The kafala or sponsorship system in the Gulf should be abolished, this is an absolute prerequisite for the full personhood and humanization of domestic workers. The Philippine government’s new standards for overseas domestic workers and tentative bans on 41 non-compliant host countries are praiseworthy but far from promising–it is highly doubtful that this cosmetically laudable “concrete plan” will make it far off of the pages of the government’s issuance.
Archive for the ‘Gulf’ Category
Philippines toughens rules for maids in Gulf – can it make a difference?
November 2nd, 2011
Gulf Housemaids Sponsorship UAE Women
Dated TB Laws Do More Harm Than Good
October 31st, 2011
Deportation Gulf Legislation UAE
The social and medical effects of the GCC’s controversial tuberculosis (TB) deportation laws may not be worth the supposed advantages. The UAE deports individuals with active, new, or old pulmonary TB scars. Health officials claim to only deport newcomers, and not long-term residents. But thi...
Saudi Limits Remittances
October 27th, 2011
Saudi Arabia announced recently that it will limit the income migrant workers are permitted to send home. The Labour Minister stated the new “Salary Protection Program” will prevent the ‘exodus’ of wealth leaving the nation in the form of remittances. He did not specify the p...
30 Distressed Filipino workers seek repatriation
October 24th, 2011
Abusive employers Gulf Housemaids Oman Recruitment Agencies Trafficking Women
There are 30 plus distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), all women, in Oman temporarily seeking refuge at the Philippine Embassy’s Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC), according to a Filipino migrants rights group providing assistance to distressed and abused OFWs. Migrante-Middle East r...
Suicide of Detained Migrant Prompts Investigation
October 23rd, 2011
General Kuwait Prisoners Suicide
The suicide of an Indonesian maid in Kuwaiti custody is drawing questions about the conditions of her imprisonment.The woman hung herself with her scarf, her severed neck indicating that she had not been checked up on for days. Current accounts of the case are conflicting; one reports that security ...
Philippines Denies Impending Bans to Gulf
October 17th, 2011
The Philippines is postponing a resolution that would prohibit its citizens from working in the Gulf. An extension was requested by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, which announced that it needed more time for evaluations amid nations’ renewed commitments to legislate migrant...
Beheaded Bangladeshi Migrants Victims of Saudi Legal System
October 14th, 2011
General Legal cases Saudi Arabia
The dangers migrants face in foreign legal systems was touched upon briefly in our previous article spotlighting the impetus behind travel bans. The marginal legal rights migrants possess are further compromised once they commit a crime; the moment a migrant becomes a suspect, causal mistreatment th...
PH govt. to ‘extort’ P18-M yearly on ‘Affidavit of Support’ requirement
October 8th, 2011
The Philippine government under the Aquino administration is expected to earn around P18-M to 20-M from imposing a requirement, the Affidavit of Support (AoS), to all overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) dependents bound to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a Filipino migrants’ rights group...
Sri Lankan Housemaids in Saudi Arabia Plead to be Returned Home
October 8th, 2011
Abusive employers Housemaids Saudi Arabia
Hundreds of female migrant workers from South and Southeast Asia are being held in the Olaya detention camp in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Their only crime running away from abusive former employers. In a telephone interview with one detainee, a BBC reporter was bombarded with voices from other inmates, a...
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