OFWs Forced to Beg for Food on Qatar’s Streets

Published on April 25, 2009

Nelson Ebreo left the Philippines late last year to work as a tile setter in Qatar, seeking to provide a good future for his three children, the eldest of whom is still in Grade III, and his wife. However, after months of receiving nothing from his employer, he ended up begging on the streets of Qatar and his family went hungry.

BY JOSETTE EMILY Z. DE JESUS
MIGRANT WATCH
Bulatlat

The start of the suffering

Ebreo was recruited by SML Human Resource Inc. and was promised a salary of US$500 a month. According to him, he was asking for a basic contract but the agency instead provided them an offer letter assuring them of jobs in Qatar.

Upon arrival in Qatar, he learned that there is no contract and the salary would be based on production. For two months of work, he was only paid QR800 each month which was lower than what was stipulated.

“Amin ang pagkain, kinakaltas pa doon ang tubig at ilaw. Walang ospital kapag nagkasakit ka doon. Sagot namin. Wala silang pakialam. Ang pagkain namin doon ay (umaabot ng) QR350, natitira na lang QR450 na lang, kakaltasin pa yung aming salary deduction wala ng matitira para sa aming pamilya,” (We had to shoulder our food, and our water and electricity expenses would also be deducted from our salaries. If you got sick they wouldn’t bring you to the hospital. We had to fend for ourselves. They didn’t care about us. Our food cost as much as QR350, so we would be left with only QR450, and then there would be the many salary deductions. There would be nothing left for our families), Mr. Ebreo shared.

Because of his situation in Qatar, Ebreo was unable to provide money for his family. “Y’ong pamilya ko gutom ang inabot nila kasi sa limang buwan namin sa Qatar na inilagi hindi po kami nakapagpadala sa aming pamilya” (My family went hungry because in the five months that we stayed in Qatar we were unable to send money to our families), he said.

Because of this, he decided to stop working and talked to his employer, saying that he wanted to go home. Unfortunately, his employer turned down his request and told him that he could only go home upon payment of US$1500, otherwise he would be imprisoned.

Help arrives

Ebreo, together with his colleagues Edwin Anonuevo and Larry Canlas, were forced to beg on the streets of Qatar to be able to feed themselves to survive as well as to buy plane tickets. There were also Filipinos who took pity on them and gave food and money.

They begged for food from nearby restaurants in Qatar. Ebreo shared that he never begged for food in the Philippines no matter how difficult life is at home.

“Naalala ko nga minsan kumakain kami tinawanan kami ng mga Indiano. Sabi niya, ‘Ang lakas nitong kumain ng manok, ang dami nang buto.’ Di nila alam pinupulot na pala namin” (I remember one time when we were eating and Indians laughed at us. One Indian said, ‘They eat so many chickens, look how many bones there are.’ They didn’t know we were just picking them up), Ebreo said.

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One Response to “OFWs Forced to Beg for Food on Qatar’s Streets”

ariel Says:
May 6th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I personnaly heard & witnessed same experienced from our kababayan here in middle east. They were fooled by some agencies in Philippines. Government should ack decisively and considered this acts as heinous crime punishable by life imprisonment in order to open the eyes of many manloloko.