The domestic helper in the Middle East — and a proposed alternative

By Jaime J. Yambao, Manila Times, 25 Jan 2020

THE return home in boxes in the space of one year of two domestic helpers who worked and were killed by their employers in Kuwait confirms what is a matter of common knowledge — that the job of house helper in the Middle East is the among most dangerous jobs in the world. Joanna Demafelis and Constancia Lago Dayag were not just killed. Both their bodies bore evidences of torture. They suffered a lot before their young lives were put to an end. But it soon emerged that the two cases, horrific as they are, may be only the tip of an iceberg. Consular officials in Kuwait reported that another domestic helper committed suicide, jumping from her workplace. An Overseas Workers Welfare Administration official has pointed out that some 200 overseas workers have died in Kuwait for health reasons. Presumably several of these workers were domestic helpers because the latter comprise the majority of the workers in Kuwait.

A ban on future deployment of house helpers has been put in place. It is doubtful that the ban will stay for good. As in the case of Demafelis, it may only last for as long as necessary for the authorities in Kuwait to bring the suspects in her killing to justice and to feel compelled to come to an agreement on the improvement of the working conditions of Filipino workers in that country. This time, we hope that the suspects are not only arrested, tried and meted the appropriate penalty. The victims’ families should be compensated for the loss of their breadwinners. This time also we hope that an agreement will be realized that focuses on the problems of the specific sector of Filipino domestic helpers who live in with their employers.

From the media reports of the abovementioned developments, it would seem that Kuwait is up there in the list of the worst employers of Filipino house helpers in the world. Could all this be because the Kuwaiti press is reputed to be the freest in the Middle East?

Actually, Filipino domestic helpers in Kuwait run in the hundreds of thousands. Many of them have been in Kuwait for more than a decade. Their two-year contracts have been extended several times. But in an article featuring an interview by a Filipino reporter of some of them it does seem that they have endured a difficult life. They have been able to survive by ignoring the terms of their contracts and respecting the practices in the local culture of their host country. One was not able to take the one-day off in the week provided for in her contract for two years because her employers told her women in Kuwait do not go out alone. The women interviewed said they all take precautions to prevent the menfolk in the family from lusting after them. They do not talk to the men directly; they course their message to them through the Madam. They do not look the men in the eye. They keep their gaze on the floor or their feet. They wrap their bodies from head to foot in this black gown called abaya, even inside the house.

But these are the lucky ones, They have happened to land in an educated household, where the women have been to school and hold jobs in sectors that have been opened to women. Things are changing, but with other people the old local culture that treats domestic helpers like slaves lingers on. The work that today’s domestic helpers do was used to be done by slaves. The scenes in the Ali Baba movies of Hollywood, where people along with cattle and horses are sold in the marketplace, are based on historical truth. They can be treated harshly, like animals, by their employers who berate and punish them for the slightest infraction.

Part of that old culture is the discriminated status of women. Women are kept illiterate and regarded as no more than baby factories.

Filipino domestic servants must be careful not to incite resentment and jealousy in their employer’s wife. This explains why victims of sexual violence are themselves blamed by the woman of the house for what happened to them and why in cases of violence she can be suspected as a participant in the case.

This old culture is not a monopoly of the Kuwaitis. It is shared by other peoples of the Middle East. The couple who has been charged with the killing of Dimafelis were Lebanese expatriates. You find it in Saudi Arabia, too. This is why some experts have recommended that the deployment ban be extended to that country. Others probably in the employ of recruitment agencies have objected to this proposal because things are changing in Saudi Arabia too. Women have been allowed to drive. Soon more Saudi women would be working outside the home, which means that the demand for Filipino domestic helpers will rise.

Bans on the deployment of domestic helpers have been imposed by the Philippine government for two reasons: for violations of the rights of workers under the Philippine Overseas Workers Act and for dangerous peace and order conditions. The behavior of domestic helpers in countries torn by civil war or conflicts with terrorists and other countries is curious; they are reluctant, or difficult, to be evacuated and prone to violate travel bans. Is it because their employers are model employers? Is it for sheer love of adventure that household helpers face the risks involved living-in with strangers or in unstable countries? They will opt to stay with their employers for as long as conditions of their employ are tolerable and the employers are not directly under cannon fire. The reason is the money they remit for the support of their families back home. From experience, many of them know that evacuees do not earn that same amount of money once they are back home.

Many contract workers, including house helpers, plan to stay abroad away from their loved ones only for the duration of the contract or just long enough to raise the capital needed for a small business. We second the motion of a friend who advocates that instead of our countrymen looking for that capital abroad, the government’s financing institutions provide that capital and all relevant government agencies be involved in nurturing that business. This only means that the country enforces the laws already passed providing the unbankable poor with start-up capital for small businesses. Instead of being known as a nation of servants as we are already known in some countries, the Philippines can be known as a nation of employers. Somebody asked: But who will take care of washing the dishes? Not to worry. There will be dishwashing machines run by solar cells.