MIGRANT WATCH

The Hero is a Slave

Overseas Filipino worker Mylene Mandas had only the pajamas she wore on the way to the airport when she boarded her flight home to the Philippines from Kuwait on May 16. When her employers took her out of the house, she was wearing pajamas and did not know she was being sent home.

By DABET CASTAñEDA
Bulatlat.com

But the 24-year old Mandas felt more like a slave than a hero. Mandas was reportedly maltreated by her Kuwaiti employers and not given a cent of her salary.

Maltreated

Born to a peasant couple from Pikit town in North Cotabato, a province in southern Philippines, Mandas borrowed money to be able to get a passport and visa and pay the placement money asked by the recruitment agency in order to work as a domestic helper in Kuwait. 

“Gusto ko lang tulungan ang pamilya ko na makaahon sa kahirapan” (I just wanted to help my family rise from poverty), Mandas said during an interview with Bulatlat.com in Quezon City.

Mandas then left for Kuwait last Sept. 26 under the Non-Stop Agency, a Philippine recruitment agency, which promised her a 45 Dinar (1Dinar is Php148 or $3.29) a month salary. 

But according to Mandas, since her arrival, she was maltreated by her employers – a couple with a child.  She identified her employer as Halil Serapi. 

For the first month, she said, she was made to eat her employers’ leftovers – and that would only be once, at 1 a.m.  In the succeeding months, she was only allowed to eat at 4 a.m.  She had no meals in between.

Every single day for eight months, said Mandas, she would sleep at around 2 a.m. and wake up at 4 a.m. 

She said her employers slapped and beat her up everyday for no apparent reason.  As a result, her left ear had become swollen and she has bruises all over her body. 

At one point, she said, her employers poured acid over her hands and feet, her burnt skin still evident until today.  

Mandas said her documents, except for her passport, was thrown away by  her employers.

Unpaid

Mandas was not given her salary for the eight months she had worked as a slave.  “Wala silang binigay sa akin kahit piso” (They gave me nothing, not even a peso), she said.

On May 16, she was brought to the airport and left there with a ticket and no instruction. Another Filipino OFW saw Mandas at the airport and was kind enough to help her buy some clothes for her trip back home. 

The international migrants group Migrante International demanded that, “all those responsible for Mandas’ plight must be brought to justice.”  These include her employers, recruiter, the Philippines post in Kuwait and other government agencies. 

Connie Bragas-Regalado, chair of Migrante International, said Ambassador Bayani  Mangibin and Luz Talento, a welfare officer in Kuwait are criminally liable for neglecting Mandas’ case. 

Mandas said when she met with her recruiters and the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA), she was promised her five-months’ worth of salary. The price of her plane ticket however would be deducted from the amount.  Bulatlat.com

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