employers’ maltreatment, nonpayment or underpayment of salary, contract substitution, long working hours and sexual abuse. The videoed rape of “Melissa,” a maid in Saudi Arabia, by her employer, underscores the impunity with which depraved employers treat their Filipino maids.
When I was in Singapore as labor attaché, a Filipino maid, who lost her mind following an attempt by her employer, jumped to her death from the sixth floor of a hospital where I had taken her for observation and treatment.
Many Filipino maids are victims of illegal recruitment by unscrupulous placement firms.
Their recruiters list them in their employment contracts not as domestic helpers but as waiters, cashiers or any category of worker to conceal their violations of new rules governing the employment of domestic helpers regarding their; prescribed minimum salary of $400 and the nonpayment of placement fees.
Three typical victims of this false representation recently ran away from their employers in Dubai, sought refuge at the Abu Dhabi Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration Center and came home on their own airplane tickets. Their stories of woe are almost similar.
Analiza Gille Laroga of San Carlos City, Pangasinan, was recruited last December by the RML placement agency with offices at the Abad Santos building in Paco, Manila. Her contract, processed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration under the Lucky International Management Services, listed her as cashier to work at the Alaham Coffee House and Cafeteria in Dubai with a salary of $300.
She arrived in Dubai last February 7 and worked not as a cashier but as maid of an Egyptian employer, Mona Shab Bad Ali. She worked 18 hours a day, with very little sleep, little food (mostly noodles) with a salary of 600 dirhams (about P7,500) a month.
She escaped last June 17 and went straight to the Philippine Consulate in Dubai. From there she was taken to the Abu Dhabi OWWA Center where she stayed until her return home last August 8.
She claimed that her mother paid the agency P8,000 as placement fee and P26,000 for her ticket coming home. She is seeking the refund of her placement fee, the cost of her air ticket, and the payment of her unpaid salary with the POEA.
Lilia de Guzman Pangan, 44, of Fairview, Quezon City, has a similar story. She was recruited by RML as a maid but was listed in her contract as a repacker at the Sea Shore Fast Food in Dubai. She worked as a maid of Omair Shalaf Aseeq Baeed Khalef in Dubai from February 7 to May 13, this year.
Underpaid, maltreated and given little food by her employer, she ran away and was taken to the OWWA Center in Abu Dhabi. She came home last July 13 on a ticket paid for by her son working in Jeddah. She wants a refund of P15,000 as her placement fee and the ticket cost amounting to P17,000.
Another maid, Mary Jane Soloriano Albay, was recruited by the Jamal Human Resource International last December for Ahmad Salem Mubarak Humaid in Abu Dhabi at a monthly salary of $200. But she was paid only 600 dirhams or P7,800 a month. She complained of long working hours, only one meal a day and maltreatment, She ran away after six months working for her employer and came home last July 21.
All three were all praise for the Abu Dhabi labor staff—labor attaché Nasser Munder, welfare officer Evelyn Yllanes, administrative assistant Winnie Monteverde and Rene Sorio, a Filipino member of UAE police security who acted as center coordinator—for treating them well during their stay at the OWWA Center.
The POEA should look into the illegal recruitment of these workers with a view to canceling the licenses of the placement agencies concerned to prevent other workers from falling victims to their illegal operations. Administrative sanctions will be swift and decisive.
