Dubai Migrant Workers Office helping 500 Pinoys facing cases

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Although there are around 500 Filipinos in jail here for offenses like failure to pay credit card debts and pregnancy outside of marriage, the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) in Dubai assured that most of these overseas Filipino workers (OFW) end up with dismissed cases or lighter sentences due to legal aid.

“We have 500 cases,” said Philippine Labor Attaché John Rio Bautista, head of the MWO in Dubai. “We have a legal retainer. Mataas ang pag-solve ng mga kaso o mababa ang sentensya.”

(We have 500 cases. We have a legal retainer. We have a high rate of resolving cases or getting a lighter sentence.)

Bautista made the remarks in a press conference on Sunday on the second day of the “Bagong Bayani ng Mundo: OFW Serbisyo Caravan” at the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC).

These cases are being handled by MWO’s Assistance to Nationals (ATN) desk, which was previously under the jurisdiction of the Philippine consulate general.

Most of the cases involved credit card debts or when an OFW fails to pay what is due. At times, the erring individual receives pardon after an individual, usually a sheikh, pays for the outstanding balance, usually during Ramadan.

Pregnancy outside of marriage is also an issue, in which case the mother serves a sentence while the child is placed under custody of authorities. In some cases, mothers choose to give birth at home and not in hospitals due to fears of arrest.

These mothers and their children await a UAE amnesty program for them to go home.

In September 2024, the MWO recorded 146 cases of children who do not have birth certificates because they were born to unwed, overstaying mothers in the first 12 days of the UAE government’s two-month amnesty program.

“As of Sept. 12, we have 146 cases – 37 finished cases and 109 still ongoing,” Bautista told GMA News Online last year.

In some cases, some children have no birth certificates because their parents were not married.

“They were born out of wedlock,” Bautista said.

Strict Islamic laws prohibit pregnancy before marriage.

Shabu or cases involving illegal drugs are also handled strictly, with the arrested person detained to finish serving their sentence and then deported to the Philippines with a permanent ban on re-entry. — JMA, GMA Integrated News