The Department of Foreign Affairs is conducting an inventory of the Filipina household helpers in Saudi Arabia amid reports of maid trade in that country.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Strategic Communications and Research Ernesto Abella said that they decided to conduct the audit after receiving reports of such illegal activity, saying it is also being done to ensure the safety and welfare of Filipina household helpers.
“We received reports that certain families and employees are in the habit of trading their household helper among families,” Abella said.
Abella explained that the move was pursuant to the guidance of President Duterte to prioritize the safety and welfare of overseas Filipino workers to ensure that they would not become victims of abuses by their employers.
It also came following controversy generated by the death of Filipina household helper Joanna Demafelis whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait City.
Demafelis’ death prompted Duterte to issue a deployment ban on OFWs to Kuwait.
On Wednesday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the government is also considering a similar ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Saudi Arabia amid persistent reports of them being traded illegally within the oil-rich kingdom.
Of the more than 2.4-million Filipinos living and working in the Middle East, 1.2 million are found in Saudi Arabia working in the oil fields, medicine, service industries and as household helpers.
Bello III said that “trading or switching” of foreign household workers known as “kafala” is a common practice in Saudi Arabia, where more than 1.2-million Filipinos are working.
He said the country would impose the same deployment restrictions it applied to Kuwait if Saudi Arabia does not strengthen its protection of Filipino workers there.
Saudi Arabia is the biggest employer of Filipino workers, who make up the fourth largest group of foreigners there, and who are the second largest source of remittances to the Philippines.
“Under the kafala or sponsorship system, the Arab sponsor-employer has [complete] control over the mobility of the migrant worker,” Bello said.
A foreign worker, for instance, cannot quit work or transfer jobs without first obtaining the consent of his employer, which practically places the worker at the mercy of his employer, he said.
As part of the government move to improve protection for Filipino workers, the department sent a team to the Middle East, headed by Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad, to assess conditions there and provide immediate assistance and recommend actions to deal with the situation.
Bello said that the report of the team will be a reliable basis for the amendment or enhancement of existing bilateral labor agreements with Arab countries to provide better protection for Filipino workers.
“If there is an existing bilateral labor agreement but there are still rampant cases of maltreatment, then maybe we need to amend the agreement. The minimum demand of our President is that we will only deploy in countries where our workers are properly and effectively protected,” Bello said.
Meanwhile, the Labor secretary said the deployment ban to Kuwait stays after the arrest of suspects in the case of Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found in a freezer after she was tortured and killed.