Shanghaied to Baghdad
SCARY was the testimony of Rory Mayberry before a US congressional committee on July 26. He told the story about how, in this age, foreign workers could be tricked by a contractor for the US government to work on a project they knew nothing about, for which they were not prepared and, when they were on the project, worked under bad conditions.Mayberry, an emergency medical technician contracted to First Kuwaiti International—the construction company building the US Embassy inside the Green Zone in Baghdad—testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he was ordered to shepherd 51 Filipinos. First Kuwaiti has denied the claim.
He told the committee that the Filipinos thought they were bound for Dubai for hotel work, and had no idea that they were being brought to the Iraqi capital.
When the Filipinos protested on the plane upon learning they were being brought to the wrong place, a security officer threatened them by waving an MP-5 machine gun.
Eventually, the Filipinos were “smuggled into the Green Zone,” past US security forces.
Mayberry testified that the Filipinos, among other laborers forced to work on the embassy site, worked without safety equipment. Many were injured at work.
The medical technician testified under oath. He must be telling the truth. This prompted Sen. Mar Roxas, whose staff uncovered the testimony on YouTube, to call the attention of Philippine authorities and the US Embassy in Manila about a modern case of piracy.
He called on the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Labor and Employment to verify the information. He urged the Philippine Embassy in Iraq to conduct an inspection, get in touch with US officials, verify the presence of the Filipinos and help them get out.
Foreign affairs and labor officials must immediately check all recruitment agencies to see who have sent Filipino workers to the Kuwaiti company, he added.
What has been the response to the senator’s representation? The US Embassy has remained silent on the issue.
President Arroyo has extended the term of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee, a group to oversee the safety and evacuation of Filipinos in that region, until the end of 2007. The committee chief, former Gen. Roy Cimatu, is traveling to Iraq to investigate the case.
Vice President Noli de Castro, presidential adviser on migrant labor, has identified two recruitment agencies among those supplying workers to First Kuwaiti Trading, which has denied Mayberry’s claim.
The government had banned Filipinos from travel and work in Iraq since 2004, after Angelo de la Cruz, a truck driver, was abducted by Iraqi militants. He was released only after Manila pulled-out its peacekeeping troops from Iraq. Records show 6,000 to 10,000 Filipinos are in Iraq. They were smuggled into the war-torn country.
“This is not just a violation of our travel ban, this is forced labor. Unless we have officially accepted that the days of slavery are back, the government must act,” Roxas stressed.
It is also more than a labor issue. It is a violation of human rights on US soil, apparently with the help of American officials and contractors.
The Green Zone
THE Green Zone is often touted as Fortress Iraq, the part of Baghdad that is invulnerable to enemy attack because of tight security. It is surrounded by high concrete blast walls and barbed wire. All entry points are controlled by coalition troops.
But in 2004, the zone was hit by two suicide bombings, which destroyed the bazaar and café. On April 12, 2007, a bomb tore through the Iraqi Parliament cafeteria, killing one person and injuring 22, including the vice president.
The attacks have shattered the Green Zone’s myth of impregnability although efforts to make it the capital within the capital continue. One major activity is the construction of the US embassy building which,in size and staff, will make it the biggest US mission in the world.
Fifty-one Filipinos, according to a testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, were recruited to work on the site although the workers were promised they would be working in Dubai, one of the states in the United Arab Emirates.
Stretching 10 kilometers in central Baghdad, the zone is the center of the Coalition Provisional Authority. It remains the hub of the international presence in the city. It is the headquarters for private military contractors, and home to the British embassy, America’s closest ally on the war on terror.
The area was originally home to the villas of Iraqi government officials, cabinet ministries, and a number of palaces owned by former President Saddam Hussein.
Since the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis, many of the properties have been turned over to the Iraqi government. Some 5,000 homeless Iraqis also live in the zone with American forbearance.
The Green Zone is expected to house more international organizations and private businesses in keeping with its status and its promised security. Our embassy hopes to find a home there but that could come only when peace has returned to Iraq.
