Two-year-old study found Saudi unfit for OFWs, but deployment continues

MORE than two years after a Congressional fact-finding committee concluded that Saudi Arabia is a country unfit to receive Filipino domestic workers, the government is still reviewing all labor policies and agreements with regards to the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Kingdom.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Spokesperson Raul Hernandez said this over the weekend when asked during a television interview how the Philippine government can prevent abuses and other labor problems committed in Saudi.

In a scathing 49-page report released on February 2011, the congressional committe has recommended to the Philippine government the immediate decertification of Saudi Arabia, long considered as the frontline state for the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

According to the Congressional Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs (COWA) continuing to send Filipino domestic workers to Saudi Arabia is like “selling them to virtual slavery in households where rape, sexual abuse, and physical attacks are rampant.”

“While bringing domestic workers under the coverage of Saudi labor law would help, this is not sufficient protection. Owing to longstanding cultural practices, Saudi Arabia will remain a dangerous place for Filipino domestic workers,” said the report entitled “The Dark Kingdom? The Condition of Overseas Filipino Workers in Saudi Arabia.”

It pointed out that until such time that the Saudi government accepts the responsibility of policing their nationals and protecting the rights and ensuring the welfare of household service workers, “it is incumbent upon the government to suspend the deployment of Filipinas to Saudi Arabia.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is tasked by Republic Act 20010, the newly amended Overseas Workers’ Law, to certify if a receiving country’s laws and practices accords adequate respect for and protection for workers’ rights.

If a country is decertified for a certain class of workers, then the Philippine Overseas Workers’ Administration (POEA) will have to freeze the deployment of those workers to that country until such time as adequate legal and social safeguards are instituted.

The COWA fact-finding team visited three key cities from January 9 to 13, 2011.

The mission was undertaken to familiarize the COWA with the conditions facing Filipino OFWs in the Kingdom where there have been numerous reports of abuses of Filipino workers, particularly female domestic workers.

The team was also tasked by the Lower House to assess the performance of Philippine government agencies in responding to the needs of OFWs in the country and to find out the response of KSA-based OFWs to key recent government initiatives such as mandatory insurance.

They also made the trip to investigate the status of Filipinos detained in Saudi jails, particularly those under the death penalty, with a view to securing their release or mitigating their sentences.

The key section of the report is the findings of the mission based on detailed documentation of various cases involving numerous OFWs leading the team to conclude that the situation of Filipino domestic workers or household service workers there is dire, with overwork, maltreatment, and non-payment of wages very common.

Likewise, the team discovered that rape and sexual abuse are endemic, a condition that members of the mission felt was related to the sexual segregation followed in Saudi society, a tradition of treating domestic servants as slaves, and the strict subordination of women to men.

“Saudi society is suffused with latent sexual violence, much more so than most other societies,” the report said.

In addition, the team pointed out that it was made evident to them that many OFWs are swindled, with them signing contracts with a recruitment agency stipulating at least $400 monthly as pay, only to be confronted with a substitute contract upon leaving the Philippines or upon arrival in Saudi Arabia specifying a significantly lesser amount.

Finally, the team stated that there was no enthusiasm for the mandatory insurance stipulated by RA 10022, with some OFWs proposing junking it and others making constructive suggestions for amending the provision. –Roy C. Mabasa, Manila Bulletin