Migrante slams proposed age requirement for outbound maids

MANILA, Philippines — An alliance of overseas Filipino workers' groups on Tuesday said the proposal to increase the minimum age requirement in the deployment of Filipino domestic workers would only "widen the doors to illegal recruitment."

Migrante International also warned that those already working abroad could panic if the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) pursues its "hare-brained" idea to increase the age limit
from 23 years old to 30 years old.

"This age requirement will not resolve the problems of abuses, suicides, insanity or other problems of Filipino domestic helpers. It will merely encourage OFWs to lie about their age and fake their documents. This will widen the doors to illegal recruitment even more," Migrante chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado said.

"It would also trigger widespread panic among the legions of below thirty domestic workers who are already working abroad and would force them to stay there as long as it takes, afraid to go home and be found to be under-aged," she said.


‘Hare-brained ideas’

Regalado took to task DFA Undersecretary of Migrant Affairs Esteban Conejos, who is also chairman of the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development, for "not running out of hare-brained ideas for our bagong bayanis."

"Not content with the censure they received from OFWs about the mandatory psych tests, they are now proposing a scheme that will anger OFWs even more," Regalado said, referring to Conejos' proposal last month for the government to require all Filipino domestic helpers seeking work abroad to undergo psychiatric test.

Regalado said Conejos should be renamed "undersecretary for employers affairs," citing his alleged penchant for "catering to what host countries want to buy."

“He conveniently forgets that Filipinos leave the country out of desperation, to escape the mind-blowing, stomach-crunching poverty in this country. He refuses to admit that most of the abuses, insanity, crimes committed by OFWs are not because of their lack of maturity but because of the intolerably abusive conditions that OFWs encounter at the hands of their employers," she said.

Regalado doubted whether the forum that Conejos is organizing would have any redeeming value.

"Can the government provide alternative jobs for the thousands of would be domestic workers who stand to get affected by this proposal? Or is this another ploy to dress up the country's labor export program in time for the 2nd GFMD?" she asked. - GMANews.TV

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