TV ads against abuse of migrant workers aired in MidEast
MANILA, Philippines - Like an obedient dog, she kneels on the polished floor, her face devoid of any emotion as her eyes stare blankly to space.
This is how abuse on foreign domestic workers is pictured in a print advertisement campaign initiated by a television station in Saudi Arabia.
Dubai-based MBC TV shouldered the cost of the three advertisements that show the various forms of abuse experienced by migrant workers, particularly domestic helpers. The TV network paid for the campaigns that began airing last week throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Kaswara al Khatib, MBC’s founder, told online website The National that abuse of domestic workers was an issue that needed to be addressed in Arab countries.
“Eventually someone has to speak up and raise their voice. These people need someone to stand up for them," Khatib said.
In the same report, MD Moniruzzaman a labor counselor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said he hoped Emiratis would be hit by the print and TV campaigns.
The labor counselor disclosed that they receive as many as 80 complaints of domestic abuse a year.
“It’s one of the biggest problems. These people’s behavior is very injurious and alarming. It’s not everyone, but people who do, it is dangerous," Moniruzzaman said.
The commercials are set to continue showing until January 2009.
Jean Enriquez, executive director of the Manila-based group Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), said that the advertisements are a welcome move from the Middle East, which is often hit for their poor migrants’ rights record.
“I feel that it's about time that advertisements as these come out, and it's good that they're coming from our Muslim brothers and sisters," Enriquez told GMANews.TV on Monday.
While lauding MBC’s initiative, Enriquez said Khatib’s depiction of abuse on migrant workers is “not an exaggeration."
“In fact, domestic workers have suffered even worse than what were illustrated. It would be better if the advertisements included ways for the domestic workers to seek immediate assistance, if in distress," she said.
Since the ads were initiated by Saudi groups, Ellen Sana, executive director of the Center for Migration Advocacy, said the message could be more welcomed by other countries in the Middle East.
“We hope and pray that the effect will really be positive -- seeing changes in protection mechanisms, policies, practices and attitudes in the region that will respect and uphold the dignity of migrant domestic workers," Sana told GMANews.TV.
While the print and TV campaigns affirm the conditions prevailing in the Middle East, Sana expressed concern that one possible reaction to the ads is denial.
"A possible immediate reaction also by the employers and the government could be one of denial that could result to harsher treatment of migrant domestic workers; or of employers cautioning their migrant workers NOT to say anything about their situation; or that concerned governments will exercise censorship of media and screen information that comes out to the public," Sana said. - GMANews.TV
This is how abuse on foreign domestic workers is pictured in a print advertisement campaign initiated by a television station in Saudi Arabia.
Dubai-based MBC TV shouldered the cost of the three advertisements that show the various forms of abuse experienced by migrant workers, particularly domestic helpers. The TV network paid for the campaigns that began airing last week throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Kaswara al Khatib, MBC’s founder, told online website The National that abuse of domestic workers was an issue that needed to be addressed in Arab countries.
“Eventually someone has to speak up and raise their voice. These people need someone to stand up for them," Khatib said.
In the same report, MD Moniruzzaman a labor counselor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said he hoped Emiratis would be hit by the print and TV campaigns.
The labor counselor disclosed that they receive as many as 80 complaints of domestic abuse a year.
“It’s one of the biggest problems. These people’s behavior is very injurious and alarming. It’s not everyone, but people who do, it is dangerous," Moniruzzaman said.
The commercials are set to continue showing until January 2009.
Jean Enriquez, executive director of the Manila-based group Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), said that the advertisements are a welcome move from the Middle East, which is often hit for their poor migrants’ rights record.
“I feel that it's about time that advertisements as these come out, and it's good that they're coming from our Muslim brothers and sisters," Enriquez told GMANews.TV on Monday.
While lauding MBC’s initiative, Enriquez said Khatib’s depiction of abuse on migrant workers is “not an exaggeration."
“In fact, domestic workers have suffered even worse than what were illustrated. It would be better if the advertisements included ways for the domestic workers to seek immediate assistance, if in distress," she said.
Since the ads were initiated by Saudi groups, Ellen Sana, executive director of the Center for Migration Advocacy, said the message could be more welcomed by other countries in the Middle East.
“We hope and pray that the effect will really be positive -- seeing changes in protection mechanisms, policies, practices and attitudes in the region that will respect and uphold the dignity of migrant domestic workers," Sana told GMANews.TV.
While the print and TV campaigns affirm the conditions prevailing in the Middle East, Sana expressed concern that one possible reaction to the ads is denial.
"A possible immediate reaction also by the employers and the government could be one of denial that could result to harsher treatment of migrant domestic workers; or of employers cautioning their migrant workers NOT to say anything about their situation; or that concerned governments will exercise censorship of media and screen information that comes out to the public," Sana said. - GMANews.TV
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