RP urged to lead efforts to improve workers' conditions in Saudi

MANILA, Philippines - Human rights groups urged the Philippines on Tuesday to lead efforts to improve working conditions in Saudi Arabia for more than a million foreign women domestic workers.

Nisha Varia of US-based Human Rights Watch said the Philippines — a major source of foreign workers in the Middle East — can "take a lead role in pushing for reforms" to safeguard them in Saudi Arabia.

Varia said the Philippines and other major sources of labor — like Indonesia and Sri Lanka — would gain more for their citizens if they cooperate in a "multilateral approach" to seek changes in Saudi labor laws to protect foreign maids working in the kingdom.

"They would have great bargaining power" if they put up a common stand, she said.

Senior Philippine foreign affairs officials were not immediately available for comment.

William Gois, regional coordinator for Migrant Forum in Asia, a support group for overseas workers, said the Philippines is considered a "power broker" among labor-providing nations and should not be afraid of losing out on overseas labor markets by standing up for the rights of workers abroad.

He said the Philippines has shown it can lead human rights causes in international forums, citing Manila's loud voice in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations against abuses by Myanmar's junta.

Varia and Gois spoke at a forum in Manila on the 133-page report released last week by Human Rights Watch on domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

The report said domestic workers there are often subjected to abuse that in some cases amounts to slavery, as well as sexual violence and lashings. Rather than receiving justice, domestic workers — mostly Asians — are more likely to face counteraccusations of "witchcraft," theft or adultery.

Suhaila Hammad of Saudi Arabia's National Society for Human Rights has dismissed the report as "unfair and one-sided," saying her country has been "unjustly portrayed and the crimes against us by the workers are never mentioned."

Saudi Arabia is home to 5.6 million foreign workers employed in a wide range of industries, including oil, business and engineering.

Varia said in Saudi Arabia, there are an estimated 600,000 to 900,000 Indonesian domestic workers, 400,000 from Sri Lanka and about 200,000 from the Philippines.

She said those countries should collectively insist on reforming the sponsorship system under which working visas are given to applicants and which allows Saudi employers to control the lives of foreign workers.

"It really, from the very beginning, puts them at the risk of abuse," she said.

She said compared with other countries, the Philippines has given more protection and has demanded higher wages for its overseas workers, prompting other employers to look to other nations.

"That is why it is so important to have the multilateral cooperation, because if the Philippines improves protection only for Filipino workers, the host countries will just start employing the women from countries with weak protection," she said.

Victor Fernandez, president of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc., a group of job recruitment agencies, said a multilateral approach to seeking safeguards for overseas workers' welfare is harder than seeking bilateral agreements.

He said Saudi Arabia would feel that these countries were "ganging up" and it could "build bigger resistance" to their demands.

"The moment you feel people are ganging up on you, you ask them to leave," he said. - AP

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