Filipinos especially the overseas Filipino workers are known for their compassion and being helpful especially for a compatriot in distress and those who suffer abuse and maltreatment even it could mean risking their own safety and life.
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Jelamar Fuentes, hailed from Davao City, also known on his Facebook account as "Dave" is now facing kidnapping charges due to allegedly helping household workers in distress by bringing them to the Philippine embassy. Other OFWs who sought his help even contact him via his social media account The latest incident of a Filipina whom he helped was claiming she did not receive any salary from her sponsor and also suffering from maltreatment.
Though his intention is good, it is still against the law in Kuwait.
It is just recently when the relationship between the Philippines and Kuwait had been put into a conflict when the embassy personnel picked up distressed OFWs. After the negotiation, the conflict was settled by a Memorandum of Understanding. Kuwait assigned a 24/7 hotline so that their policemen can respond to the distress call of the OFWs.Fuentes is now under the custody of the Office of the Domestic Welfare Affairs, he had already submitted an affidavit as well. The Kuwaiti government charged him with kidnapping but the Philippine authorities in Kuwait assured that they will provide him the legal assistance he needed.
Filed under the category of OFW, distress, abuse , abuse and maltreatment, abuses against OFWs., Kuwait,
Cases of abuse and maltreatment among overseas Filipino workers (OFW) deployed as household service workers (HSW) in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia can be seen in the news almost every day but in spite of the risks, many Filipinos still gamble in applying for this job as if they do not have any choices. An HSW in Saudi Arabia who was barely four months after deployment when she died of ingesting a poison according to the report received by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
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DFA said that they will conduct an investigation on the case of 44-year-old OFW from Kalinga, Emerita Gannaban who died of poisoning in Saudi Arabia On October 29 at Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Hospital in Riyadh, DFA spokesperson Elmer Cato said.
The Philippine Embassy awaits the autopsy report to determine and confirm reports that the OFW was maltreated and poisoned.
It was Gannaban’s first deployment abroad and she should be under monitoring by her recruiters, the local YHMD International Manpower Services and Aloula recruitment office in Saudi Arabia.
Cezar Bawit, the OFW's brother, said a nurse at Prince Mohammed Abdulaziz Hospital in Saudi Arabia contacted the family on Oct. 29 about her sister. The nurse told them that her sister's mouth and internal organs were severely burned by the substance she allegedly ingested. They also noticed bruises all over the victim's body
Gannaban was recruited June 23 this year and her brother added that in her less than four months at work, his sister said she wants to come home.
“Before she died, my sister had phoned us about being maltreated...She told us she was being locked in the bathroom and had not been fed nor given time to rest properly after work,” Bawit said.
The family was about to report the situation to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration but it was too late.
He said the family would decide on a course of action, but the Department of Foreign Affairs had advised them to delay pursuing a complaint until after the repatriation of Gannaban’s remains.
Although it is not clear that several cases of abuse and maltreatment have something to do with it, Saudi Arabia is currently experiencing difficulty in hiring household workers from outside the country according to the news published in the Saudi Gazette. As an advice, recruitment experts told Saudi families to avail the services of part-time household workers instead.
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Recruitment experts advise Saudi citizens to use the services of those who render part-time house works in the midst of growing difficulties in importing workers from other countries.
The recommendation came after other countries expressed their reluctance in allowing the deployment of their nationals to work full-time in Saudi households.
Mustapha Al-Abdaljabbar, a recruitment office owner, said that the Indonesian government was refusing to allow sponsorship of its nationals by Saudi people to work at their homes even if the recruitment was done through a recruitment office.
“A lot of people are opting for part-time domestic workers. There are recruitment offices that are specialized in recruiting part-time domestic workers now. These offices will be able to execute Indonesian workers’ recruitment as opposed to offices that recruit full-time domestic workers for individuals,” said Al-Abdaljabbar.
He said the future of the agreement between the Saudi and Indonesia was still unclear in terms ofon the recruitment of domestic workers. The price of recruitment is undefined and it is hard to define as it will depend on supply and demand, he added. According to Hakeem Al-Khinaisi, another recruitment agent, there are three types of recruitment offices: offices that do not allow the transfer of sponsorship, offices that allow transfer and offices that allow clients to rent workers on an hourly basis. Filed under the category of abuse and maltreatment, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Gazette, recruitment, Saudi families, household workers
The common goal of most Filipinos who travel and work abroad is to provide a better future for their family. They often disregard leaving their loved ones behind for the sake of better monthly pay provided by their overseas jobs, but of course, it costs a lot in different aspects.
True enough there are overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who succeeded in their chosen path but it is not a guarantee that everyone who will choose the same will harvest the similar result. Sad to say, there are many OFWs who return back to the Philippines as broke as before or even worse.
According to statistics, there are around 10 million OFWs in the world located in 170 countries, with over a million in Saudi Arabia alone, followed by Japan, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan and still growing.
OFWs are most vulnerable to problems which include the usual news menu of abuse and maltreatment we read almost every day.
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High placement fees
OFWs in their willingness and great enthusiasm to go abroad, they will produce money and pay for whatever their recruitment agencies ask. Some of them are deeply indebted and has sold their properties and valuables due to high placement fees dictated by the recruiters.
Employer maltreatment and abuse
Maltreatment and abuse are common to the OFWs who are working as household service workers. Some OFWs are luckily get rescued but for some OFWs who came home inside a wooden box, it is very tragic.
Broken families due to an extra-marital affair
The culprit that many people blame why they had extramarital affair abroad is homesickness and they are fighting it the wrong way. Miscommunication can also be a factor. Nevertheless, the results are very destructive to the family.
You can avoid this by maintaining consistent and meaningful conversations with your spouse and children even when you are far.
Culture shock
For an OFW who had been deployed in an unfamiliar territory with diverse culture, many OFWs suffer culture shock. The things you can normally do in the Philippines might not be right in your host country. The language barrier is also a problem but not for long. Filipinos can easily overcome such problems due to our ability to adapt and adjust to our environment. Eventually, we can feel at home over the course of our contract in the country we are at.
Scams
OFWs are often the target of scammers given the notion that OFWs are rich. Some OFWs who wanted to have a way to earn more through investments are being victimized by related scams like pyramiding and multi-level networking scams. Some others are getting blackmailed and extorted online with a threat to expose their private videos or photos they willingly made out of extreme boredom. There are also others who had fallen victim to people they knew online and they easily trusted without knowing about their true evil intentions.
Contract switching
Have you experienced being asked to sign another contract which offers less salary than what you have signed before your deployment? This is a common practice among recruiters and employers. Aside from smaller pay, they will cut off your privileges such as overtime pay, weekly day-off among others and you cannot do anything about it especially if you are illegally deployed by un-accredited recruiters.
Being unable to save
When an OFW received their salary, it often slip-off their hands and will not stay for even a day. They will head straight to the remittance center and leave a small amount for them and send all the remaining to their family back home. Not that they do not realize the value of saving, it's just that they find it difficult to do so. The sad truth is that many OFWs even caught in neck-deep debts and coming home broke after years of working overseas.
Homesickness
This happens not only to newbie OFWs but even for those who had been traveling and working back and forth overseas. To think that there are many ways to communicate with our family through modern technology, we still long for the physical presence of the person or things we miss.
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Being jailed for offenses they did not commit
It is a sad story that not all inside the foreign penitentiaries are guilty. Many of them are behind bars due to conviction on crimes they do not commit.
Illegal Recruitment
Due to lack of knowledge and proper information and failure to consult with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), many OFWs fall prey to illegal recruiters.
Plunging value of the Philippine Peso
Lately, the value of Philippine peso seems to dive. Next, to the salary, the second most important thing for the OFWs to know is how much is the current exchange rate. If the exchange rate is down, you can see it on the face of the OFW. It could be positive because the value of the money they will receive may be higher. However, it means higher prices of commodities and even though the value becomes higher, it will definitely not enough to meet their needs. That is why it pays to learn how to invest properly and grow a profitable side business. This ensures you of a passive income that you can count on whenever the country’s economy adversely affects your household income.
Getting caught in political and natural disasters abroad
Political unrest or natural disaster is inevitable and out of our control. However, if the OFW is wise enough and saved for their future, the effects of these sort of problems could be minimal to none.
The reason may be either the OFW is deployed in a remote area or the Philippine embassy in his country has limited manpower and so they are unable to attend to all OFWs seeking assistance.
Family problems back home
An OFW may experience such problems and the burden even grows heavy with the thought that you were not there to address the problem personally.
OFWs, because they are not present physically, they entrust their hard-earned money to their relatives or spouses in good faith that it will be invested properly and used wisely. But due to lack of research and proper business planning, investments fail.
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There may be more problems that the OFWs encounter that are not mentioned here. However, these are not enough to keep Filipinos from seeking employment opportunities abroad. .
Filed under abuse and maltreatment, filipinos, Hong Kong, Japan, ofw, overseas Filipino workers, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, Travel, Work Abroad,
A new agreement on worker's right has been signed between the Philippines and Kuwaiti government. With this agreement, deployment ban on Filipino workers may lifted totally soon especially for Filipino maids. But before getting excited about the possibility of working again in Kuwait, it is important that we should know what's inside of this agreement. Is this beneficial to OFWs? Will it really help and protect Filipino workers working in the said country. And will it prevent maltreatment and abuse of Filipinos in Kuwait?
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As of writing, the following is what we know and things you should also know about the agreement signed by the Philippines and Kuwait for the protection of Filipino workers.
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1. Kuwait employers are NOT allowed to confiscate the passport of their employees.
2. OFWs shall be allowed the use of cell phones.
3. Kuwaiti employers are being mandated to provide domestic workers with food, housing, and clothing.
4. Domestic workers should have health insurance coverage provided by their sponsors or employers.
5. The agreement ensures that Filipino domestic workers have access to prompt legal assistance whenever necessary.
6. OFWs should have at least 7 hours of sleep and one day off per week.
7. OFWs employment contract would be renewed only with approval from Philippine officials.
8. "Special number" will be established for OFWs to call in case of abuse and maltreatment. This number will be accessible in Philippine Embassy and Kuwait Ministry of Interior.
9. A special unit from Kuwaiti police will be created that will coordinate 24 hours a day in the Philippine embassy. 10. Implement the agreed salary in the employment contract.
There you go Kabayan! If you are planning to work in Kuwait, it is important to know your right and who to call or where to ask help in case of abuse and maltreatment. SEE MORE:
