MIGRANT WATCH

Calls of Distress from Detained OFWs Greet 2007

Barely two weeks into 2007 and the office of Migrante International is already swamped with requests for assistance from detained overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and complaints of government inaction on these cases. 

BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat

Barely two weeks into 2007 and the office of Migrante International is already swamped with requests for assistance from detained overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and complaints of government inaction on these cases.  

Kuwait detainees

Gil Librea is now working in Kuwait after experiencing inhuman working conditions as a factory worker in Taiwan. When he entered Kuwait, he was questioned because of irregularities in his travel and work documents. So he went to the Philippine Embassy there to ask for their assistance in straightening out his papers.

He was surprised to learn that his problem is nothing compared to the plight of three fellow OFWs detained in a police station in Kuwait.

Librea and a Filipino friend Dodong Ombina visited, last Dec. 29, the three OFWs detained in Rumiathiya police station in Kuwait. The three were identified as Carmelita Rosario Lagata, Rowelyn Monilla and Laila Haiden.

Last Dec. 31, Ombina was preoccupied not with the New Year celebrations but with the case of the three detained OFWs.  He sent an email to Migrante International requesting assistance for the three. He also described Legata’s case. 

According to Ombina, Lagata was a domestic helper working with a Kuwaiti family for three months.  She had to do all the household work, deprived of sleep and with no day off. She was able to escape from her employer by jumping from the second floor of the apartment building where they were staying.  She broke her back and legs in the process.

Ombina wrote that Lagata’s employer brought her to the Al Razi hospital. Lagata was not able to walk for two months, Ombina said. After her injuries started to heal, she was released from the hospital and was turned over to the police for investigation.

Legata sought the help of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait.  But embassy representatives advised her to go with the police adding that the investigation would last for three days only. 

But as of Dec. 30, Lagata is still detained at the police station and the investigation has not even started.

Gina Esguerra of Migrante’s Migrants Assistance Committee said that Lagata’s mother already approached officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Nov. 14 but no response has been received as of this writing.

Facing death

Meanwhile, a Filipina domestic helper faces death by hanging also in Kuwait for allegedly killing her seven-year old ward on Jan. 6.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos reported that murder and double frustrated murder charges were filed against the OFW by Kuwaiti authorities before the Kuwait Prosecutor’s Office.

Conejos described the Filipina as a 28-year-old domestic helper from Maguindanao.

Reports said the OFW, who allegedly slit the throat of the boy’s 11-year-old brother and stabbed his 17-year-old sister, jumped from the second floor of her employer’s residence in Mumbarak Al-Kabeer District.

The OFW, who is currently confined at the intensive care unit of Al-Adan Hospital for multiple fractures, is under close guard by Kuwaiti police, said Conejos.

The embassy has already hired the services of two Kuwaiti lawyers to provide her with legal assistance.

Appeal for OFW in Hong Kong

The United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK) has reported to Migrante that Brigilda Fariñas has been detained there since July last year for charges of “ill treatment or neglect by those in charge of child or young person.”

Fariñas used to take care of her employer’s five-year old and five-month old sons. The parents were both working so Fariñas was left to look after the children.

The five-month-old baby, who has a kidney problem, had a scratch of about 2 mm in between the penis and scrotum. Fariñas assumed that the mother knew about it because she was the one who took care of the baby last July 10 up to the next day because it was her day-off.

On July 12, Fariñas noticed blood stains on the baby’s diaper. She wiped it with a towel soaked in warm water. They brought the baby to the hospital that night. On July 14, Fariñas was asked by the baby’s doctor regarding her personal background, including her experience in taking care of children, educational attainment, and history of physical illnesses.

The next day, the OFW was brought to the police station in Kowloon City purportedly to file a sworn statement. But she was detained there for a day, said the Unifil-HK report. When she was released July 16, four police officers accompanied her to search her belongings looking for a sharp round object that could have caused the wound but found nothing.

She was charged at the Hunghom Police Station with “ill treatment or neglect by those in charge of child or young person” and detained again.

The magistrate in court no. 7 opined that Fariñas was not guilty during the August 21 hearing. Another hearing was set to hear the testimonies of the attending physician and the mother of the baby.  After four postponements, because Farinas could not afford to hire a lawyer to defend her and a doctor to examine the baby to corroborate her statement that she had nothing to do with the baby’s injury, a hearing was finally held on December 1. The magistracy then sentenced her to two years imprisonment. It also recommended that she undergo a psychiatric test for two weeks while detained at Tai Lam Prison.

Bagong Bayani

Meanwhile, Migrante is keeping in touch with the families of the OFWs detained in Kuwait and Hongkong helping them follow-up the cases of their detained relatives with the DFA.  The organization’s chapters in Kuwait and Hong Kong regularly visits the detained OFWs and are exerting pressure on the Philippine embassies in the two countries to act on the migrant workers’ cases.

Ombina lamented the seeming inaction and lack of concern of government officials at the Philippine embassy in Kuwait.  He said that Lagata is entitled to be released immediately and be paid her salary for three months.

“Based on my observation on the above case, it is the duty of the state to protect the rights and welfare of OFWs in general and Miss Carmelita R. Lagata in particular,” wrote Ombina. He said that the government should protect the rights of OFWs, referred to as the bagong bayani (modern-day heroes) as it is their remittances that give stability to the economy. Bulatlat

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