MIGRANT Watch

Due to poverty
OFWs from Lebanon Mull Working Abroad Anew

Filipino domestic helpers are jumping off buildings and houses to escape their employers and the war in Lebanon.  But coming home to joblessness and poverty only pushes back overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to again work abroad, even if it means going to another dangerous country.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat

RISK-TAKER.  Christine Hadjirudin, 22, almost jumped off a hotel building in desperation to get out of war-torn Beirut. PHOTO BY AUBREY MAKILAN

Christine Hadjirudin, 22, a native of Davao City, was in Lebanon for only three months. It was her first job working as a domestic helper and she had not received her salary. The arrangement with her recruitment agency is that the latter will get her salary for the first three months. When Israel first bombed central Beirut dawn of July 12, her employer woke her up and told her to immediately pack the children’s things. They were transferring to a hotel. “Pero ‘yung mga gamit ko pinaiwan niya,” (But she told me to leave my things behind) said Hadjirudin who was only able to bring three pair of pants and three t-shirts. “It’s nothing,” her employer would tell her even if they could feel the ground shaking. But after several days at the hotel, Hadjirudin was hungry and became desperate to go home. She even tried to jump off the hotel building but someone from the next unit stopped her. Had she jumped, she would have met the same fate as those who were killed, or the several others injured, in trying to escape their employers and the war in Beirut.

Hadjirudin was among the first batch of evacuees who arrived in the country on Aug.1, after days of struggling with her Lebanese employer.

Belated order

On Aug. 4 President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo belatedly ordered her Task Force Lebanon "to undertake all means to protect the lives and the human rights" of Filipino nationals in that war-torn country. 

Two Filipinas died after jumping off buildings trying to escape from their employers.

Michelle Tomagan, a domestic helper in Lebanon, died on July 28 trying to escape from her employer’s apartment. Tomagan tied up bed sheets from her employer's fourth floor balcony. A Mount Lebanon police report showed she died on the way to the hospital.

On July 26, a police report said that another overseas Filipino worker in Lebanon, Mary Jane Pangilinan, died of a neck and leg fracture “as a result of (a) fall” from her employer's house on the fourth floor of the building.

For his part, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos ordered embassy officials in Lebanon to immediately respond to OFWs who want to be evacuated but were not allowed by their employers.

However, Connie Bragas-Regalado, Migrante International chairperson, said that although the issue of abuses of the Lebanese employers is true, the government has been ignoring the fact that the death of the two OFWs was caused by “Israel’s violent onslaught in Lebanon.”

Own battle

Hadjirudin is the eldest of 10 siblings. Her father’s income as a fisherfolk is not enough to support the family. As a high school graduate, Hadjirudin knew she could not earn much if she only works in her hometown in Davao City.

At an early age, she took the risk of applying overseas. She could not apply for Saudi Arabia where she could not be employed because she was then only 21. She had to spend the remaining eight months in Manila waiting for her 22nd birthday. It was in Lebanon where she landed a job and arrived on April 13.

When asked where her employers used to live, she said she did not know the exact address in Beirut as she forgot to photocopy her contract before she gave it to the agency, which then refused to even tell her. She was also not allowed to leave the house.

Hadjirudin and her employer’s family transferred to a hotel in Beirut when the war started. On the sixth floor, she could still hear the bombings. She hardly slept at night but her employer would not allow her to return to the Philippines.

When she saw on television how her employer’s house was hit by Israeli bombs, Hadjirudin was speechless. If they had not left, they could be dead, too, she said.

As the Israeli attacks in Lebanon intensified, Hadjirudin had her own battle inside her employer’s house. As days passed, she said she was getting little share for her food.  “Ang hirap matulog na kumakalam pa tiyan mo,” recalled the teary-eyed domestic helper. “Tinapay na nga lang, kapiraso pa.”  (It’s hard to sleep on an empty stomach. I was given only a small piece of bread.)

She added that her employer would even lock the door of the kitchen so she could not eat more than what she was given. “Kahit tubig hindi man lang ako makakuha,” (I can’t even get a drink of water) she said.

Her situation convinced her even more that she should leave Lebanon. But her employer told her she would have to pay first $2,000, the amount which her employer paid for her airfare and agency. If she fails to pay the amount, her employer threatened to “sell” her to another employer who would pay for her expenses.

Desperate

Soon enough, Hadjirudin became desperate. Once, she tried to jump off the balcony of their room on the sixth floor. Her leg was already outside the grills when a neighbor in the next balcony saw her and stopped her from jumping.

“Hinawakan niya ako sa isang hita,” she recalled. “Tapos parang bumalik ako sa katinuan.” (She grabbed my leg. That brought me back to my senses)

She was comforted by two Filipinas in the same hotel who promised to bring her along when they go to the Philippine embassy. But when they failed to show up on the scheduled day, she felt completely helpless. Hadjirudin was desperate to return home at all cost.

She tried to break the window glass with her hands, which only ended up swelling. “Masakit pa nga hanggang ngayon,” (It still hurts) she said. Finally, she broke the window by throwing an ash tray. She was going to jump through the broken window when her employer saw her and stopped her.

“Para nga akong batang nagwawala,” she said. “Hindi ko na alam kung anong nangyari sa akin basta gusto ko nang makauwi.” (I was like a child in tantrums. I didn’t know what I was thinking, I was so desperate to get home.)

Finally, her employer gave her passport and brought her to the embassy.

Escaped routes bombed

Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Marianito Roque earlier said it would take at least three months to evacuate the rest of more than 30,000 Filipinos still trapped in Lebanon. But he also said that the OWWA and the DFA will work together to speed up the repatriation of Filipinos in the war-torn country, targeting about 10,000 this week.

However, on Aug. 4, evacuation became more difficult after the Israeli warplanes destroyed four bridges along the coastal highway leading north from the Beirut towards the Syrian border.

As a result, 17 buses carrying the third batch of 450 OFWs were unable to pass. The United States-funded International Organization for Migration (IOM) paid for the repatriation of the said OFWs as well as the evacuation of the two previous batches of OFWs.

The DFA said the evacuation would now be by sea which would take longer.

The Philippine government has repatriated a total of 2,200 OFWs as of Aug. 5. There are about 34,000 OFWs in Lebanon, mostly working as domestic helpers. About 2,000 are based in southern Lebanon which bore the brunt of Israel attacks.

Back home

Hadjirudin was one of the 200 OFWs who were brought to the ABS-CBN. One of them won the P1-million ($19,409.94, based on an exchange rate of P51.52 per US dollar) prize on the variety show Wowowee on Wednesday. Hadjirudin said they were given each P4,111 ($79.79). Using her share, she bought a cellular phone as “remembrance” of the prize money.

She stays at the Half-way Home in the OWWA building and could not believe she is back in the country. There she saw other OFWs who got hurt while escaping their employers. “Ano na lang kaya ang nangyari sa akin kung tumalon ako?” (What would have happened to me had I jumped?)

Hadjirudin underwent a post stress traumatic syndrome exercise by health professionals from the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH).

“Parang naririnig ko pa nga ang amo ko, inuutusan ako,” (I could still hear my employer, giving me orders.) she said, adding that she sleeps at 5 a.m., which is 12 midnight in Lebanon, her bedtime when she was still there.  

Bon Ploteña, a psychiatric nurse at the NCMH, said that these reactions are normal. They organize the OFWs into small groups, with a health worker from the NCMH to facilitate the sharing.

“Lahat nga umiyak habang nagkukwento,” (Each of us cried as we tell our stories) said Hadjirudin who also cried in the interview. 

This will lessen their emotional baggage which was caused by their relationship with their employer or their experience of the bombing, said Ploteña. This service is only done for the OFWs evacuated from Lebanon where the OWWA sought their help.

Hadjirudin said she could not go home yet like other OFWs from the far south because she still has to wait for her ferry ticket. “Nauna pa nga sa akin yung kadarating lang, siguro hinuhuli nila ‘yung malalayo,” (Those who just got here got to go first. Maybe they schedule last those who are farthest.) she said referring to those newly arrived OFWs who already had their ferry tickets to Iloilo.

But she would not stop there. Despite her experience, and because of poverty in the province, Hadjirudin would still want to work abroad to help her family in Davao.

“Magpapahinga lang ako sandali,” (I will just take a break) she said, adding she is eyeing to work in Kuwait, another war-torn country during the Gulf War in the 1990s. Bulatlat

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