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With
Filipino women pitching in for their families, there has
been a “feminization” of labor immigration from the
Philippines. Ten percent of the country’s yearly labor
deployments are domestic helpers bound mainly for the
Middle East. Many of them tell stories of abuse both
from their recruiters and employers.
Nelly
Martinez (not her real name) was recruited by a certain
Tessie Guimarao from Davao City in 2002. Guimarao
promised Martinez a job as a receptionist in Dubai, the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). A certain Lucy Padilla
instead sold Nelly into prostitution.
Padilla made thousands of dirhams by offering Martinez
to an Arab customer who was willing to shell out big
bucks for a virgin woman. A doctor checked Martinez
twice to confirm that she had yet to lose her virginity.
In her
sworn affidavit before the Philippine Embassy in Abu
Dhabi, the19-year-old woman said Padilla sold her for
6,000 dirhams ($1,630) to a Palestinian customer who
raped her inside the house of another Filipina.
Martinez’s client also paid her 3,000 dirhams and
offered to take care of her and her family.
“He
drove me to Lucy’s house, and while inside the car, he
asked me if I wanted him to be my boyfriend. He said he
would also send money to my family. I refused the offer,
I know he will just use me whenever he wants,” Martinez
wrote in her affidavit after escaping from her abusive
recruiter.
Martinez returned home with the help of the Philippine
Embassy, and so did Padilla, after she was arrested. The
UAE authorities refused to keep Padilla in jail and
instead sent her back to the Philippines. While
prostitution is alive and thriving in that part of the
Gulf region, governments are not taking its existence
seriously.
Reports of sexual abuses of Filipino women, especially
in the Middle East, have become common, but little is
being done by both the Philippine government and
receiving countries to prevent them.
The
dangers are worse among unauthorized immigrants. Eighty
percent of the more than 5,000 domestic helpers who were
repatriated to the Philippines during Israel’s attack on
Lebanon in 2006 claimed to have been victims of physical
and psychological abuse. A great number of them were
illegal workers, according to the OWWA.
In a
report by the OWWA to Vice President Noli de Castro
during the second quarter of 2007, Roque identified
Damascus (Syria), Amman (Jordan), Kuwait, Kish Island
(Iran) and Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia) as “extreme
human-trafficking areas” for Filipinos.
Iraq,
however, was not named as a trafficking area, although
nearly half of the more than 7,000 Filipinos there are
undocumented. Critics say the Philippine government,
which is supportive of the US war in Iraq, is not
seriously committed to stopping the hiring of OFWs by
American facilities in Baghdad. This support was also
demonstrated in 2002 when about 300 Filipino
construction workers were immediately whisked to
Guantánamo, Cuba, to build detention cells for captured
Taliban fighters. |
