Gil Lebria is not just an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) working hard to support his family back home. He has been active in defending migrants’ rights and welfare. His colleagues deemed that his advocacy is the reason behind his abrupt termination from work. They also suspect that the Philippine Embassy officials in Kuwait have a…
Tags: OFWs
The Global Forum on Migration and Development and the Need to Confront the Real Issues
Apparently, the purpose of the Forum is not so much to promote and protect the rights of migrants and overseas contract workers but to serve as a venue for dialogue between developed countries, which are concerned with the uncontrolled influx of migrants, and developing countries that are dependent on the export of labor. BY BENJIE…
Windfall Earnings for Minimal Services: As gov’t bleeds OFWs dry
The Arroyo government fleeces them of their savings before they could work abroad. From the 76 documents required of them, OFWs are charged P17,665 ($399) each, netting for the government around P2.92 billion ($66,018,539) a year. While working abroad, the government charges them for documentary stamps 15 percent for every remittance transaction. Thus, with the…
Stranded OFWs Seek Redress
Last May 5, 2008, seven OFWs, the most recent batch who have been repatriated, were welcomed home by their families and Migrante staff. Carlos Rebutar, spokesperson of the seven stranded OFWs, said they are seeking justice for the negligence that they have experienced in the process of their repatriation. BY JANESS ANN J. ELLAO MIGRANT…
Recruitment Agency Played with Lives of 10 OFWs
They were victims of illegal recruitment, having been sent to UAE with mere visit visas and forced to work for 10 to 20 hours a day for a fraction of the salaries promised to them. Worse, three of the 10 victims were even charged by their employers and arrested by the police. The alleged culprit,…
POEA ‘Sleeping in its Job’ of Barring OFW Recruitment to Iraq – Migrante
Migrante fears that recruitment of OFWs bound for war-torn Iraq would intensify in the coming months as the U.S. State Department renewed its contract with Blackwater, a U.S.-based private contractor providing security to U.S. diplomats and personnel in Iraq. This, despite the existing ban on OFW deployments to Iraq, as, Migrante said, the POEA is…
Rice Not Lies! HK OFWs say GMA Answers Hunger with Squander
BY UNITED FILIPINOS IN HONG KONG DEMOCRATIC SPACE Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VIII, No. 8, March 30 – April 5, 2008 Filipinos get hungry as the price of our staple food shoots up while Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo squanders about PhP2 million to spew out lies and project false support of overseas Filipinos to her crumbling administration.…