Large number of Filipino maids avail amnesty, leave the country...and that's just the tip of the iceberg... ones that got away and had their stories published. And what kind of justice has prevailed in these situations? How many abusive employers are hauled before the courts? Zero, zip, الصفر, nol. Instead, the maids are treated as criminals, having to be processed through police stations and the deportation prison...
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 14: Eighty six mostly Filipina household workers left Kuwait Monday evening, part of the continuing exodus of foreign country nationals availing of the government’s amnesty program that ends Wednesday. The group was seen off at the Kuwait International Airport, by Philippine Embassy officials who helped arrange and facilitate their departure, particularly those whose passports were retained by their employers, by issuing them travel documents. According to Halim Langco of the Philippine Embassy’s Assistance to Nationals Unit or ANU, the group is part of some 800 plus Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who registered with the embassy to avail of the Kuwaiti government’s amnesty program. “Actually, a lot more has already left on their own, like those who did not have pending court cases against them or other legal impediments save that for overstaying their visas,” added Langco. Many in the group told of sad experiences they said they never imagined would happen to them.
Grecilda Barolan, a 32 year old single mother from Maria Cristina, Iligan, in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, said she came to Kuwait in search of a better opportunity for the sake of her 10-year old son. “I used to work in a factory at the Export Processing Zone in Iligan but the pay I was getting was barely enough to support both of us, that’s why when the chance came for a job in Kuwait, I grabbed it, thinking it could be the one chance I’ll have to provide for a better future for my son,” she said. On her arrival in Kuwait in February 2006, she was employed in the household of a Kuwaiti lady working as an engineering consultant and who also happened to be a single mother of three grownup children.
She recalled that everything went well until several months ago when their pay kept getting delayed and began to accummulate. When they ask for money to send back home, she said they are given only a month’s worth. But this was not the reason why she left, she said. The reason why she left, she said, was in sympathy for her ailing co-worker, also a Filipina and who is from Bicol. “She (referring to her co-worker) fell heavily on her back while we were cleaning the swimming pool one day and her condition deteriorated because she was not taken for treatment; unable to move well to perform her duty because of the intense pain she was feeling, she was constantly being berated by our employer,” she said in recounting her co-worker’s ordeal.
The last straw came, she said, when her co-worker, no longer able to bear the verbal abuse she was being subjected to by their employer, snapped back and engaged the latter in a shouting match. Then, to her shock and surprise, she said she saw their employer pushed her co-worker so hard which sent toppling her into a bedroom which was then locked by the employer from the inside and she repeatedly struck and pummeled the defenseless woman.
“After that, we decided to run away and sought shelter at our embassy,” said Grecilda who added she made the decision despite the fact her employer still owes her six months pay.
Anisa Hassan, 21, is from Zamboanga City and she said she left her employer because she was being overworked and not given a day off much less, allowed to go for vacation. “Not only that, I was also threatened with bodily harm if I insist on asking to go on leave although I had already completed my two years contract,” she said, adding she is still owed two months pay by her employer.
“I feared for my safety because of the lying and scheming of my employer’s children,” says 33 year old Jenelyn Dela Torre from Antique, Panay Island in west central Philippines.
Jenelyn said her employer’s children are unruly and destructive, wreaking havoc in the house and when she would try to control them like when they were playing with kitchen utensils including knives, they would make up stories to their parents on their return home from work, that she threatened to kill them with a knife.
As a result, she said she was mauled by the children’s mother leaving her black and blue. “That’s why I resolved to get out of there as quickly as I can and ran to our embassy,” she added. A much bigger group was scheduled to leave Tuesday with the rest exiting Kuwait on Wednesday, the last and final day of the 45-day amnesty period granted by the Kuwaiti government to give residence violators the chance to leave the country voluntarily without paying any fine for those without pending court cases; and for those who opt to stay, to formalize their status by going through the proper channels.
By Boie Conrad Dublin
Arab Times Staff
These are the risks the poor take in this part of the world. Thankfully, some find an honest and kind employer. Unfortunately, it is not many. Why does Kuwait not get its act together to resolve these problems? Ah, but that would mean a change in peoples' attitudes, a re-education process to eradicate racism and discrimination, a just and transparent legal system...
