From Two Who Suffered, a Call to Repatriate Other Distressed OFWs Before Christmas
Published on November 27, 2010 By JANESS ANN J. ELLAOBulatlat.com
MANILA — Until recently, Melith Ante and Rashida Jaman were overseas Filipino workers. Like many OFWs, however, they suffered abuses in the hands of their employers and recruiters and so they were forced to head back home, leaving behind compatriots who undergo maltreatment by authorities while in detention or in halfway houses.
Since their recent repatriation from their respective host countries, Ante, 28, and Jaman, 29, have joined Migrante International, an overseas Filipino workers group, in calling for the immediate repatriation of stranded and jailed Filipinos abroad. The two cited the dire conditions of these OFWs, many of them suffering from all sorts of abuses and neglect.
“The government should immediately assist them (stranded and jailed OFW),” Ante, 28, told Bulatlat.com. “They are already starting to lose hope.”
Ante left to work in Jordan on July 7, 2010, believing that she would work as a janitor with a monthly salary of $400. Upon arriving in her host country, however, she was told that she would have to work as a domestic helper instead. Her salary was downgraded to $100 and would not be receiving it for the first three months as payment for her “deployment cost.”
“I was willing to stay for as long as my employer would treat me well,” Ante said, adding that she badly needed money to send her younger sibling to school and to pay for the hospitalization of her mother, who just had a stroke. However, she noticed how her male employer would peep into the restroom every time she took a bath.
Then, on Sept. 18, her employer tried to rape her. “I managed to escape at around 9 p.m. when the couple (her employers) were fighting about what happened,” Ante said. She stayed with a friend for five days before asking the help of the Philippine Embassy in Jordan..... MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL: http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2010/11/27/from-2-who-suffered-abuse-a-call-to-repatriate-other-distressed-ofws-before-christmas/
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