Migrant
watch
Jailed
Filipinos in Dubai Yearn for Home
BY
BULATLAT.COM
Presidential
spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s recent
visit to Kuwait was proof of the president’s concern for overseas Filipinos
(OFWs) in the Middle East. Hundreds of jailed and stranded Filipinos in the
region however are yet to feel the president’s “concern.” The Philippine
government remains deaf to their pleas for help as they yearn to go home and
leave a region that will soon be under heavy U.S. military fire.
Filipino
overseas workers Jesus Lara, Demetrio Pacifico and Alberto Lopez for example
have been languishing in a Dubai jail, the United Arab Emirates since 1998.
Detained for theft, they have been given clemency in 2000. They are however
required to pay the shop owners of the stores they allegedly robbed. Until they
do so, they would remain in jail.
Nancy
Pacifico, Demetrio’s daughter, describes in a letter the condition of her
father:
“My father is very old now (64 yrs.) and his vision is getting worse. Early in
2002, he had a hernia operation in jail. Before more illnesses arise, I wish
that my father be sent home. My mother is also very sickly, and had a near-death
operation in April 2000. I only want our family to reunite again before one of
them passes away. Before my mother had an operation, she asked for help from
Ambassador Amable Aguiluz III. He promised to help but nothing happened… He
(my father) told me that there are lots of other Filipinos detained in Dubai
Central jail that are supposed to be out already, but don’t have the money to
pay the tanasil (a fine paid to the aggrieved party).”
According to the Asia-Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), a regional
institution working for rights and welfare of migrants in Asia-Pacific, there
are similar cases in other Middle East countries. It says that there are in fact
over a hundred male Filipino migrants stranded in Saudi Arabia because of abuses
and labor related issues with their employers.
”Their situation is like that of the 200 OFWs in Kuwait,” said APMM in a
press release. “The President herself unjustly tagged them as violating their
employment contracts when in fact the Philippine Labor office in Kuwait itself
… described these workers as absconding from their sponsors and/or placement
agencies for a wide range of complaints from non-payment of salary, to
maltreatment and sexual abuse.”
”We
urge President Macapagal Arroyo to immediately ensure that Mr. Lara, Pacifico
and Lopez and similarly situated Filipinos and all stranded workers in Saudi
Arabia and the Middle East be sent home immediately before the outbreak of war
in Iraq without any conditions.”
It
scored how the president’s “concern” only came out in the eve of the U.S.
attack against Iraq “which she herself ironically supports.” Bulatlat.com
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