MIGRANT WATCH

Recovering OFWs’ Lost Hopes

A center for overseas Filipino workers in Davao hopes to pave the way for a strengthened migrant advocacy since OFWs are now fast becoming among the most "exploited" sectors of society.

By Cheryll D. Fiel
Bulatlat

DAVAO CITY --- Eleven years ago, Ashah was a very young mother and desperate to find a better life for her children when her husband’s relative came to their house and asked if she wanted to work abroad. Because the recruiter was a relative, Ashah jumped at what she thought was a chance to improve her family’s life.

Leaving behind two children, one of whom was barely a year old, Ashah left the country to work in Kuwait.

Unfair treatment and harsh working conditions however forced Ashah to leave the Kuwaiti household she was working for. Unable to finish her two-year contract as a domestic helper, she sought the help of the Philippine Embassy in the capital city of Kuwait but got dismayed at the treatment she received. An embassy official scolded her and told her she was stupid for not putting up with “a very minor problem” with her employer.

Ashah then contacted her recruitment agency so she could return home. With nowhere else to go, she stayed at the living quarters of the recruitment agency. However, she noticed that the recruitment agency was delaying her trip back home. She also wondered why she and three other Filipinas were being locked inside a room at the third floor of the agency’s building.

Aside from not being allowed to go out, they were also not given adequate food and even treated harshly. She cited an instance when the agency’s secretary slapped her face when she asserted her rights. She was then told that she could not leave until she could pay the amount the agency was unable to collect from her unfinished contract. It meant working for sometime under a new employer without getting paid for the first few months because her supposed salary would have to go to the recruitment agency to offset her balance.

Ashah said she felt powerless and began to fear for her life. The thought of not being able to see her family again terrified her.

When Ashah phoned her family, she learned that they, too, were helpless as her name was not in the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration’s (OWWA) list.

At that point, Ashah said, what mattered most was being able to go home and reuniting with her family. Besides, she was only receiving 45 Dinar a month (or a low PhP3,000 in 1994).

She and the other girls locked up finally found the chance to escape when the air-conditioning unit of the room they were staying in conked out and had to be taken out for repair.

Metal crutches

But Ashah did not make it safely down. She fell off from the third floor of the building when the blanket she was holding on to escape was ripped apart. Her spinal column was badly damaged and since then, Ashah could no longer walk normally and needed the aid of metal crutches to move around.

Ashah no longer bothered to fight the case out with the erring recruitment agency. It was not only a futile exercise but even dangerous, she thought.

Eleven years later today Ashah continues to struggle to get her life back again. The family’s finances did not improve and the Kuwait experience broke her family apart. Ashah's husband, who was later imprisoned for illegal drugs, has yet to finish his sentence.

But Ashah’s two children bring her hope. She now tries to go on with her life although feelings of injustice tend to bring back memories of her grim past. She could not help but be reminded of this every time she struggles to stand on her two feet and try to walk again.

Although the distance from where she lives is quite far from the Center for Overseas Workers (COW), a non-government organization doing assistance work for overseas workers and returnees in need, Ashah's shaky legs and feet do not prevent her from coming to the center as often as she could.

By being a part of the Center, Ashah said she finds comfort in solidarity with other fellows who like her, also went through such difficult circumstances. Meanwhile, Ashah has been included in the Center’s livelihood assistance program. Although the amount is just little, she said, it's the thought of being supported that counts most. What is important she said, is finding a support group to help her cope with the present challenges she is facing.

Illegal recruitment

Sr. Celine Cajanding, of the Religious of the Good Shepherd (RGS), who is also the executive director of the Center, warned there could be many more Ashah's waiting to happen, with Davao not yet free from elements that make a killing out of the illegal recruitment business.

Even the chief of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) regional center Francis Domingo admits, illegal recruitment is a problem they cannot eliminate.

Aspiring overseas workers who have submitted application here in Davao region within the first four months of the year alone have already lost some P909,000 to illegal recruitment activities. At least 26 victims have filed complaints at the POEA since the start of the year.

Last year, the amount lost to illegal recruitment activities in the region reached P2 million within the same period. At least 63 were victims of illegal recruiters.

But Domingo believes the number is a lot higher. Either many victims do not pursue the case or they are themselves “willing victims," he said.

Everyday, Sr. Cajanding says, many undocumented Filipinos go out of the country through the various modus operandi of illegal recruitment.

With the increasing costs of basic goods and services and the rising unemployment, many Filipinos try to find work abroad at whatever cost.

Finding ways to help OFWs

Sr. Cajanding says OFWs who are able to go abroad without working permits and other papers are most vulnerable to the many problems brought about by illegal recruitment. They are the most likely to fall victims to contract violation, contract substitution, non payment of salaries, maltreatment by employers, trafficking and, worst, rape.

Sr. Cajanding says that while undocumented workers are the ones most likely to meet problems while working abroad, they also get little help from government agencies. Most often, protection is uncertain especially for their cases and intervention work also becomes doubly hard.

Presently, advocates for migrant rights in Davao, like Sr. Cajanding’s group, are trying to find ways to reach out to as many OFWs as possible who might be in dire straits. They are also searching ways to help prospective migrants from being victimized by fraud.

Aside from active education and information dissemination activities, they are currently embarking on a registration campaign for Davaoeño overseas workers.

Migrant workers like Sr. Cajanding are also batting for improved services for OFWs. They are looking forward to the establishment of an OFW Center in Davao City in coordination with the local government to provide improved assistance to OFWs and migrant returnees like Ashah.

Recently, the center has been recommended by the technical working committee of the Davao City Council tasked to come up with legislated intervention mechanisms for OFWs in the City.

According to Sr. Cajanding, these signs give them hope for a strengthened advocacy on migrants, who are now fast becoming among the most "exploited" sectors of society. Bulatlat

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