IN LIGHT OF DEMAFELIS CASE : PHL should call for abolition of kafala system –official



By ANNA FELICIA BAJO, GMA News
Regardless of the actions of the Philippine government, Filipino domestic helpers in the Middle East will always be prone to abuse as long as the "kafala" system is in place, a government official said Wednesday.
The kafala system requires employers to sponsor foreign workers, making the latter vulnerable to abuse. Under it, foreign workers can only look for new jobs without prior approval from their sponsors after three years of service.
"We may have the base laws in this country to protect domestic workers working in other countries, but if we have still this kafala system in the Middle East, we will not have that kind of protection for our wokers," presidential adviser on OFW and Muslim concerns Abdullah Mama-o told a Senate hearing.
Mama-o said that under the kafala system, the employer virtually "controls everything."
"He (employer) has control of everything. When the worker arrives, he has the passport, he locks the house, the room, everything," Mama-o said. "For domestic worker they cannot go out of the house."
Mama-o said the Philippine government should insist that the said system must be abolished.
"In the Middle East, there's that non-applicability of labor laws. When these are not applicable, the workers are not protected. If we are to continue in the future the deployment of workers, we should insist that this kafala system should be out," Mama-o said.
The Senate hearing was conducted to examine existing government policies in light of the killing of Filipino domestic worker Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found inside a freezer in Kuwait.—KBK, GMA News

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