Every year, many Filipinos leave the country to seek greener pastures abroad. This scenario usually involves parents leaving their families and believing that a career overseas will be able to provide a better future for them. They sacrifice by being away from their loved ones in exchange for a more financially-secure life. One of these…
Category: OFWs & Migration
Family, Migrants Group Hold Last Ditch Effort to Save OFW in Taiwan from the Firing Squad
A day before the Appellate Court of Taiwan would hand down its verdict on May 4, Migrante International and the family of Alcaraz would hold a prayer rally to save the life of Cecilia. “Habang si Pacquiao ay nakikipagsuntukan kay Hatton, kami naman ay makikipagsuntukan para sa buhay ni Cecilia,” (While Pacquiao boxes with Hatton,…
OFW Remains Frozen in Saudi Morgue for Six Months Already
Emy Pepito, like many other Filipinos, went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in search of a better life and to be able to provide a better future for his mother and nieces. Living the destitute land of Misamis Occidental, Mindanao, Pepito left the Philippines to work as a stone mason in the Kingdom of…
Wage Discrimination and Other Seafarers’ Woes
“The rights of workers, that is, the right to be organized into unions, to collective bargaining, to security of tenure and to have a just and humane condition at work, are continuously being denied them by capitalists who are only after profits. This is, despite the fact that these are embodied by the Constitution and…
OFWs Forced to Beg for Food on Qatar’s Streets
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…
OFWs in Libya Exploited, Abducted and Terminated
BY JANESS ANN J. ELLAO MIGRANT WATCH Bulatlat Last April 2, 2009, four Filipino migrant laborers working for CIFEX World Construction Firm based in Libya, were abducted and detained in a high fenced abandoned building, away from the accommodation that was provided to them by their employer. With their cell phones confiscated, they did not…
Lifting of Deployment Ban, Subjecting More OFWs to Abuse
It was only a few years ago when the Arroyo administration issued a total deployment ban to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar and Iraq because of “unstable security conditions”. Fast-forward to the present. The Arroyo administration has now lifted the deployment ban claiming that the security conditions have “improved”. But has the protection of labor and…
Going Through the Eye of a Needle: Availing of the P50K Loan for OFWs
Through the reintegration program of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), a National Livelihood Support Fund was launched to “assist” overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were retrenched due to the global financial crisis. But retrenched OFWs have to comply with the stiff requirements and be prepared for the long haul before they would be able…
A Real Life, Modern-day Hero?
A Real-Life, Modern-day Hero?
Retrenched OFWs from Taiwan Return Home Empty-handed
Retrenched OFWs Return Home
Do Not Lift Deployment Ban to Lebanon, Gov’t Urged
A migrant group urged the government not to lift the deployment ban to Lebanon as the situation remains volatile. BY BULATLAT MIGRANT WATCH A migrant group urged the government not to lift the deployment ban to Lebanon as the situation remains volatile. John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, said that war could spark again…