The conviction recently by the Kuwait’s Supreme Court of OFW Jakatia Pawa and its affirmation of death sentence have raised once again recurring issues concerning both the travails that OFWs have to go through in their ventures overseas and the nagging question on the role of government vis-à-vis Filipino Migrant Workers who are facing criminal prosecution for murders and other capital offenses abroad.
Pawa, a Muslim Filipino domestic worker from Mindanao was charged of stabbing to death her employer’s 22-year-old daughter on 14 May 2007. She was arrested, charged, tried and was found guilty by the lower court.
All the way, from arrest to affirmation of the death sentence, the Philippine government through the Ambassador, the Labor Attache’, the Welfare officer and all Embassy staff assisted in the defense. But the High Court insisted nonetheless to impose the Capital penalty of death.
OFWS’ travails
Questions are now being asked by OFWs themselves as to why some migrant workers are driven to commit such crimes of passion, like murder of employers and their children. And not too convincing answers are being ventured.
Some would theorize that extreme cruelty and injustice, maltreatment, both physical, emotional and sexual, as well as other inhuman work conditions like being made to work for 16 to 18 hours without adequate food and rest would naturally put the DH in very difficult psychological conditions. Such conditions may, by passion or obfuscation, lead the OFWs to kill, if subjected to sufficient provocations.
This column would thus recommend a through scientific study and a well-researched analysis of these conditions by the authorities, with the end in view of stopping altogether the sending of DHs to countries that do not guarantee basic human rights and adequate safety nets for foreign workers, like the OFWs.