Red Cross vision for migrant women workers

Statistics show that in 2013 there were an estimated 232 million migrant workers living outside their home countries. Of these, 48 percent were women. One out of five migrant workers was engaged in domestic work, of which some 43.2 million were women. Statistics on these women for 2015 are likely to have increased.

“The number of migrant workers, especially women household service workers, has become very significant,” said PRC chair Richard Gordon. “It is sad to hear that in pursuit of greener pastures abroad, women experience contract substitution, charging of hefty fees by recruiters, and when they arrive in their destinations, their passports and phones are confiscated, they experience beating, overwork, rape, and inhumane working conditions, among other things with little or no recourse. Some are tricked into becoming drug mules.”

Such a grim but real picture of women workers’ exploitation was presented at a two-day conference last week on issues on labor migration called by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) in joint cooperation with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The meeting, dubbed Manila Conference on Labor Migration 2015, focused on the most vulnerable: women household service workers.

The conference brought together representatives from both sending and receiving countries from Asia Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), various stakeholders, including government agencies, non-governmental organizations, international organizations and leaders and representatives from Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) national societies.

Elhadj As Sy, IFRC secretary-general, said IFRC is committed to supporting all migrants, regardless of their status (legal or illegal entries). “All people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and afforded protection and access to services. However, migrant workers are consistently exploited and denied access to their basic rights. These abuses are too often covered by silence and worse met with total indifference. If we have to make a difference we must break the silence and beat the indifference.”

Voices echoing Gordon’s and Elhaj As Sy’s concerns came from the PRC’s secretary general Gwendolyn Pang who said there is a need to coordinate a global strategy to define the human rights of migrant workers. Foreign Affairs undersecretary Linlingay Lacanale said the Philippines is primarily a sending country in the context of international migration. The Philippine government has taken a consistent stance that migration is an important factor in the formulation of the post-2015 Development Agenda, and taken “a proactive position in bilateral, regional, and international fora to address the problems posed by labor migration, particularly human smuggling and people trafficking.”

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On the part of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said that the Philippines, in the past four years, has been committed in exerting efforts on migrant workers, and is now in the process of customizing the pre-deployment program for migrant workers.

Qatar’s Saleh Ali Al Muhanadi, secretary of Qatar Red Crescent Society, said much has been said about the lack of legislation and the weak protections afforded to migrant workers. But he feels very strongly that “(we) should also place an emphasis on two critical and often overlooked aspects of labor migration — dignity and respect.”

The members of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement accordingly signed the Manila Declaration on Women Migrant Workers, which essentially accepts the reality of migration being “not only an issue of people movement but more importantly an issue involving basic human rights and the protection of human dignity.”

The Manila Declaration provides that among migrant workers, it has identified women workers, especially those who work as domestic helpers, “as most vulnerable, prone to abuse in view of their isolation and without sufficient means to obtain support and assistance when needed.”

The Declaration further emphasizes the need “to take collective action and utilize the largest humanitarian network of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to protect the rights of labor migrants – with a particular focus on Women Household Service Workers.”

The signatories pledge “to do (their) utmost to exercise humanitarian diplomacy to influence their respective governments and other stakeholders to assist and protect women migrant workers in distress and provide programs which protect the rights, reduce the vulnerabilities and support the best interest of the women migrant workers.”

Two provisions in the Declaration, authored by Chairman Gordon, call for the establishment of a humanitarian lifeline/call center for overseas migrant workers in distress. In previous discussion with this columnist, Gordon said workers can communicate with their families through the call center, possibly set up in Philippine embassies and consular offices in migrant-worker receiving countries. Details of this will be released to media.

The second provision recognizes the potential of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Network in playing a valuable role in assisting migrant workers once they return to their home countries. Details of this provision are going to be worked out by the Red Cross national societies.

The Manila Conference on Migration, by the way, is the third in a series of migration-related events under the umbrella of the doha Dialogue on Migration 2014.

We applaud the Red Cross societies’ commitment to work for the rights of migrant workers, particularly migrant women workers.

May the day come when we no longer will hear of such cases as Mary Jane Veloso and Sara Balagbagan and countless others. In our homes, we might have domestic helpers who have returned from awful experiences as workers in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Singapore and other countries. –Domini M. Torrevillas (The Philippine Star)