|
Thanks to the solicitude of Jordan’s King Abdullah
II bin al-Hussein, Vice-President Noli de Castro and Senate
President Manuel Villar, 37 abused, maltreated and in other ways
distressed Filipino workers arrived in two waves at NAIA on
Wednesday, August 20, from Jordan.
King Abdullah had ordered the
OFWs to be given clearances to come home. Without his decree, they
would still be in jail or hiding as refugees in the Philippine
Embassy’s OWWA Center in Amman.
The Vice-President provided
assistance to 26 of the OFWs who arrived on a Kuwait Airlines
flight. The Senate President, who had similarly assisted many other
OFWs in the past, this time gave financial assistance to 11 of the
OFWs, three of them arriving earlier on an Etihad Airways flight.
Of the 37 who arrived from Amman
yesterday afternoon, two—according to a GMANews.TV report—had
been described by Vice-Consul Mark F. Hamoy of the Philippine
Embassy in Jordan as mentally ill or at least delusional. They were
immediately ministered to by doctors upon arrival at NAIA.
All of the arrived OFWs had
bitter experiences. Some had run away from their Jordanian employers
and found refuge at the Philippine Embassy’s Overseas Workers
Welfare Administration Center in Jordan. Others had been arrested by
the Jordan authorities after having been turned in by their
employers for allegedly committing crimes. A few were victims of
abuse. Their homecoming gives them a chance to recover from their
trauma. Perhaps, with God’s help, they will soon regain the joy of
being alive.
Deemed free of liability
Under Jordanian laws even
innocent OFWs could not be allowed to come home to the Philippines
unless given a clearance by the employers. Thanks to King Abdullah,
the OFWs were all deemed to be free of any liability and therefore
allowed to leave Jordan.
These laws in their present form
are biased against all foreign workers. The Jordanian parliament has
passed new laws giving migrant household workers all the human and
legal rights enjoyed by Jordanian citizens.
Senior Jordanian government
officials say these new laws will be in force as soon as the
Jordanian Cabinet approves them.
The new Jordanian laws would
allow labor inspectors to visit households where Filipinos are
employed to check on reports of abuses against them. Filipino
workers would be allowed to file cases against abusive employers in
special labor courts. There, these complaints would be processed
faster. Under present laws, cases against employers filed in
Jordan’s civil courts, which are the only places abused OFWs can
file their complaints now, take a long time to resolve. And
aggrieved Filipinos have to spend a lot of money they don’t have
to pursue their complaints.
Jordan has established a 24-hour
telephone hotline for foreign workers in trouble. The hotline has
speakers in seven languages—including Filipino.
Lobby to lift deployment ban
The Jordanian officials were in
the Philippines to lobby for the lifting of the ban imposed by the
Philippine Department of Labor on the deployment of Filipino
household workers to Jordan. The ban followed increasing reports of
abuses committed against the OFWs by Jordanian employers.
Director Amjad Washa of
Jordan’s Ministry of Labor explained that the Jordan authorities
had arrested and punished Jordanians found to have abused their
migrant household workers.
The Jordanian officials said most
of the blame should be laid on illegal recruiters who hire local
workers without telling them they were actually going to work as
servants.
Of course, the employers feel
cheated when the workers refuse to work and get angry when the
workers do their tasks resentfully. Some employers become morally
abusive, causing the workers to flee. A few have physically abused
their maids. Some of these abusive employers have been jailed by the
Jordan police.
Philippine Ambassador to Jordan
Julius Torres, who was with Jordanian officials and Jordan’s
honorary consul Michael A. Ang to meet the arriving OFWs at NAIA
yesterday, told The Times earlier that “Nobody has benefited from
the DOLE’s decision to suspend the deployment of Filipino
household workers in Jordan—except illegal recruiters.
Besides domestic helpers, Jordan
needs construction workers and skilled laborers,
Director Amjad Washa said. Jordan
is poised to spend $60 billion in the next 10 years on high-rise
buildings and infrastructure to modernize the country.
We support the move to lift the
deployment ban as soon as the new laws in Jordan have taken effect.
Philippine and Jordanian
authorities should also work more effectively in going after the
illegal recruiters. The legal recruiters know these wicked
people—and their government protectors in Jordan and the
Philippines.
They should be arrested, charged,
found guilty and punished severely.
LGU’s must help in the fight
Ambassador to Jordan Julius
Torres is right in asking pro spective OFWs to be extremely wary of
illegal recruiters.
He also wishes Philippine
labor authorities to work more closely with concerned authorities in
OFW-receiving countries. Collaboration would result in more
effective safeguards for OFWs.
The ambassador also appeals to
all sectors of society—churches, civil society and local
governments—to help in the fight against illegal recruitment.
We think LGUs, even at the
barangay level, can help OFW-wannabes identify illegal recruiters.
They must be mobilized effectively.
|
