A GROUP of UN human rights experts are calling on the United Arab Emirates to prevent the execution of a Filipina convicted of killing her male employer and sentenced to death at the end of a trial.
Jennifer Dalquez, 30, was employed as a domestic worker in Abu Dhabi where she says her employer tried to rape her at knife point on Dec. 14, 2014. Dalquez, a mother of two children, said she fought back and in the ensuing struggle her assailant was fatally wounded.
At her trial in May 2015, she was convicted of murdering her employer and subsequently sentenced to death, despite her plea of self-defense.
A hearing before the Court of Appeals, which was originally scheduled to begin on March 27 was postponed to April 12 because one of the victim’s children did not appear in court.
The UN experts said they had serious concerns over the conviction and death sentence passed on Dalquez because the judicial proceedings did not adequately guarantee a fair trial and due process. If the execution is carried out, it would be tantamount to arbitrary execution, the experts said.
They noted that during the trial, Dalquez was unable to air her defense of self-defense, and that she was sentenced to death solely on the basis of statements provided by family members of the deceased.
“Discriminatory treatment by criminal courts, in particular, of migrant women who are not provided with interpretation services and quality legal aid, leads to disproportionately severe sentences and seems to be a persistent problem in the United Arab Emirates,” the experts noted.
“Migrant women, employed as domestic workers, are an easy target for gender-based violence, including sexual violence, beatings, threats and psychological abuse, perpetrated with impunity,” they said.
“Governments have a responsibility to prevent such violence, punish the perpetrators and protect migrant and domestic workers from discrimination and abuse,” the experts stressed.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, meanwhile, said at least 5,000 distressed overseas Filipino workers who are currently stranded at various cities in Saudi Arabia will be repatriated this month.
“The government will take advantage of the 90-day amnesty period given by the Saudi government for all undocumented foreign individuals,” Bello said.
“A team composed of senior officials will be flying to Saudi this April to bring home at least 5,000 undocumented and stranded OFWs. This is our top priority. We will do our best to process their travel documents as soon as possible,” Bello said.
Bello directed Undersecretary Dominador Say, who is also the officer-in-charge of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, to lead the repatriation mission team in Saudi.
Say said the department will assist the OFWs in processing their travel documents and papers, with three processing centers in Riyadh, Al Khobar, and in Jeddah.
“We will need as many people as we can who are knowledgeable in processing these documents of the OFWs for immediate repatriation. We have to take advantage of the amnesty and bring them safely back home within the period given by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Say said.