Migrant workers deserve to be rewarded, not exploited
The Universe
(September 10, 2006)
The seven million Filipino migrant workers that sacrifice simple love and joys of their families just to work abroad in difficult, hardworking low paid jobs are the heroes of the Philippines.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told a news conference that they are "our greatest export, the backbone of the new global work force." They send back officially about ten billion dollars every year and another estimated four billion is sent back through friends to avoid the pilfering of corrupt government and bank officials.
The government survives on their earnings. Yet when the bombing began in Lebanon, the billions of pesos in the overseas workers’ assistance fund that the Philippine government took off the workers in departure and placement fees was no where to be found to help evacuate them.
Governments of developed countries have to cope with
the influx of illegal migrants by the thousand. Some are compassionate
and kind, others harsh and cruel. One Australian politician concerned
for the migrants criticized the iron- fisted anti-migration policy of
his country and said Jesus and the Holy Family would be turned away if
they arrived in Australia today.
According to government statistics, every year about 700,000 Filipinos,
most of them women, leave for to work in 181 nations around the globe.
There are 2.5 million Filipinos working in the United States, but most overseas workers are now employed in the thriving economies of Asia, while sadly the Philippines’ economy is almost stagnant.
The Philippines’ wealth is scoped up by greedy politicians and corrupt corporations and smuggled abroad. Without hope that this system will change, Filipinos educate themselves, develop skills and seek a decent wage abroad.
The unskilled go, too, in huge numbers, and children as young a 12 are exported out of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines and other poor provinces.
Many become victims of human trafficking and are sold into slavery as domestic helpers, caregivers and factory workers, or sold as teenage brides to old men. They are threatened with imprisonment for unpayable debts created by traffickers and gang masters. Some are forced or tricked into prostitution.
Fr. Bobby Gilmore, a Columban father who worked for many years in the Philippines and in England, founded the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland. He and Siobhan O’Donoghue have helped many migrants in Ireland who have been cheated, exploited, alienated and abused.
A young women and her friend saved from prostitution in Hong Kong by Fr Jim Mulroney came to visit me in Olongapo city at the Preda human rights Center and told me of her miraculous escape. “If it were not for Father Jim, I would be still trafficked in the sex industry“, she told me. She and her friend were lured to work in Hong Kong but were trapped, exploited and cheated. Their only way out was to become prostitutes but refused, escaped and found Father Jim who gave them shelter, protection and an air ticket back to the Philippines. Thousands more are victimized in this evil and ugly trade in humans.
We all have to recognize that migrant workers make invaluable contributions to the economies of receiving nations.
They must be treated with respect and dignity .They are not expendable throwaway parts to be handed cancelled contracts and deported when used, worn out and exploited to the last drop of their energy. They are not economic slaves hired to make the lives of the rich happier and healthier and then rejected. They have a moral right to a decent life. It is to the benefit of all that they are welcomed and helped to integrate and belong to the society they helped build. That is true Christianity. [End]
