Filipinos in Japan are exploited, an OFW says

SUN-STAR: Filipinos in Japan are alleged to be exploited while their employers are committing several violations of the established contracts both parties entered into before one departs to the “land of the rising sun," according to an overseas Filipino worker from one of the towns in Negros Oriental. The OFW, who refused to be named for fear of reprisal from her local recruiter, recently arrived from Japan. She works as an entertainer in Japan on a six-month contract and renewable for another six months. She said her local recruiter, who also lives in the same town, offers her a hefty US$16,000 every month supposedly to work in one of the restaurants in Japan. She had then processed her papers and left for Japan in January 2005 but when she arrived there, she was surprised since instead of working in a restaurant, she ended up working as an entertainer in one of the nightclubs in Japan. “Wala na kay mahimo pag-abot nimo didto kay giembargo na man ang imong mga papeles ug ubang mga kagamitan (you can’t do anything because all our documents are already confiscated by them)," the Negrense OFW revealed. She said worse, when she arrived, instead of the promised US$16,000, she ended up receiving only $4,000, which she said, can hardly meet her needs and that she cannot even send some money to her family back in Negros Oriental. She lamented that they were made to work more than eight hours and that even if they feel ill, they were forced to do dancing and gyrating with customers at the nightclub. In the same interview, she almost break down when she said that a Japanese customer even raped her, but had not told authorities in Japan for fear that she will end up as the culprit, rather than the sexually abused victim. The sad situation of the OFWs in Japan has been overshadowed by the continued campaign of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of sending Filipinos abroad to work either as domestic helpers, entertainers, caregivers among others. Some were not lucky and ended in packaged coffin when they return to their respective localities in the Philippines. The OFW said that after her sad experience, she will no longer go back to Japan and will just find some odd jobs in the province to help feed her family. Failed marriage The OFW said she went to Cebu City last month to supposedly meet a Japanese customer of her, whom she met when she was in Japan and promised to marry her. But when she arrived at the airport in Cebu City, she almost fainted because the Japanese did not arrive. She explained that she chose to marry a Japanese as one option in order to help alleviate the economic conditions of her family and in order to pay the debt she earlier owed to the local recruiter, but she ended up penniless. The OFW discouraged other women from going to Japan because of the harsh working conditions there that she had experienced, adding that even Filipino officials are not able to help them. - Sun-Star Dumaguete