Iraq has ‘Black Market’ for Filipino Domestic Workers, Says Ex-Labor Official
By JULIA MARI ORNEDO, GMA News
Iraq has a “black market” for Filipino domestic workers, with around five to 10 Filipinas being illegally recruited into the Middle Eastern country every week to await employment, a former labor official said Tuesday.
Migrant workers’ rights advocate and former Labor undersecretary Susan Ople said loopholes in the Philippines’ Migrant Workers Act and Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act allow the illegal recruitment of Filipino workers into Alert Level 4 countries.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Alert Level 4 means “there is large-scale internal conflict or full-blown external attack.” The said alert level has been raised over Iraq, Tripoli in Libya, and Yemen, among other areas.
Ople urged the amendment of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act to allow the government to charge Filipinos who illegally recruit their fellow countrymen outside the Philippines.
“We have human trafficking syndicates not only based here but also based in Dubai and in some other country that recruits our women to these Alert Level 4 countries,” she said in a press briefing.
“Increasingly, we have seen, especially for the Alert Level 4 countries, that the recruitment is being done outside na the Philippines,” Ople added.
She also underscored the need for recruitment agencies to monitor their workers.
“‘Yung aspect ng private recruitment agencies’ capacity to monitor their workers… that has to be looked into and if we are not able to monitor, they have no right at all in deploying domestic workers,” Ople said.
Meanwhile, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) vice president Luis Corral echoed President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to prepare standby funds for Filipinos who will be evacuated from the Middle East amid tensions between Iran and the United States.
“We need a standby budget already to be authorized by the Congress to ensure that the President has the means to address any emerging contingency,” he said.
Duterte earlier said he may call for a special session of Congress to discuss contingency plans for Filipinos in the Middle East.
“Let us be proactive. Huwag nating hintaying mag-giyera talaga ‘yung dalawang [bansa],” said TUCP president and party-list representative Raymond Mendoza.
GMA News Online has contacted the Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the DFA for reaction to Ople’s statement, but has yet to receive a reply as of posting time. —KG, GMA News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com