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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Finardo Cabilao was known for investigating allegations of abuses committed against OFWs in Malaysia. He often went out on a limb for these OFWs. Relatives, friends and nongovernment groups believe that Cabilao was brutally murdered because of this.
In the afternoon of Aug. 14, the Saudi police raided the safehouse of the migrant NGO Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan and arrested and detained 18 Filipinos, including several runaway OFWs. Their crime? They violated a Saudi law that forbids unrelated men and women from living together.
In February, Maribel Figaroa and several other Filipino women went to Oman to work as domestic helpers. Instead of gainful employment, they ended up being abused and exploited by the placement agency that brought them there.
A Call for Help from OFWs in Sabah
To many Filipinos in the southern Philippines, Sabah represents salvation. Beckoned by the vast palm-oil plantations in the Malaysian state, they go there in droves seeking employment that they could not find in their homeland. Once there, however, many of them are confronted with the reality of neglect and abuse that is far brutal than the one they had left behind.
An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who recently returned to the Philippines has made an urgent appeal to help rescue 20 other women OFWs in Saudi Arabia, some of whom are being treated as sex slaves. She said several of them have been raped.
Jakatia Pawa of Zamboanga Sibugay was convicted of killing her employer’s daughter; a Kuwaiti court has upheld the verdict. Migrante International denounces the Arroyo regime for not doing enough to save OFWs on death row in other countries.
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20 OFWs Being Treated as Sex Slaves