The Philippine Labor Secretary said that trading and switching of foreign household workers known as "Kafala" is a common practice in Saudi Arabia where in the Kingdom about more than 1.2 Million Filipinos are working. He said that the Philippine would impose the same deployment restrictions it applied to Kuwait if Saudi Arabia does not strengthen its protection of Filipino workers.
Under the "Kafala" or Sponsorship system, the Saudi Citizen employer or sponsor has the complete control over the mobility of the migrant worker. A foreign worker for instance, cannot quit work or transfer jobs without first obtaining the consent of his employer, which practically places the worker at the mercy of his employer.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the biggest employer of Filipino workers, who make up the fourth largest group of foreigners and who are the second largest source of remittances to the Philippines.
As part of the Philippine Government move to improve protection for Filipino Workers, the Department of Labor of the Philippines sent a team to the Middle East to assess conditions and provide immediate assistance and recommend actions to deal with the situation.
As per the Department of Labor Secretary of the Philippines, the report from the assistance team sent in Middle East will be a reliable basis for the amendment or enhancement of existing bilateral labor agreements with Arab countries to provide better protection for Filipino Workers. He said, if there is an existing bilateral labor agreement but there are still rampant cases of maltreatment, then maybe we need to amend the agreement.
The Philippine President's minimum demand is only to deploy countries where Filipino Workers are properly and effectively protected.
Source: Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard
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