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Hong Kong one of the worst places for Filipino maids
The first time “Maria” was raped, she didn’t tell anybody. “The first thing that came to my mind was that I didn’t want to lose my job.”
The 25-year old domestic worker from the Philippines was just a month into her job with a family in Kowloon City when the first attack happened. A second attack forced her to flee.
“I left at midnight, without anything. I just had a small bag. I was still in my pyjamas,” she recalled, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.
Maria’s ordeal - which ended recently when her case collapsed due to the deterioration of evidence because she was too late going to a doctor - is at the extreme end of what new figures reveal is the widespread abuse facing the city’s tens of thousands of domestic workers.
Data gathered by the Mission for Migrant Workers, which surveyed more than 3,000 women last year, found 58 per cent had faced verbal abuse, 18 per cent physical abuse and 6 per cent sexual abuse. Experts believe the figures represent only the tip of the iceberg as many victims are too scared or ill-informed to lodge complaints.
“The number of unreported cases is obviously unknown,” said Cynthia Dacanay, a case worker at the mission, adding: “Some consider abuse a normal thing for maids to experience.’’
After a night wandering the streets, Maria’s friends took her to the mission in the grounds of St John’s Cathedral in Central, which has been providing resources and legal aid for domestic workers since 1981. “I was empowered when I came here. I became stronger,” she said.
Dacanay said the Philippine consulate advised Maria to return to the Philippines and not pursue legal action, a charge the consulate vehemently denies.
Hong Kong’s often-criticised employment laws for domestic helpers compounded Maria’s situation. When a contract ends, a foreign worker has only 14 days to find a new employer, which many say is not enough time. If unsuccessful, a worker must return home or face prosecution.
Maria was granted several visa extensions as her case went through the legal system but she was forbidden by law from working and had to rely on charity. For more than a year she has been living at the Bethune House shelter in Jordan in a cramped dormitory with other women.
Sri, 40, from Indonesia, did not know her employer was supposed to provide medical treatment. “I just signed the contract without reading it because I don’t know English,” she said.
She said that when she became ill with a throat ailment, her employer of six years tried to trick her into going back to Indonesia. Sri now also lives at Bethune.
For many women, violations are a way of life. Reports of no food or food allowance, delayed pay, working on holidays and not being provided reasonable privacy are common. As with Maria, job security is the main reason most choose to remain silent.
Another source of exploitation can be the agencies that place most foreign workers, with many charging exorbitant commissions despite the law.
In the Philippines, many agencies also insist on a steep upfront fee as a condition for placement in Hong Kong, even though this violates Philippine law.
Despite losing her legal battle, Maria recently filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission, which she hopes will launch a further investigation, but she is also looking to move on. “I plan to look for another employer,” she said. “I have to work for my kids.”
Meanwhile, another report said a total of 3949 requests from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were acted under the leadership of Vice President Jejomar Binay, Office of the Vice President’s (OVP’s) midterm accomplishment report revealed.
Binay who started his term as the vice president since 2010, also serves as the Presidential Adviser on OFW Concerns.
According to the report, in the last 3 years, his office provided repatriation, assistance on salary and benefits claims, legal assistance for detained OFWs, and grievances against recruiters and agents.
To respond to these requests, OVP coordinated closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and Philippine embassies and consulates.
One of his most notable accomplishments was the secured release of of Rodelio “Dondon” Lanuza, an OFW sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for killing a Saudi national out of self-defense.
The government secured his release on February, after collective efforts between the Saudi Embassy in Manila and the OVP.
In coordination with the concerned agencies, Binay’s office also helped on the repatriation of a 3-year old boy who’s mother was deported to the Philippines and was fostered by his mother’s friends in Kuwait.
Among other OFWs that the OVP had helped were Alfredo Salmos, survivor of an accidental electrocution in Saudi Arabia in 2010; Milagros Villarin, who died of natural causes in her home in Belgium; and the two Filipina maids of the relatives of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The vice president’s intercession also helped in reconciling the families of OFWs Jonard Langamin and Robertson Mendoza. Langamin was sentenced to death after he killed Mendoza due to a work-related dispute in Saudi.
He also led efforts in repatriating thousands of OFWs in war-torn Syria.
Aside from OVP’s direct assistance to the requests, the report also showed that Binay’s foreign visits “have also resulted in strengthened relations with the countries he has been to, which opened opportunities for employment for Filipinos.
After Binay’s trip to Germany in June, he even announced that an initial batch of 50 nurses from the Philippines will be deployed to Germany in 2013, while a group of 500 will be deployed by 2014.
Binay also got the assurance of European businessmen that the Philippines’ 80,000-strong contingent of seafarers based in Europe will be safe from blacklisting.
In 2012, Binay also announced that the ban on Filipino au pairs (French term meaning “on par” or “equal”) to Europe and came up with the new “Guidelines on the Departure of Au Pairs to Europe.”
Filipinos under the au pair program allowed to be at par or equal to locals, by being treated as a member of the family instead of a domestic servant.
The ban was imposed to reports of maltreatment, unfair compensation, excessive working hours, discrimination and sexual assault, and abuse of the system by illegal recruiters and syndicates.
Remittances from more than 10 million Filipinos living overseas largely fuel household consumption and plays a crucial role in the economy’s growth.
Cash remittances have helped boost the nations foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $81.64 billion as of June.
The Philippines is the fourth-largest recipient of remittances from overseas workers in the world after India, China and Mexico.
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