A black market is emerging for Filipina household helpers in the United Arab Emirates with prospective employers being made to pay up to $4,600 (Dh17,000) for a helper, a UAE news site reported over the weekend.
This, in the face of a virtual ban by the Philippine government on the deployment of Filipina workers to the UAE, news site Gulf News reported.
Despite the ban, some employers bite the offer for Filipina helpers, who were recruited in the Philippines as salesladies, clerks or salon staff.
Gulf News said the Filipinas are made to apply for such work but become nannies once they reach the UAE, in a procedure dubbed processing-reprocessing.
Vic Fernandez, leader of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, said this “is a form of misrepresentation and is, of course, illegal under Philippine law.”
“The risk far outweighs the rewards,” he said.
On June 1 last year, the UAE interior ministry introduced a new standard contract for housemaids to protect the rights of both housemaids and their employers.
It then issued a circular stopping embassies of labor-sending countries from verifying or ratifying contracts of domestic workers.
But Philippine law requires overseas labor offices to verify details of the employer before a housemaid applicant is allowed to fly and work for them.
The Gulf News report said employers give the Filipina workers a “servant” visa once they land in the UAE.
The Gulf News report quoted the head of what was once a leading Dubai housemaid recruitment agency as saying the demand for nannies remains high, but the supply is “dry.”
“We used to deploy 50 to 80 per month from the Philippines as per the law. There’s no doubt demand is there. But now, we’re down to zero deployment. For the last seven months (since June), we’ve been struggling. We’re at the end of our rope,” she said.
She said nanny agents are still waiting for clarification on the issue, with many nanny agents in the UAE “quietly suffering.” — Joel Locsin/JDS, GMA News
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
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Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
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