Stop deploying domestic helpers to Saudi — House panel
Citing the âworst nightmare" that domestic helpers in Saudi Arabia face, the House Committee on Overseas Workersâ Affairs (COWA) has called for a temporary stop to the deployment of Filipino helpers in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is not fit to receive domestic workers, Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello said, citing cases of abuse and unfair labor practices there. âOur kababayan (compatriots) leave the [Philippines] with the promise of a better life for themselves and their families; unfortunately they are confronted with their worst nightmare in Saudi Arabia," Bello, the committee chair, said in the panel report on their visit to the Middle East country. According to the COWA chair, Filipina domestic helpers in Saudi are harassed, raped, beaten, and subjected to other forms of sexual and physical violence by their employers, by Saudis and by other foreign nationals. It is also a ânormal practice" for employers to withhold employeesâ salaries and confiscate their identification papers and other important documents such as passports, the lawmaker said. Another labor practice in the kingdom Bello lamented is contract substitution, in which recruitment agencies in Saudi âsell" a domestic helper to another employer in case of labor dispute between the worker and the original employer. At the mercy of two employers Contract swapping renders Filipina workers literally at the mercy of two employers with the original employer holding her travel documents. The Filipina in such a situation usually ends up as an undocumented worker, according to COWA. âAlready, these women find themselves trapped in the confines of a conservative society such as Saudi Arabia, with strict rules for decency and propriety, but they are virtually paralyzed by their employers and are trafficked by recruitment agencies," Bello said. He then cited that many pregnant Filipina workers donât even have access to decent health and medical services that their children they bear are undocumented and thus could not leave the country. âIt is really a situation of modern-day slavery; it is no surprise that our Embassies and their attached agencies in Saudi also have to deal with an overwhelming number of runaways and undocumented persons, and even then, their statistics seem to be inaccurate," Bello said. A country unfit to receive domestic helpers Bello wants the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to no longer certify Saudi Arabia as a country fit to receive domestic workers as required in the Amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995. The House committee also wants the DFA, Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to:
- Negotiate the terms of a bilateral labor agreement with the Saudi government primarily to ensure that the rights of all OFWs in the kingdom are protected;
- Upgrade the Pre-departure Orientation Seminars for OFWs headed for Saudi so that the pros and cons of living there may be fully disclosed;
- Discourage people from working as âwashers" and âbeauticians" or other domestic work and related occupations in the kingdom;
- Prosecute recruitment agencies accused of deploying domestic workers to households and establishments that abuse workers, and those that practice contract substitution;
- Ensure that the budget for Assistance to Nationals and the Legal Assistance Fund are increased and not reduced;
- Increase efforts to secure the release of Filipinos on death row and others currently detained in Saudi jails on various charges;
- Negotiate a bilateral agreement with the Saudi government addressing the plight of children born of Filipino or mixed parentage in Saudi Arabia and facilitate their repatriation to the Philippines; and
- Increase the number of personnel in the embassy, consulate, and Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Saudi.