Thousands of OFWs defy househelp ban in Jordan

Thousands of Filipino domestic helpers are still getting jobs in Jordan despite a two-year-old deployment ban there for such occupation, a Philippine Embassy official said.

Welfare officer Carmelita Mag-uyon of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Amman, Jordan, said this is mainly because the Jordanian government is not recognizing the ban.

“We keep on telling them [Jordanian government] to recognize the ban, but once the agencies of domestic workers here are able to secure work permits for them, the government here recognizes them as legal workers," Mag-uyon told GMANews.TV in a phone interview.

The ban has been in effect since 2008 in light of the alarming number of abuse cases there raised by Filipino workers.

Labor attaché Virginia Calvez said as of early 2010, there are about 28,000 Filipinos in Jordan, about half of them illegal or undocumented workers.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), on the other hand, has recorded only 1,621 workers in Jordan as of 2009.

According to Mag-uyon, Filipinos enter Jordan as tourists, passing through Hong Kong, Thailand or other nearby countries. Once the workers get there, recruitment agencies do the work and secure the necessary papers for them to be deployed as domestic workers.

Five workers seek help

Recently, five domestic helpers under a single employer sought the help of migrants’ group Migrante-Middle East. They were complaining of overwork and lack of food.

Based on information from Migrante, four of the five female workers were brought to Jordan with just tourist visas and were deployed as domestic helpers.

The fifth worker, meanwhile, complained to the Embassy about her previous employer but was allegedly sent back by an Embassy staff. She was then transferred to another employer where she joined the four other Filipinos.

Their identities are being withheld so as not to derail efforts to rescue them from their allegedly abusive employer.

“We decided to leave the Philippines because we can’t find jobs there. We chose to go to Jordan because there was no placement fee and it’s easy to enter the country. We never thought our papers were illegal and fake," one of the workers told Migrante in an e-mail.

The five are now apprehensive of seeking help from the Embassy, fearing they might just be transferred to another employer or worse, sent back to the same sponsor, Migrante said.

Migrante regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said the workers, all victims of illegal recruitment, are unable to tell where they are exactly in Amman, as their employer would not tell them the house’s address and would also prohibit them from going out.

Monterona then urged the Embassy to help the five workers get out of their employers’ house and provide them assistance, such as shelter and food, while their complaints are being heard.

“We are reminding the Philippine Embassy and its Assistance to Nationals (ATN) section that they are duty-bound to render assistance to [overseas Filipino workers] in distress and promptly attend to their requests for help," Monterona said.

Embassy vows to locate workers

The Embassy’s ATN officer Sonny Sucaldito said while they will try to locate the workers, they are not allowed to go straight to employers’ houses.

Instead, they seek the assistance of police stations in rescuing workers after filing complaints of battery and abuse, he explained.

Mag-uyon meanwhile said as soon as they are able to take the workers into their custody, they will summon their employer or local agency for a possible settlement of the workers’ complaints.

In a separate interview, Calvez, the labor attaché, said in case a settlement is not reached, the case would be elevated to government agencies like the police, immigration or labor ministry. – KBK, GMANews.TV

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