MIGRANT WATCH
Tales of Woe and Desperation in Iraq

During times of conflict, it is the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who suffer. Two OFWs who worked in Iraq proved that deployment bans are useless.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has partially lifted the ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Nigeria and Lebanon, after the hostage crisis and bombing incidents, respectively, in these countries.

And now, a new alarm was raised over the continued holding of the 15 British sailors in Iran. Although there are only about 200 Filipinos in Iran, the fear is for the estimated 1.5 to 1.8 million overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East if a region-wide tension escalates.

During times of conflict, it is the OFWs who suffer. Two OFWs, who worked in Iraq, proved that deployment bans are useless.

PART I - Rommel Sanchez: No Money and a Broken Family

Rommel Sanchez, 34, had always been a contractual worker in factories and fast food chains before he decided to work abroad.

In 1994, he worked as a fast food crew in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) until he was promoted to chief supervisor in 1998. At that time, he was earning P9,000 ($187.87, based on an exchange rate of P47.905 per US dollar) until his salary was increased to P23,000 ($480.12).

He only wanted to earn enough for his family but something unfortunate was about to happen. The next day, the Nepali opening manager said that the money supposedly earned the previous day, during Sanchez’s duty, was gone. If not for the missing money that amounted to about 25,000 Riyals (or about P500,000 or $10,437.32), he said he could have been promoted to the position of restaurant manager.

Sanchez said he was framed up by the Nepali manager and another Filipino.

Jailed

Sanchez was temporarily detained on Aug. 21, 1998 in a small Saudi jail. He said he would be released from a bartolina (solitary confinement) from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. every day only to be tortured. The torture, he said, would resume at 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.

In a week of torture, he said he could only rest during lunch time, but could not eat because of pain. Food was offered only at lunch time. At about 50 degrees Celsius, Sanchez said, he passed out when police poured lukewarm water on him after he was released from a bartolina.

“Doon nanginig ang katawan ko, bumigay ako” (With that my body trembled and I passed out), he recalled.

When he gained consciousness at the hospital, his employer and a police were asking him to sign a waiver. Because the document was written in Arabic, Sanchez refused to sign it, thinking that it would only pin him down on the theft case filed against him. But he was forced to sign it when his employer promised that he could already go home to the Philippines after signing it.

To his surprise, Sanchez was brought to a bigger jail after three days. After talking to other detained Filipinos, he learned that it was a scheme in KSA.

“Embassy natin dekorasyon na lang ‘yun sa ibang bansa” (Our embassies are mere decorations in other countries),said Sanchez. “Abuso pa nga ang embahada natin” (They even abuse their power).

Sanchez said his mother, who was in Jeddah at that time, attempted to ask the help of the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah but to no response.

“Ang embahada natin, tagabigay lang ng passport, travel documents. Kaya mga kababayan natin nakukulong. Lalo ang mga Pilipinang tumatakas” (Our embassies are mere dispensers of passports and travel documents. That’s why so many of our countrymen go to jail, especially Filipinas fleeing their employers), he lamented, citing the cases of raped Filipinas who were being detained instead of their rapists.

After six months went by without any progress on his case, someone advised Sanchez to convert to Islam to facilitate a faster release. After the conversion, he was immediately sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment and 350 lashes.

While completing his sentence, he would wash inmates’ clothes or draw nude images for them. From doing these, he would be paid with cigarettes which he would sell to buy phone cards and send letters to his family here.

After completing his sentence, he was brought to Malas Jail. He spent one and a half months there waiting for his deportation.

“Kasumpa-sumpa doon, ang hirap grabe” (It was so despicable and difficult), he retorted. “Kahit iparating mo siguro sa gobyerno ‘to wala rin. Walang kuwenta. Embahada natin ipagpapabukas-bukas ka. Pamasahe pa lang sibak na, e, ang lalayo pa naman ng embahada natin (doon)” (Nothing would probably come out of it even if you bring this matter to the government. It’s of no use. Our embassies would keep procrastinating on your plight. The very fare going to the embassies is already a great burden, as they our embassies there are very far from our places of residence and work).

He was able to return to his family in 1999. He worked as a merchandiser of a food product, still as a contractual worker. After two years of no permanent job, he tried his luck again in a foreign land.

Cross bordering

In 2001, Sanchez worked in Kuwait as a service crew paid with P18,000 ($375.74).

After three years, he grabbed the offer of his employer, Al Homaizi Food Stop Company, to work in Iraq. Though the workplace is dangerous, workers were promised twice their wages in Kuwait. But Sanchez said they were told that the company has no liability if something happened to them. They did not have hazard pay as well, he said. “Pag may namatay, may media blackout”(There’smediablackout whenever someone dies).

And even if at that time a deployment ban was imposed by the Philippine government, and OFWs’ passports have “cannot travel to Iraq” remarks, Sanchez said this was not really implemented.

“Di totoo ‘yun. Publicity lang ‘yun” (That was never for real. That was only for publicity), he said, citing the cases of many Filipinos crossing from Kuwait to Iraq to work in military camps there. He added that Filipinos from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan also crossed to Iraq.

Workers being deployed in military camps in Iraq are brought there aboard coasters in a convoy with American soldier escorts. The convoy carries the camps’ supply.

They would spend overnights in “green zones” or relatively safer areas when their way is being cleared by an advance military team. At times when the convoys are being bombed, they would only be asked to lay down.

When a vehicle is hit, Sanchez said the soldiers would only get the bodies and blow up the vehicle so that it could no longer be used by their enemy.

Sanchez’s team spent a night in Scania, a green zone. They would only sleep on cartons, with only jackets as their blankets. He estimated they were about a hundred Filipinos in their batch alone that crossed to Iraq.

Camp Taji

Sanchez was deployed by his employer in their post in Camp Taji. Al-Taji airfield was originally an Iraqi Republican Guard base during the Saddam era. It was once a center for the manufacture of chemical weapons. Taji was also the largest tank maintenance facility in Iraq.

The base came under United States control following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, also known as "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Of some 106 bases used by the United States in Iraq, Camp Taji is considered one of 14 "enduring" bases.

Sanchez and other Filipinos working in the same company were staying only in a tent, sleep on a folding bed, and use a portable toilet. But the American soldiers stay in improvised cargo vans.

He could not sleep for the first few days. At night when they could hear and feel the bombings, and the alarm detected a mortar, they would run to the bunker with their bottled water. They would spend an hour, or even the whole night, inside the bunker. During these times, food shops and mess hall, Internet and phone booths are closed.

The closest bombing he has experienced was less than 500 meters from their tent.

“Napabalikwas ako, tayo talaga ako, bitbit ko agad tubig ko” (I was roused and I jumped for safety bringing my water), he recalled, adding that compact food or power bars serve as their meal inside the bunker.

Filipinos are present anywhere in the camp: in the mess hall, computer shops, food stalls, utility service. He denied seeing Amb. Roy Cimatu or Philippine officials in Iraq at the time of the invasion.

Cimatu was the government official in charge of evacuating the OFWs in Iraq during the invasion in 2003. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) released $293,500 to Cimatu supposedly for a massive evacuation from Iraq and another P5 million ($104,373.24) for the 51-man humanitarian contingent sent to the war-torn country. But Migrante International chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado said that there has been “no passable auditing report (from) Cimatu” about this project.

Instead, he said he only learned of Cimatu’s presence when he was still in Kuwait. “Nakita ko si Cimatu, wala lang, nagpamigay ng leaflets, mag-imbak na daw kami ng pagkain, wag lalabas” (I saw Cimatu simply distributing leaflets, telling us to store food and not to go out).

For their own protection, workers inside the military camps are issued with access badges with security bar codes by the U.S. government.

With this badge, they can freely move in unrestricted areas inside the camp without a soldier escort. Sanchez said the badge is as important as their life. There are incidents, he said, that the US soldiers would fire on suspected suicide bombers, mostly Arab-looking men and children, if those suspects continue to move despite soldiers’ order to stop walking.

Sanchez would work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in their burger post. Afterwards, they would spend the rest of the day in the recreation hall since no one could go out from the camp. Aside from sports, recreation also includes a free cinema viewing with free popcorns.

When no bus is available to transport them from one place to another inside the camp, Sanchez and friends would walk from their tent to the mess hall – a distance similar to that from Alabang, Muntinlupa City to San Pedro, Laguna or a 20-minute trip by jeepney or car.

“Pagpunta namin gutom na gutom na kami, pagbalik namin sa tent, gutom na ulit kami” (By the time we get to the mess hall we would be very hungry, by the time we get back to the tent we would be hungry again), he said, adding that they also walk about three kilometers from their tent to their burger stall.

Everything in the mess hall is free of charge. They could eat as much fruits they could take, milk or energy drink.

They could also buy other needs in a grocery inside the camp. Sanchez’s company gives them an allowance of $10 a week.

While in their post in Taji, Sanchez again noticed another misdeed by his co-employees. He said that a Lebanese would reprint receipts of customers. Thinking he was on the right side, he complained to the supervisor only to learn there was a “Mafia” in their group. He was sent back to Kuwait and given a 15-hour duty without overtime pay.

Because of a traumatic experience in Saudi also involving money, he resigned from the company and went back to the Philippines in 2004.

Social cost

At home, sad news was waiting for him. His wife had left him, bringing along their two children.

“’Yun y’ung consequence ng pag-abroad, pagbalik mo broken family na” (That’s the consequence of working abroad, when you come back your family’s broken), he said.

He also learned that he was left with no money. When he was about to pay the bills for his hospitalization, only P2,000 ($41.75) was left in their bank account.

Their house was erected on his brother’s land. His wife bought a small lot but it was located near his mother-in-law’s lot in Rizal.

Recently, Sanchez tried his luck in Qatar as a supervisor in a restaurant there. He was promised a $400 basic pay for eight hours of work and another $200 for four hours of overtime work.

Initially, he does not want to return to Iraq anymore primarily because of the danger confronting them at the military camp. “Kung dodoblehin ulit (ang) sweldo, kung may opportunity, babalik talaga ako ulit ‘dun kasi nandun ang pera, di mo kayang kitain dito yun” (If they would double our salaries again, if there’s an opportunity, I would really go back there because the money’s there, you can’t earn that kind of money here), he explained. Bulatlat

PART 2- Noel Rebamba: Accidental Migrant Worker

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