Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said some of the distressed OFWs discretely managed to call him yesterday as they plead for their repatriation.

“I am expecting a call from the distressed OFWs after some of their kin in the Philippines called me last week also seeking assistance for their OFWs’ repatriation,” Monterona confirmed.

Monterona said most of the distressed OFWs were run away from their employers due to alleged abuses and labor malpractices by their employers.

“Most of them have been in FWRC for 2 to 3 months, while others for over 6 months,” Monterona calling the PH embassy to fast track the repatriation of the distressed OFWs.

Among the 30 distressed OFWs is OFW ‘Ruby’ (not her real name), who is only 19 years old, from Maguindanao.

OFW Ruby was deployed by a local agency in Manila on July 10, 2011 as a household service worker, but she only works for 10 days in her employer in UAE.

Monterona found out that the counterpart Abu Dhabi-based agency of the Manila-based recruitment agency transferred OFW Ruby to Al Ain to work for another employer.

“She was brought to Oman by her new employer, where she also ran away over alleged abuses and maltreatment,” Monterona added.

Monterona said: “Clearly, OFW Ruby was a victim of human smuggling. She is underage and should have not been deployed in the first place.”

Illegal recruitment, human smuggling still rampant

On Sunday, Monterona said his group continuously receiving, on a daily basis, an average of ten (10) cases of OFWs as victim of illegal recruitment and human smuggling.

“Our group monitoring of illegal recruitment cases in the Middle East revealed that an average of 10 OFWs were victim of illegal recruitment asking for assistance,” Monterona revealed.

Monterona citing POEA 2010 statistics, it handled 1,648 cases of illegal recruitment but it only acted and resolved 283, translated to 17.2% disposition rate; 1,365 cases were pending at end year of 2010.

“On 2004, only 12 persons were arrested and 6 recruitment agencies were closed, out of the 1,648 case of illegal recruitment handdled by the POEA,” Monterona noted.

Illegal recruitment cases disposition recorded by the POEA which was its highest rate recorded on 2004 with 44.5% or 650 cases have been acted out of 1,462 illegal recruitment cases.

“The low incidence of illegal recruitment and trafficking cases officially recorded by the government is due to the govt. agencies and labor offices abroad reluctance to pursue and provide support to OFWs to file cases against illegal recruiters,” Monterona added.

He observed that instead of providing support to the victims of illegal recruitment, labor officials are often cited by the victims discouraging them to file cases either in host country labor court or in the POEA or in the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

Monterona urges the Inter-Agency Committee against Trafficking (IACAT) headed by Vice President Jejomar Binay, also presidential adviser on OFWs concerns, to work hard in filling and pursuing cases against illegal recruiters and human traffickers.

Meanwhile, Monterona lauded the Supreme Court in upholding the Nov.29, 2005 life sentence verdict of the Zamboanga City Regional Trial on two human traffickers who had sent four women, including a minor, to work as prostitutes in Malaysia.

“We would like to see more illegal recruiters and human smugglers prosecuted and send behind bars, while we call on our fellow OFWs and would-be OFWs to be vigilant and report any illegal recruitment and human smuggling activities to the concerned authorities,” Monterona ended. # # #

Written by:

John Leonard Monterona

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator

Saudi-based M-ME regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona revealed, citing his group monitoring of illegal recruitment cases in the Middle East, they’re receiving on the average 10 OFWs victim of illegal recruitment asking for assistance.

Monterona added following the strictest sense of the definition of illegal recruitment activities as defined by law (RA 10022), the average number of OFWs as victim of illegal recruitment will surge.

“Illegal recruitment has been fully defined in the newly amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act or RA 10022. The amended law indentifies more or less 21 illegal recruitment activities that fall within the category of either syndicated or large scale illegal recruitment,” Monterona noted.

Monterona cited for instance charging of excessive placement fee by a recruitment agency to an OFW or would-be OFW is an illegal recruitment activity -a crime, which of course, is punishable by law.

Contract tampering and substitution is also an illegal recruitment activity, wantonly committed by recruitment agencies in cahoots with its counterpart local agencies in the host country, according to Monterona.

Monterona citing POEA 2010 statistics, the govt. handled 1,648 cases of illegal recruitment but it only acted and resolved 283, translated to 17.2% disposition rate; 1,365 cases were pending at end year of 2010.

“On 2004, only 12 persons were arrested and 6 recruitment agencies were closed, out of the 1,648 case of illegal recruitment handdled by the POEA,” Monterona noted.

Illegal recruitment cases disposition recorded by the POEA which was its highest rate recorded on 2004 with 44.5% or 650 cases have been acted out of 1,462 illegal recruitment cases.

“The low incidence of illegal recruitment and trafficking cases officially recorded by the government is due to the govt. agencies and labor offices abroad reluctance to pursue and provide support to OFWs to file cases against illegal recruiters,” Monterona added.

He observed that instead of providing support to the victims of illegal recruitment, labor officials are often cited by the victims discouraging them to file cases either in host country labor court or in the POEA or in the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

“The Aquino administration has to work hard in filling and pursuing cases against illegal recruiters and human traffickers if it’s really sincere in combating the rampant illegal recruitment activities victimizing thousands of OFWs and applicants,” Monterona ended. # # #

Written by:

John Leonard Monterona

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator

“Mom, yesterday my boss asked me if I want to be sold or not. I fear he might kill me. If it is God’s plan that I die in Saudi Arabia, there is nothing I can do. Bye mom”

The family of the 22-year old, who had been in Saudi Arabia since March, have not heard from her since.

Violations such as sexual harassment, violence, torture and starvation are very real risks for Kenyan migrant women working in Saudi Arabia, according to this article in The Standard (Kenya). Around 40,000 Kenyans work in Saudi Arabia, and 400 were deported from the Kingdom in the past 12 months alone – many of them bringing disquieting stories home with them:

They paint a picture of a kingdom where upon entry; most workers have no choice but to surrender their travel documents along with their human rights and dignity to employers.

The most common violations include sexual assault; overwork with no pay, torture, lack of privacy and starvation. Chilling murders sum it all, with the recent discovery of a body of a Kenyan girl locked up in a freezer adding to statistics of unexplained murders of migrants in The Gulf. Fatuma Masoud, a mother of four from Kisauni, also sent an SoS to Mombasa last weekend. She recently fell off a ladder while cleaning her boss’s home at Al Khudar, Saudi Arabia and suffered a fracture to her back. But she continues to be overworked and cannot access any medical help.

“I am always locked in; eat smelly food or leftovers, one meal a day. I am a Kenyan, please help me get out of here, alert my embassy. You are my last hope,” she wrote. When contacted, her employer, Hussein al Doussary, claimed to be unaware of the situation. Ms Fatuma is yet to receive any help. Most survivors make it back to Kenya with broken limbs. And although their accounts mirror scripts akin to gruesome movies, they are the reality.

The majority of Kenyans that migrate to Kenya are young Muslim women aged between 22 and 35 years, according to Khalid Hussain, Executive Director of Kenyan NGO Muslims for Human rights (Muhuri)  .

Many are from middle-income backgrounds and have some tertiary education. Every year large numbers of women end up being tricked into paying large sums of money by corrupt recruitment agents, believing that they are destined for well-paid positions as saleswomen or hotel attendants, only to be diverted to what one observer described as a human ‘warehouse’ on arrival in Saudi Arabia. From there, the most likely outcome is that they will be sent to work as housemaids in slave-like conditions.

See full story by Joe Kiarie here.

The Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia frequently receives pleas for help from migrant workers, who claim that they are treated ‘like animals’ by their employers, according to this article from Africa News.  Some, like 28-year old Salma Noor, a domestic worker, face regular physical and sexual abuse, but have nowhere to turn to for help, according to journalist Joyce J Wangui.

These examples from Kenya illustrate the gravity of the risks that migrant women in Saudi Arabia face.

Check this document as a sample.

This is a paragraph Ethiopian Suicides linked to.

– From late 2005 to early 2006, Lebanon (refused to grant visas) to Ethiopian nationals. However, thousands of Ethiopians illegally crossed the border in pursuit of work (and/or as victims of trafficking). Over the last 14 months (since Lebanon has lifted their visa ban against Ethiopian nationals), the amount of trafficking to Lebanon has increased.

– There are no reports of trafficking of Ethiopians to the United States. A few years ago, IOM reported that approximately a dozen clients claimed that a smuggler was charging up to 80,000-100,000 birr (USD 9,050- 11,312) to smuggle them into the United States. Since then, there is little to no information available about these routes. Yemen and Lebanon have been identified as some of the most popular destinations for trafficking and smuggling.

Al-Ansari said that the government committees are not the ones to blame for not accomplishing those projects, but the delay is instead the result of a democratic process, referring to the Kuwaiti parliament which, according to the constitution, is the one to decide and approve laws and plans.

Al-Ansari did not forget to attack the United States for its negative report on Kuwait especially when it comes to human rights. He said the United States is just one side and that the United Nations does not share the same evaluation of Kuwait’s human rights status. He also referenced (despite the irrelevance) the commonality of prostitution in the US, and that because of this, the US is not in a position to criticize Kuwaitis for having maids living in their homes, doing house work. He also said that Mexican immigrants are persecuted in the United States, so the US has no right to criticize Kuwait.

The violation of human rights of migrant workers, including human trafficking in Kuwait, are absolutely inexcusable and it is irrelevant to compare Kuwait to any other country to justify its own human rights abuses.

Kidane describes watching people dying of dehydration in the desert heat, “there was nothing we could do, there was so little water even for ourselves; we sent a prayer to God and moved on”. Sadly, Kidane’s journey is not unique. This is the typical journey, this is the reality. The estimated 18,000 Eritrean asylum-seekers currently residing in Israel have fled from one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. In 2009 Eritrea was ranked last in the World Press Freedom Index, even more oppressive than North Korea.

Fleeing Eritrea does not necessarily result in escaping the corruption of the regime, Kidane explains: “The Israeli Ministry of Interior demands Eritrean identification cards…we don’t have them, they are not important in Eritrea or the smugglers steal them from us”. To obtain an identification card, the people must go to the Eritrean embassy in Israel and pay $1,500 USD, which goes directly to supporting the very regime from which they just escaped. How do they afford this? Kidane explains: “you either suffer for a year or you borrow from someone; we suffer a lot”.

Furthermore, upon receiving the ID card, the asylum seeker must provide personal details to the embassy. This information is relayed back to Eritrea where it is viewed as betrayal and opposition to the regime, and can result in reprisals for the family remaining in Eritrea. To add further anguish, the asylum seeker must then sign a declaration stating that if they return to Eritrea they will accept any punishment the government deems necessary. Obtaining this document is not only a financial burden—it can mean a life sentence.

“We are tired, we want change; we want to get rid of the dictatorship”, says Kidane. The community is hopeful the toppling of many North African dictatorships in the past year will have an overflow effect on Eritrea and result in global condemnation of such regimes.

Five months ago, with the support of the African Refugee Development Centre (ARDC), a five-member strong committee was formed in order to support the broader Eritrean population living in Israel. The Eritrean committee aims to promote advocacy and awareness amongst the Israeli population regarding the plight of asylum seekers, as well as to strengthen unity within the Eritrean community. The five members were elected by the Eritrean community and report to a group of three elders, who settle any disputes that may arise and ensure accountability. Isaac explains that it is not always easy for asylum seekers, particularly Eritreans, to trust NGO workers. “Trust doesn’t come easily, even in the committee, we are friends, but the [Eritrean] regime has traumatised people”.

by Zoe Peck

The road to serfdom: Maid trade ads distort the image of Kuwait by Mohamed Tawfik

Stop! You’re in the slave market! Public human trafficking prevails.

They’ve packed their luggage and traveled to the bright spot on the Persian Gulf from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nepal, and India among others. The domestic workers in our Kuwaiti household include; servants, drivers, car washers, patient companions, house supervisors, and others.

They’ve comes from everywhere, ready to give whatever it takes in order to earn a living. It’s their mere right to work anywhere in the world, as long as they have a legal status. The universe has become a small village and the borders have been lifted in the era of open skies, thus the countries of the world have become open for everybody, no longer exclusive for its citizens only.

However, the firm-grip dominance of some humans over others has left nothing – not a single dream, or a narrow vent to breathe. The domestic workers in our country are daily being exposed to all forms of known misery. The lingering pain has become a routine for them, apparently. Although they live among us, their [way of living] is unlike ours – totally different; as they suffer a lot under deprivation, injustice, cruelty, servitude, oppression, let alone being sold in the slave markets.

At the same time when efforts to improve Kuwait’s image worldwide are increasing , trying to remove Kuwait from the black list of human right records, the domestic workers are mistreated and oppressed to the extent that some of them are being denied their basic salaries. No wonder that the suicide and escape attempt rates continue to rise, even after the implementation of the new labour law which limits the prevalence of injustices against the expatriates in general. The house maids are still trapped in misery at the hands of their sponsors, which force some of them to escape from the roofs of their sponsors’ houses.

Misery times

We’re not generalising here, as there are some other house maids who work in favourable conditions, and receive their full salaries. However, we should confess that the weak proceedings and loose laws can’t prevent the domestic workers from the injustice, severe oppression, abuse, deprivation of their rights, and other arbitrary practices by their unscrupulous sponsors. Some house maids don’t receive their basically low salaries for consecutive weeks, yet they fear to speak up, so as to avoid more oppression through a vicious unfair circle.

The poor maids are forced to ignore all their pain, in order to stay safe. They neglect their own rights, as long as they can keep their minimum subsistence from food and clothes. They imagine that they live in better conditions in comparison to their miserable home countries, regardless of how much they actually suffer. It’s quite known that some regimes ignore the human rights of its people who are living within its borders, let alone the expatriates living abroad.

Modern slavery

The patience of oneself to oppression, abuse, and injustice becomes bitterer when it’s associated with humiliation and liquidating the human being into a product to be traded in slave markets. It seems that we’re still living in the medieval ages. Instead of leaping forwards, we have been thrown centuries backwards. What we’re witnessing is a real human trafficking. It’s an age of modern slavery figuratively and literally, and if anyone is still grieving in shock, they can flip any local paper which seemingly belongs to the slave markets in the Mamluk Dynasty, not to the modern State of Kuwait at all! And here, I’ve assembled some of the slavery ads headlines:
• “A young maid and a decent driver are required for work.”
• “A Philippine maid to be transferred for the highest price.”
• “Ethiopian clever home maid; a house supervisor from A to Z.”
• “A skillful nurse to be transferred.”
• “We offer servants from all the Asian nationalities for competitive prices!”
• “A polite, clean, and obedient maid to be transferred.”
• “An obedient Indian servant to be transferred; He prays all the five prayers.”
• “An elegant and obedient maid from the Philippines is required, please!”
• “For the highest price – To be transferred: Beautiful Philippine, good chef, and babysitter: All-in-one!”
Usually the newspapers which include such ads raise a lot of questions, and lead to astonishment!

Human promotion

The list of ads is very long and unlimited; usually in the form of usury ads by sellers who are trying to attract the eyes of buyers, and lure them in every possible way. It looks like the buyer is promoting a product, and not a human who has rights.

There’s a question which pops into one’s mind when raising this dangerous issue, a humanly question in essence: How do those foreigner domestic workers perceive their sponsors? How do they see us? What do they say about us? And how does a human, who has been traded as a product, feels while hearing us, at the same time, uttering about living in the civilised age of the 21st century?!

Supervision needed!

What are the actions taken by the competent authorities in order to stop the slavery ads? How comes that the immoral ads are prohibited and at the same time the slavery ads, which violate the human dignity and display humans as products to be traded, are permitted?

What did the human right associations do about such ads in this critical timing which threatens our image worldwide? We don’t need to improve our image worldwide only, but before ourselves foremost. We need to instill the noble values in our young generations, in order to establish a civilised society which isn’t immersed in the medieval age practices.

Some human rights activists have raised questions about the supposed supervision on the ads which violate the human dignity, stressing on the importance of imposing regulations on the domestic worker transfer ads in newspapers.

Domestic Worker Law

It’s essential now more than even to bring the domestic workers under the labor law’s mantle, until issuing a separate Domestic Worker Law for this vulnerable groups. A new law has become a necessity to regulate the work of domestic workers, and prevent arbitrary practices, or trafficking.

Flesh profits

“I’ve been transferred for five consecutive times to different sponsors in a short period of time.” Said a sobbing Philippine maid to Al Qabas, indicating that the successive sponsors were trading her to make profits!

Required procedures for the preservation of human dignity:

There are a number of urgent steps that set a necessary action plan to protect the rights of the domestic workers in Kuwait:
1 – Forming a specialized committee to discuss and resolve the problems of domestic workers, and maids in specific, until the release of a separate Domestic Worker Law.
2 – Tightening sanctions against sponsors who violate, exploit, or physically harass their maids.
3 – Regulating the private offices and companies which import and recruit domestic workers, as well as regulating the whole process of importing maids, instead of leaving it totally random.
4 – Obligating the sponsors to transfer the maids’ monthly salaries to their bank accounts, and checking the procedures periodically.
5 – Prohibiting offensive ads in papers which are abusive to the human dignity.
6 – Raising the awareness of the maids regarding their own rights and advising employers and families about the rights of migrant workers.
7 – Coordinating between the competent authorities and human right associations in order to correctly monitor the situation of domestic workers and protect their rights.
8 – Blacklisting the sponsors or employers who violate or abuse their maids.

Conclusion

A couple of essential questions, especially after following the maid deal ads for a period of time: Can the sold maid decide whether to agree or refuse her new sponsor? And what if the first sponsor sold the maid to a new one who is barely known to her?

In the same issue, the newspaper said a 28 year old Egyptian man was found dead behind a restaurant in Mahboula area with no marks of violence on his body. Another man, a 34 year old Asian, was also found dead, with no marks of violence, in his room in his sponsor’s house who reported the death incident. The causes of death in both cases remain unknown according to the police stations statements to Al-Qabas.

Al-Watan Arabic daily newspaper reported on the 21^st of May a suicide attempt by an Ethiopian maid who drank cleaning liquid in Saad Al-Abdullah area. Her sponsor found her and took her immediately to Al-Jahra hospital where she was saved from death. A case was opened and the investigation will proceed when the maid gets well. Al-Watan reported another suicide attempt, this time by an Indonesian maid who threw herself from the second floor in Mangaf area. She broke her left leg and was transferred to Al-Adan hospital where she got investigated on her suicide attempt.

On the 17^th of May, the same newspaper reported another horrific incident of an Asian maid who tried to give birth to her fetus on her own in her room. Her sponsoring family did not notice that she was pregnant and she told them that she was very sick and needs to go to the hospital but then she went to her room and tried to deliver the baby herself. She died due to excessive blood loss. The police were called to the incident’s location and are now investigating the identity of the fetus’s father.

Thus, said today by an alliance of Filipino migrants right group in the Middle East after its chapters in different mid-east countries received several complaints and request for assistance from distress OFWs who have been victim of illegal human trading.

“And if we think that going to a licensed agency is the safest and convenient way for aspiring OFWs to work abroad, then we are mislead,” said John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East (M-ME) regional coordinator.

Monterona said human trading is rampant among recruitment agencies’ local counterpart in host-receiving countries in the Middle East.

Monterona cited the case of OFW Purisima (not her real name), 36 years old who works as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, as a concrete example at hand. Her case is the 12th case Migrante-ME had received for this month alone.

She is now working with her 3rd employer, after she had been traded by the Saudi-based local counterpart agent of her recruitment agent in the Philippines.

She said with her 1st employer, she was not paid of her salary for 3 months (May, June, and October), while with the 2nd employer she had 2 months unpaid salary (November and January) until she again is traded to another employer.

“Of course, she complained about her unpaid salaries to her local agent but she is not expecting that she’ll be traded to another employer, and then again traded to another employer for the second time,” Monterona added.

Monterona said if one is deployed for work overseas, she should be employed to one employer, and it is clearly mentioned in the employment contract whom she will be working for.

“Trading to another employer, then again to another, is not part and could not be part of a valid employment contract; you could never see such contract as it is illegal but in practice trading of OFWs especially domestic helper is rampant here in the middle east,” Monterona added.

Monterona said it is happening under a ‘highly deregulated’ deployment of workers overseas where recruitment agents play a major role along with their local counterpart agents in the host-receiving countries.

He said that of the 1.8-M OFWs in the Mid-east, 90% were deployed through agencies which have a tie-up agents in the host-receiving countries.

“On a highly deregulated and intensified labor export program such as the Philippines, the government partly pass on the responsibility of protecting the well-being and rights of its workers to the recruitment agents; unfortunately, the interest of the recruiters to earn is its priority than providing protection to its deployed workers abroad,” he added.

Monterona said in due time they will be submitting a lists of Philippine recruitment agencies’ local counterpart agents in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Mid-east that are engage in illegal human trading of its hired OFWs, mostly domestic workers, to the Philippine Labor department for its information and would ask for corresponding action to stop this illegal act of trading OFWs to so many employers.

Written by:

John Leonard Monterona

Migrante-ME regional coordinator

email: migranteme@gmail.com