Overseas workers abused

Overseas workers abused

One of the world's largest exporters of labor is calling for more international measures that would protect overseas workers. Johanna Son of Inter Press Service reports.

MANILA (IPS): Edwina endured her Singaporean employer's beatings and verbal abuse for two years, but finally fled when Mrs. Lee threatened to hit her with a hammer and poke chopsticks in her eyes for failing to put fresh toilet paper in the bathroom.

Edwina also accidentally bumped her employer's husband, enraging Mrs. Lee, who accused the Filipino maid of lusting after her husband. "So you want to be Mrs. Lee," fumed Edwina's boss.

In Kuwait, Helen was gagged by her male boss, who then raped her. After he left, she jumped from a fourth-floor window, but was later arrested by police and returned to the same employer.

Edwina and Helen are among the 3.5 million Filipino workers overseas, whom the Philipina government likes to hail as `modern day heroes' for supporting 20 million family members at home and for bringing in hard currency.

They are the Filipino nation scattered in 140 countries, working aboard tankers, as nurses in the United States, hotel staff in London, construction workers in Africa and the Marianas and domestic helpers in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Rome and the Gulf.

But their success stories are often marred by instances of Filipinos returning home unpaid, bruised black and blue or dead, and their aghast countrymen have been railing at the government to do more to protect them.

In response, the government of President Fidel Ramos has offered to host a global summit on labor migration to draw attention to overseas workers' plight.

During Pope John Paul II's January visit to Manila, Ramos officials also sought the Vatican's help in getting more nations to sign the UN convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and their families. More then 80 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholics.

Activists and even officials say many, especially women and those who leave as tourists to work abroad illegally, are prone to exploitation, physical abuse and even rape.

Says Sen. Wigberto Tanada: "Many endure squalid living conditions, lascivious stage performances, forced prostitution, routine beatings and rape that literally strips them of every shred of dignity."

The social cost of women deployment is too high for the nation to bear, "Labor Secretary Nieves Confesor also said last year. "We are now feeling that social cost.

Various Philippine governments have waged a constant battle to look out for Filipinos in place like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Singapore, where the bulk of reports of abuses ranging from unpaid salaries to physical harm often come from.

But national efforts to watch over millions of workers in many countries are clearly inadequate. Thus, the Ramos government is now trying to use diplomatic channels to raise awareness for the plight of migrant workers from developing nations.

The call for a global conference on labor migrants came on the heels of the UN General Assembly's adoption of a Philippine- sponsored resolution seeking better protection of such migrants. The Philippines--one of the world's major labor exporters -- hopes the United Nations would sponsor the summit

"This is really protecting the family, protecting migrant workers and labor in general," Ramos said, adding that migrants often lack protection despite their sizable contribution to the growth of labor-importing countries.

But the Philippines is already facing an uphill battle to get signatures for the convention that allows labor-sending countries to seek better terms for their nationals through international instead of bilateral mechanisms.

Apart from the Philippines, only three countries -- Sri Lanka, Morocco and Mexico-- have signed the accord. It takes effect only after 20 countries have ratified the agreement.

The 1990 convention, recognizing that labor migrations is a global phenomenon, states that no migrant worker or member of his family should be subjected to" cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", slavery or forced labor.

It would also create an international Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers, which may not sit too well with labor-sending nations that even now frown on inking labor accords with countries like the Philippines.

Indeed, at a regional conference in Manila last year to prepare for the upcoming UN Social Development Summit in Copenhagen, International Labor Organization (ILO) economist Piyasiri Wickramasekera says delegates sought to exclude the subject altogether.

"One delegate from a South-east Asian country objected to a provision seeking international and bilateral agreements for the protection of migrant workers," says Piyasiri. "He wanted it reworded to read `consistent with the laws of the countries concerned'."

Asian labor activists say while the first step is to figure out how to control the flow of illegal workers, receiving countries must also work to handle the problem from their end.

The problem is, experts say, host countries are often in denial over the increasing migration of workers. They add rich Asian countries, which have become magnets for labor migrants from neighboring poor nations, particularly seem to have difficulties facing the problem.

Their generally aging populations combined with economic growth have resulted in a labor shortage in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Tiger economy aspirants Thailand and Malaysia have both emigration and immigration.

But experts and policymakers in the region's labor-recruiting countries see migration only as a short-term response to a temporary recruitment situation so they can "turn on labor flows like a tap, and then turn them off again if the workers are no longer needed".

As a result, nations like the Philippines end up feeling helpless as reports of abuses against their workers overseas pile up.

Recently, though, a Philippine Senate committee decided to try cutting down the `casualty' numbers by classifying five destinations -- the Marianas Island, Malaysia, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran -- as dangerous and highly risky to Filipino labor, thereby discouraging those thinking of working there.

Many Filipinos in the Marianas have said they were forced into prostitution after being promised jobs as waitresses. They include Evangelinge, who was ordered to dance nude, sold to four Chamorro men, and soon became pregnant. "I don't know who the father of this child is," she told Filipino officials.

Media reports indicate Malaysia's case is rather different. Officials say it has to do more with what some of them term as "harassment", although Manila has also become concerned over reports of Filipino women being forced into prostitution there.

Last year, Malaysian immigration officials conducted several roundups of thousands of Filipino women workers, on suspicion that they were illegal or were "ladies of the night", sparking protests from Manila. Only a handful actually had invalid papers.

At the same time, Manila is attempting to tighten the process of overseas development, especially for women who make up about half of the country's overseas workers. Many toil as domestics--Filipino maids number 120,000 in Hong Kong, 75.000 in Singapore.

In November, Manila said it was aiming to whittle down the number of overseas domestics in 10 years. But that is unlikely to be easy, as 650,000 Filipinos left for legal work abroad last year.

Many defy government warnings. The deployment of maids to Kuwait is banned due to widespread abuses against Asian women, but is flouted by 10,000 Filipino women still working there. Thousands of maids have fled abusive bosses and have had to repatriated by the planeload.

Singapore's Foreign Maids Employment Agencies Association, however, has said it would stop hiring maids from the Philippines after Manila last year began requiring Singaporean recruitment agencies to post a US$4,000 bond for every 50 domestic helpers.

Manila said such a bond was to be held in escrow and used to help mistreated maids.

Confesor, though, says the government's best bet is to regulate and document overseas deployment, because migration simply cannot be stopped. She observes: "It is like goods -- once you restrict them, there will be smuggling and soon you will put your people in the hands of smugglers."