At least 50 distressed OFWs remain in Dubai shelter for repatriation

The Overseas Workers Welfare Admninistration (OWWA) said around 50 to 70 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) remain in their shelter in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and are awaiting repatriation.



OWWA Labor Attache Atty. Delmer Cruz said the number of distressed OFWs in the Dubai shelter has decreased as it used to be over 100, according to a report from Balitanghali's Pia Arcangel on Friday.

Cruz noted that OFWs usually stay for two to three weeks in the shelter while waiting to be repatriated.

He also said they are currently monitoring closely each of the cases of the OFWs and have set up various programs to ensure their security.

In an earlier report, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) enforced tighter screening for Filipinos bound to Dubai amid reports that illegal Filipino workers are being flown to Dubai disguised as tourists.

The move also came about after immigration authorities uncovered 17 undocumented Filipino workers bound to Dubai posing as tourists on June 11 and 12.

BI Spokesperson Ma. Antonette Mangrobang said 11 of those apprehended admitted that they were bound to Lebanon after arriving in Dubai while the other six said they were bound for Jordan.

The illegal migrants were promised monthly wages of $300 to $1,500 US dollars, Mangrobang said.

The Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking is now on top of their case.

Migrant laborers

According to a Reuters report earlier this month, most blue collar workers in the Gulf Arab states are migrant laborers hired on a contract basis from South Asian countries such as the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, who have come to the Middle East to escape abject poverty in their home country.

Typically employed on low wages, workers are usually housed in camps with basic facilities on the outskirts of cities.

They are tied to a Kafala or sponsorship-based employment system which binds them to one employer, and the workers pay heavy recruitment fees to agents, leaving many in debt even before they start work.

The lack of workers' rights coupled with low wage growth are now starting to make the Gulf less attractive to workers from South Asia and elsewhere.

Wage demands are starting to echo a previous building boom in the Gulf in 2006-07 before the global financial crisis and Dubai's property market collapse.

Hundreds of thousands of construction workers protested in Dubai in 2006-07, sometimes violently, against living conditions and delayed wage payments.

The unrest spurred a wave of labor reforms in the UAE, including a wage protection system to ensure salaries are paid on time and the introduction of a three-hour work break during peak summer months.

However, the government ignored calls for minimum wage laws and workers' salaries remained largely unchanged. The sponsorship system also continued and there has been no move to legalize unions.

Human rights groups say governments need to abolish the sponsorship system to allow workers to switch employers, introduce minimum wages, improve workers' living conditions and allow unions and peaceful protests. - with reports from Andrei Medina, Reuters, VVP, GMA News

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