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House team to probe OFWs plight in Saudi By Michael Lim Ubac Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 03:59:00 01/08/2011 MANILA, Philippines. A four-member congressional delegation will fly to Saudi Arabia on Saturday to investigate the unusually large number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) being detained or awaiting trial for various offenses in the oil-rich kingdom. Members of the House committee on overseas workers, led by chair Akbayan partylist representative Walden Bello, will be visiting distressed OFWs in Saudi from January 8 to 13. There have been numerous reports of OFWs being abused, maltreated and jailed in the Middle East, said Bello. We are going on a mission to determine their living conditions and the quality of assistance that offices of the Philippine government provide for them,? he said. In Riyadh, 313 have been convicted, 300 are awaiting trial, on trial, or under investigation; and 50 are detained prior to deportation, according to Bello. 11 on Death Row Jeddah has 186 cases, bringing the total of detained OFWs in the kingdom to 849, he said. About 11 OFWs in Saudi are on Death Row, awaiting execution, he added. Bello will be joined by committee members Maria Carmen Zamora-Apsay, Emmeline Aglipay and Cresente Paez. The six-day trip will take the group to Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar, visiting Filipino Workers Resource Centers and other Filipino organizations. Arrangements are also under way for the congressional delegation to gain access to jails and detention centers. The delegation will hold dialogues with OFWs and OFW associations. ?We will also do our best to visit our fellow Filipinos in jails and detention centers, especially the Filipinos who have been sentenced to death,? Bello said. The Department of Foreign Affairs ?is trying its best to make this possible,? he said. Bello said the Philippine embassy in Saudi has also been asked to arrange a meeting with Saudi labor officials and legislators so the delegation may discuss labor issues with them, particularly concerning the bilateral labor agreement.

?The best way to protect the rights and welfare of migrant workers is through a bilateral labor agreement that identifies the responsibility of the host country to our workers, what rights and entitlements our workers have that the host government must guarantee,? Bello said.

II. Study reveals problems OFWs face in S. Korea 01/11/2008 | 05:46 PM Long hours of work, poor working conditions, delayed or unpaid salaries, and misunderstanding due to language and cultural differences are the most common problems Filipinos working under the Employment Permit System are facing in South Korea, a study has revealed. The study entitled, Issues and Challenges under the Employment Permit System (EPS)" conducted by Joyce Ann O. Dela Cruz in 2007, aimed to describe issues and challenges confronting Filipino workers in South Korea. The findings in the study could be of help in assessing EPS for future policy review," Dela Cruz said in an interview with GMANews.TV on Friday. Koreas Employment Permit System (EPS) is a government-to-government hiring scheme intended to curb the problem over illegal recruitment. South Koreas labor ministry has increased by 20 percent the job roster quota of the Philippines in 2007 to 12,000, from 10,000 in 2006. Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) attributed the quota increase to the Filipino laborers good performance in 2006. The EPS replaced the Alien Industrial Trainee System (AITS) that allowed hiring through private recruiters. Korea had abolished the trainee scheme and stopped issuing trainee visas since Jan 1, 2007. As a result, Philippine licensed agencies that used to hire trainees for Korea could no longer recruit workers under the trainee scheme. Under this scheme, Korean employers can only get foreign workers legally through the EPS. The POEA is the only government agency authorized to implement the scheme in the Philippines. Dela Cruz is a research analyst of the Department of Labor and Employments Occupational Safety and Health Center. She conducted the study under a research grant from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) University Network Exchange Fellowship Program for 2007. According to her, the most common problems EPS-hired Filipino workers encounter are: conflict with employer and/or Korean co-workers resulting from language and

cultural differences, heavy work load and long hours of work, verbal and physical abuse, poor working conditions and other safety and health concerns, delayed or unpaid salary, and discrepancies in the computation of overtime and night differential pay. The Philippines is among the first countries to sign a memorandum understanding with South Korea in August 2004 to implement the new EPS. of

There are 17,683 Filipino workers deployed in South Korea under the EPS, Dela Cruz said in the study summary she sent to GMANews.TV. The summary added that the workers were recruited primarily to do 3D jobs" or the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs. Under the EPS, South Korean firms could employ an appropriate number of migrant workers for jobs rejected by locals mostly manual labor. Foreign workers are issued unskilled employment visas (E-9), allowing them to find manual jobs in small-and-medium-sized manufacturer with less than 300 employees in the agricultural, livestock or coastal fishing industries. Work contract could extend up to three years. Labor related laws apply to foreign workers during the period of employment such as Labor Standard Act, Minimum Wages Act, and Industrial Safety Health Act. According to Dela Cruz, the study was largely descriptive and exploratory, and that it used the purposive sampling approach that involved face to face interviews with 60 Filipino workers. Interviews were conducted from August to October 2007 in Seoul, South Korea, she said. Key informants that gave valuable inputs to the study were the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, the Filipino Catholic Center in Hyewa-dong as well as the Filipino EPS Workers Association and POLO registered workers organizations. However, Dela Cruz noted that the full study report has not been published yet as it has to undergo thorough review by the board of the Asean University Network Exchange Fellowship Program. - Luis Gorgonio, GMANews.TV

III. Lifting of Deployment Ban, Subjecting More OFWs to Abuse Published on April 20, 2009 0 0ShareThisNewEmail0

It was only a few years ago when the Arroyo administration issued a total deployment ban to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar and Iraq because of unstable security conditions. Fast-forward to the present. The Arroyo administration has now lifted the deployment ban claiming that the security conditions have improved. But has the protection of labor and human rights of migrant workers improved as well? BY JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat It was only a few years ago when the Arroyo administration issued a total deployment ban to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar and Iraq because of unstable security conditions. But aside from the unstable security conditions, many overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) deployed in these countries had suffered from contract substitution, inhuman working conditions, and different types of abuses; some even died. Migrante International chairperson Gary Martinez recalled that the problem of physical abuse being inflicted on OFWs in Jordan used to be so grave that Filipinos used to assume that workers who do not have a broken leg do not belong to the Filipino community in Jordan. Fast-forward to the present. The Arroyo administration has now lifted the deployment ban claiming that the security conditions have improved. But has the protection of labor and human rights of migrant workers improved as well? Unresolved cases of abuse Martinez insisted that the supposed improvement in the security conditions in these countries should not be the only ground for lifting the ban because there are many cases of abuses of OFWs in the Middle East that have not yet been resolved. Martinez said that the ban should not have been lifted at all because there are still no bilateral labor agreements between the Philippines and countries in the Middle East. These bilateral agreements should be able to protect OFWs from all forms of abuse. Last April 1, an article published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos, Jr. as saying that the government is already in the process of finalizing a bilateral labor agreement. However, John Monterona, Migrante-Middle East coordinator, recently told Bulatlat that they have already challenged the concerned government offices to show them the draft of the bilateral labor agreement. Apparently, said Monterona, there was none. Martinez also said that he is disappointed to hear that the Arroyo administration is still pushing for its labor export policy. Ito ba ay naipangako na wala nang maaabuso? (Can they promise that there will be no more cases of abuses?) he asked.

Martinez clarified that cultural and religious differences are not the main reasons why OFWs, especially in the Middle East have suffered abuses. He believes that if the government continues to neglect the welfare and protect the rights of OFWs, foreign employers would continue to abuse Filipino workers because they think that they could always get away with it. The need for a long-term solution Martinez admitted that the Philippine economy is hugely dependent on remittances sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Thus, the increasing number of OFWs being retrenched due to the global financial crisis has surely decreased the dollar remittances being sent by Filipino migrant workers. Martinez said that this could possibly be the reason why the current administration decided to lift the deployment ban to these countries. The government, said Martinez, is frantically searching for countries that would accept the deployment of OFWs, even if these are places where a lot of OFWs ended up penniless and, worse, lifeless. Ngayon ay mukhang nanginginig na ang upuan ni Ginang Arroyo pag naririnig niyang bumababa ang remittances (It seems that Mrs. Arroyo is becoming restless every time she hears that remittances are decreasing.), he added. Martinez said that the Arroyo administration should focus more on long-term solutions to the crisis. It should, Marinez added, generate local jobs that provide salaries that can support an average Filipino family. Kasi maraming trabaho sa Pilipinas, e, (Currently, there are many jobs available in the Philippines), he said sarcastically. Pwede kang scavenger, pwede ka sa call center, pwede ring sa call center sa kalsada, yong barker (One could work as a scavenger, in call centers, or even in street call centers, such as the barker who calls for passengers in jeepney terminals.)(Bulatlat.com)

IV. 2 Pinays from Gaddafi household back home 09/24/2011 | 09:57 PM Following their rescue earlier this week, two Filipino household helpers of a nephew of deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi finally returned home to the Philippines Saturday. Diana Jill Rivera, 30, and Mary Ann Ducos Almario, 29, shed tears of joy upon their arrival, according to a report by radio dzBB's Glen Juego. The report said the flight bearing the two former household helpers arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 4:20 p.m. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration head Carmelita Dimzon welcomed Rivera and Almario, who said they were happy to be home. Two rescued, two remain

Earlier this week, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the two were whisked from their employer's household without bringing any of their belongings. He said the two were brought to Tunisia, where they waited for a flight to Manila. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Rivera is from Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, while Almario is from San Agustin, Isabela. Like all the other Libyan repatriates, the DOLE will provide Rivera and Almario a cash incentive of P10,000 each. They will also receive other forms of assistance from the government, such as free pyscho-social counseling and medical examination," Baldoz said. The DOLE said two other OFWs, Raquel Collantes and Zenaida Labuyuen, remain in the Gaddafi household and "have expressed desire to come home" but the DOLE did not elaborate. ELR, GMA News. V. http://www.noypi.ph/index.php/nation/4614-$3000-$5000%E2%80%9Cdeployment-costs%E2%80%9D-preventing-ofws-insyria-from-coming-home.html High deployment costs add to a string of obstacles facing OFWs in Syria. Despite reports that most of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Syria refuse to come home, there are still hundreds of workers who want to be repatriated, but could not do so without help from the Philippine government According the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), of the estimated 17,000 OFWs staying in Syria, 240 expressed their willingness to come home. But there is a problem no OFW can leave Syria without an exit visa issued by the immigration office. While this may be a standard procedure, the difficulty is in the fact that the issuance of the exit visa is tied to the willingness of the employer to let go of the worker. The employers have to certify that they have no objections to their foreign employees leaving. This becomes a major obstacle if the employers are not willing to let go of their employees. According to DFA undersecretary Esteban Cornejos, in the point of view of employers, leaving Syria would mean pre-termination of the work contract, and as such, the employers expect the OFWs to pay the so called deployment costs. The deployment cost ranges from $3,000 to $5000 per OFW. This does not include plane fare and immigration fees. Cornejos also said that negotiations are necessary to ensure that employers do not ask for unreasonable amounts. The oppressive deployment cost is just one of the problems facing OFWs in Syria. Another problem, and perha[s the biggest of them all, is the fact that 90% of OFWs are undocumented. This has serious repercussions, one of which is the accumulation of immigration penalties. The DFA is currently in negotiations with the Syrian government to reduce the fees or waive them altogether.

The DFA has created a task force to get in touch with OFWs and another team to negotiate with employers. OFWs who want to come home will be given assistance to ensure they get back home safely.