DOLE sees success in efforts against trafficking of OFWs

The Department of Labor and Employment announced that the country is in the heels of success in addressing the human trafficking of overseas Filipino workers after the signing of the declaration on the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers during the recent 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.

DOLE is now taking the first step to reduce abuses on OFWs, especially the vulnerable Filipino women working as domestic helpers and entertainers.

In a statement, DOLE Secretary Arturo Brion said the thrust would be founded firmly on sounder standards, the global campaign for quality jobs, strengthening of traditional as well as emerging overseas labor markets for the OFWs. He added that there would also be stronger anti-illegal recruitment and human trafficking efforts, which will be inter-agency in nature.

At the first day of the summit level meetings on Thursday, the 10-member ASEAN inked the Cebu Declaration for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

The declaration calls for equal wages and employment conditions for migrant workers, as well as decent housing and protection from illegal recruitment, trafficking and prostitution. It also aims to aid migrant workers from any association member-country that may be caught in a conflict outside the region.

Brion allayed fears of protesters, mainly former and would-be domestic helpers abroad, as well as recruiters, in the government's direction towards better standards, welfare, and protection for working Filipino women abroad.

"We want to see improvements on the matter of the salaries of our DHs abroad, which had gone down to the $200 level, and if we do not address the situation, this could deteriorate further as reports we have received indicate," Brion said.

Data from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) indicate that about 80 percent of welfare cases involved women working as DHs overseas.

Brion also bared that DHs comprised some 90,000, or less than 10 percent, of the total 1.083 million OFWs deployed globally in 2006. "This means that other skilled OFWs comprise the majority of our global deployment, and the government is sensitive that the abuses and ill-treatment of OFWs in the lower end jobs, like DHs, be pushed back or are eliminated through better conditions."

"Without such, the illegal recruitment of vulnerable DHs for perilous jobs abroad can only be fueled on such deteriorating pay and other onerous conditions." - Wenna A. Berondo