Senator Risa Hontiveros is urging the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to set up additional support systems for female migrant workers who endure gender-based abuse from their employers and recruitment firms, particularly those who are pregnant.
Women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), according to the senator who chairs the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, are frequently the victims of “extensive violence.”
During the first budget hearing of the newly established government agency, she emphasized that “there is an increase of employment of female migrant workers, particularly in gender-based occupations and sectors such as domestic work, entertainment, garments industry, and electronic assembly. We need stronger mechanisms to help protect them throughout the whole process, mula sa recruitment hanggang deployment at repatriation.”
Hontiveros recounted horrifying instances of Filipina domestic workers who were compelled to have abortions after learning of their pregnancies by their recruitment agency.
“I’m just hoping and confident na DMW will look into the more detailed circumstances nito para maproteksyunan ang ating mga kababayan laban sa ganyang mga forced abortion,” she emphasized.
The lawmaker revealed instances of forced abortion and human trafficking among female OFWs during the 18th Congress.
She offered assistance to an illegally trafficked female OFW who had to abort her unborn child in order to travel to a country racked by civil conflict. Hontiveros said that another Saudi domestic helper who was a woman had met the same fate.
She questioned, “I would like to know, how equipped are our shelters abroad in caring for pregnant OFWs in situations of distress? Mayroon po ba tayong protective care para maituloy ang pregnancy? Doon naman sa natuloy na yung forced abortion, kaya ba siyang suportahan kung gusto niyang habulin ang hustisya laban sa kanyang recruitment agency o employer?”
She also welcomed DMW’s promise to establish a special hotline that expectant OFWs who are unsure of what to do can call and receive assistance from.
Hontiveros agreed with the decision to raise funding for the agency and argued that given the enormous contribution migrant workers make to the domestic economy, they should receive better assistance and services from the national government.
“Just for 2021, the remittances of our OFWs reached $34.8 billion, or P1.74 trillion. That’s 20 percent of the total national government budget now being proposed under the current National Expenditure Program. And yet, the new department that is supposed to take care of our fellow Filipinos has to make do with a much smaller recommended budget,” she said.
“Matagal nang nabibiktima ang mga kababayan natin dahil hindi natututukan ang kanilang kaligtasan. I am hopeful that this new department created for them can change that,” Hontiveros concluded.
Photo Credit: Facebook/senateph
