Save OFWs from abusive employers -- Ejercito


SENATOR JV Ejercito called on the government to heed the sentiment of the Senate against deploying household workers in countries where their rights are violated and their welfare ignored.
Ejercito made the call after the Upper Chamber adopted Senate Resolution No. 676 which expressed the sense of the Senate that the deployment of overseas Filipino household service workers to countries that do not afford migrants the same rights and work conditions as their nationals and allow withholding of Philippine Passport totally banned.
“It’s like feeding them (Filipino household workers) to the dogs once they leave our country and this kind of deployment must end today…Our women will never be fully protected for as long as they are viewed upon as ‘properties’ by their employers and treated as aliens without rights…,” he said in a manifestation of support for the resolution.
Ejercito also sought a review, with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), of the Memorandum of Agreement for Filipino migrant workers in Kuwait, which is currently under negotiation.

“Let us not only review our labor policies with Kuwait. But more so with other countries in the Middle East like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Dubai where human rights violations on the Filipino workers have been monitored,” he said.
  
The senators unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday evening calling for a ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to countries where they are not treated like their local counterparts.
  
Senate Resolution No. 676, introduced by Senate President Koko Pimentel, and Senators Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Trillanes IV, said the chamber “should only allow the deployment of domestic workers to countries that afford migrants the same rights and work conditions as their nationals.”

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