Pro-OFW group joins call for UN probe on PHL drug war killings


Migrante International on Thursday said it has submitted a petition to the United Nations' human rights body voicing its support to calls for the international organization to probe the alleged human rights violations of the Duterte’s administration.
The Filipino migrants’ group claimed that the Philippine government under President Rodrigo Duterte is neglecting overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and accused it of having a hand in the rampant extrajudicial killings in the country.
According to Migrante, it submitted the Global Petition of Filipino Migrants to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday.
“The petition expressed support to the call of the 11 UN Special Rapporteurs for an independent investigation into the increasing rights violations in the country,” Migrante said in a press release.
On July 4, Iceland issued a draft resolution signed by 28 UN-member states asking the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to probe the alleged killings linked to Duterte’s war on drugs.
Migrante said that Filipino migrants and their families are also affected by the alleged extrajudicial killings which the group said were perpetrated by state forces.
“Kian delos Santos, a 17-year-old son of a Saudi-based domestic helper was dragged across a dark alley beside the creek where he was brutally shot by police operatives,” Migrante said.
Three policemen have been convicted for the August 2017 killing of Delos Santos, whom police claimed fired at them during an anti-drug raid in Caloocan although CCTV footages showed he was being drag by two cops in the direction of an alley where he was found dead.
Aside from this, the group also raised the petition for the 81 Filipino migrants who are currently on death row and the numerous cases of unsolved deaths and detention of Filipinos abroad.
Migrante also lamented the alleged harassment that progressive organizations like them face under the Duterte government through "unscrupulous government regulations, red-tagging and financial witch-hunt."
"We urgently plead with the United Nations Human Rights Council to conduct an independent investigation into the human rights violations committed by the Philippine Duterte government,” Migrante said. —Joviland Rita/KBK, GMA News

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