OFW FORUM
Jun Concepcion
Newly-appointed Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said all the right things during an early morning interview with DZRH anchor Deo Macalma on July 11.
Inclusivity in OFW deployment, dialogues with different labor and labor recruitment groups, support for the government economic cluster’s drive for foreign investments to help generate more local jobs, etc, etc.
But omissions in his wide-ranging policy pronouncements stood out like a sore thumb.
These are areas of greatest interest to overseas Filipinos, especially to unskilled and semi-skilled workers, particularly those who work as domestic helpers in the Middle East and who are widely regarded as the most vulnerable and prone to physical abuses by errant employers.
These areas are the following: Will the government review and revamp the government’s decades-old labor export policy? Is this subject the exclusive domain now of the newly-created Department of Overseas Migrant Workers (DOMW)? Or will newly-designated Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma still have a say in overseas labor deployment policies and strategies?
If this area is now the exclusive territory of DOMW Secretary Susan Ople, why hasn’t she given any policy guidance or directions yet even in general terms?
On June 30, she vowed during a public function to undertake reforms in various key areas, including the adoption of simpler rules and processes, review of “requirements and systems;” stiffer fight against human traffickers, demanding accountability from unscrupulous lawyers who prey on OFWs, and conducting virtual town hall meetings.
But beyond improving the workings of the migrant workers’ agency that she will head, one critical area in OFW affairs that she has not spoken about at length is how the general work conditions of Filipino women in the Middle East can be improved and how abuses are to be drastically curtailed.
To his credit, former President Rodrigo Duterte has spoken out in various instances against abuses of Filipino women in the Middle East and even threatened in January 2018 to order a ban on OFW deployment to the region if atrocities are not stopped.
In a bold major policy pronouncement, the former president called on Middle East governments to dismantle the Kafala system or he would send home OFWs. To say the least, his call was extraordinary and came as a major surprise as it directly challenged the decades-old Kafala system put in place by governments across the Middle East.
Originally intended as a scheme to monitor movements of imported workers, Kafala has evolved into a bondage system that severely restricted transfers of mostly domestic helpers from one employer to another. Because of the restriction that often entails costs of up to ₱200,000 to move to a new employer, domestics are often inhibited from leaving their original employer to avoid paying the exorbitant cost of doing so.
This predicament then becomes a convenient excuse for unscrupulous employers to abuse their domestics because they know most domestics don’t have the money to pay the huge cost of changing employment. Effectively, this situation becomes modern-day slavery which many hapless Filipino women don’t understand and are unwilling to confront directly.
Since most OFW support groups in the Middle East have apparently failed to grasp fully the adverse implications to OFWs of the Kafala system, hardly anyone or group has asked the government to confront this bondage scheme and formulate strategies that can drastically reduce and blunt its impact.
While Duterte has openly called out Middle East governments on the need to address the Kafala scheme, lest the government sends home OFWs, former labor officials hardly dared take any follow-up actions to his bold pronouncement about this issue. After Duterte’s bold Kafala pronouncement, no other senior official dared touch this sensitive issue.
Meanwhile, certain OFW rights advocates have said that Kafala is well entrenched across the Middle East and there is no way to confront and reduce its adverse repercussions to OFWs in general.
This writer takes an entirely different tack. If the overall welfare of OFWs in the Middle East is to be improved significantly, the new set of labor officials should exercise ample political will and resolve to find ways and means to blunt and reduce the adverse impact of Kafala. Pinoys are renowned around the world for their ability to innovate, cushion and reduce the adverse impact of harsh work conditions.
There is no justifiable reason why the existing policies and manner of deploying Filipinos overseas are not subjected to scrutiny and meticulous and stringent analyses, review and even revamp if deemed necessary. If this exercise is not undertaken, this will comprise a major disservice to millions of OFWs, especially those in the Middle East.
OFW deployment needs to undergo a critical, holistic and comprehensive review. More effective strategies should later be drafted to maximize earnings while ensuring their rights and privileges are amply safeguarded and protected by host countries.
Contact this writer at [email protected]