tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-132375052024-03-08T07:19:27.845+08:00Migrants News MonitorCreated by the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), a regional migrants centre committed for the protection and promotion of migrants rights and wellbeing in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-34997460321570012312008-07-12T17:28:00.000+08:002008-07-12T17:32:17.063+08:00Maids Not Aware Of Their Rights And Contract Terms In Bahrain: Unionisthttp://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011580240<br />July 11, 2008 6:15 p.m. EST <br /><br />Sandeep Singh Grewal - AHN Middle East Correspondent<br /><br />Manama, Bahrain (AHN) - Being a maid here equals money troubles and misery. That sums up what many domestic workers go through after they leave their countries to earn a better living for their families, according to a union official.<br /><br />Bahrain, like many other Gulf Cooperation Council states, is heavily dependent on maids. Almost every household has housemaids, an essential commodity in the country's changing lifestyles. Maids are supplied by local recruitment agencies at a fixed price stipulated in the contract. But a leader in a union that represents many foreign workers says that the terms of the contract are violated, as the agencies illegally take three months of advance salaries of the maids from their sponsors without informing them.<br /><br />Suad Mubarak, assistant general secretary of women and child affairs at the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU), told AHN, "I was shock to come across an Ethiopian maid who was crying when she was told that she had to work for free for the next three months or risk losing her new job. The agencies cannot take advance salary from the maids who are eagerly waiting in vain for their pay at the end of the month."<br /><br />The unionist took the case to the Ministry of Labor, which said the advance salary practice was illegal.<br /><br />"These agencies exploit the maids by pressuring them to work against their wish and warn them to send them to their country," Mubarak said. "The maids in Bahrain are unaware of their contract terms and they continue to suffer as returning home is not an option. Sponsors should not support recruitment agencies by refusing to pay them the salaries."<br /><br />Mubarak said what was more disturbing was cases where domestic help of some nationalities were excluded from the practice.<br /><br />"This is clearly a case of discrimination. They take advance salary from families who select a maid from certain nationality, but on the other hand they do not open their mouth when a maid is from another country," the unionist said.<br /><br />Mubarak said the GFBTU represents all workers whether Bahraini or non-Bahraini and works for their welfare. Activists have been lobbying for years to include domestic workers in the Bahrain labor law. A bill now being considered in parliament does not include housemaids.<br /><br />That situation may soon change. The Labor Market Regulatory Authority, a government body mandated to issue work visas, regulate and control manpower licences, recruiting agencies, employment offices and business practices of self-sponsored expatriates, and Ministry of Labor officials have said there would be a separate law to address the plight of foreign maids. The law is due to be discussed after the summer break and is expected to be enacted this year.<br /><br />"A temporary mechanism to protect the rights of these workers should be enacted immediately," Mubarak said. "They should have medical insurance, compulsory day off and other privileges which is not a demand but a right of every worker. Expatriate welfare bodies and associations should join hands to push for enacting this mechanisms till the law is approved."<br /><br />Marietta Dias, a noted migrant's welfare volunteer, has said that 50 percent of domestic workers had no clue what was the nature of their job. "Women from the interiors of the country who have not even seen a refrigerator come here to work as housemaid and face cultural shock. They do not know what to do and run away from their employers within a month."<br /><br />Dias heads the action committee of the Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS), which runs a temporary shelter for abused women and victims of human trafficking here. She said in the past three years they have repatriated 250 women to their respective countries.<br /><br />"These were cases of nonpayment of salaries, rape and mental abuse," Dias said.<br /><br />Bahrain earlier this year signed a Memorandum of Understanding with India and Sri Lanka to ensure protection and welfare of the workers. India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka are the main countries supplying domestic workers in the Gulf States.<br /><br />In recent times, the sending countries have taken initiatives to protect their countrymen. India has set a mandatory security deposit of $2,500 in the form of bank guarantees at the Indian missions of the destination countries. The Philippines has implemented a $400 minimum wage for its nationals working as domestics in the GCC.<br /><br />According to reports, the Bahrain Recruiters Society (BRS) said the average Bahraini household can only pay $160 to $200 monthly to foreign housemaids - a wage that the foreign governments will no longer accept, particularly with the rise of their currencies over the past year.<br /><br />The Bahrain government conducted a five-month general amnesty for illegal workers to legalize their situation that ended Jan. 31. According to official statistics, a total of 12,977 people left the country, of which 507 were housemaids.<br /><br />The total population of the kingdom in 2007 was 1,046,000, of which 517,000 were non-Bahrainis.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-63976143932469563482008-07-10T23:26:00.000+08:002008-07-10T23:28:59.391+08:00Foreign labor policy to remain unchanged for a while: CLAhttp://www.chinapost.com.tw/print/164784.htm<br /><br />Thursday, July 10, 2008<br />The China Post news staff<br /><br />TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday decided to keep its existing foreign labor employment policies for a while, but it will revise laws to allow foreign workers to enjoy a maximum stay of three years in Taiwan for every legal entry, a top CLA official said yesterday.<br /><br />Pan Shih-wei, vice chairman of the CLA, announced the decision reached during the first foreign labor policy consulting panel meeting held by the CLA after the new government took office on May 20.<br /><br />Pan said that the pay for foreign workers will remain hooked to the basic monthly labor wage, lest the foreign labor market should become out of control and undermine the benefits of domestic workers. Pan stressed that foreign workers can hardly replace domestic ones.<br /><br />During the meeting, the consulting panel also rejected a request filed by the Chinese National Federation of Industries to allow the construction industry to introduce more foreign workers, on grounds that the jobless rate registered by domestic construction workers has remained high.<br /><br />Meanwhile, whether the ratio of foreign workers employed to serve at the so-called "3K" industries will be boosted further from the existing 20 percent will not be determined until the end of the year, when the Bureau of Employment & Vocational Training will release a feasibility study report on the issue.<br /><br />The so-called "3K' industries refer to the "kitsui, kitanai and kiken" industries, based on Japanese spellings for "hard, dirty and dangerous" jobs.<br /><br />In addition, the ratio of alien labor allowed to take jobs for those investment projects valued at over NT$10 billion each will remain unchanged at the current range of 20 percent to 40 percent.<br /><br />The only good news for foreign workers is that the CLA will amend the Employment & Services Law to extend the maximum stay of any foreign worker by one year to reach three years for each of their legal entries.<br /><br />Immediately after taking office on May 20, Jennifer Ju-hsuan Wang, chairwoman of the CLA, did say that her CLA would soon move to review all the existing foreign labor policies.<br /><br />Accordingly, local enterprises expected to get some positive responses to their calls for relaxing restrictions on employment of foreign workers during the consulting panel meeting. But local labor groups insisted that now that domestic jobless rate lingers at a high level, and as commodity price inflation pressure intensifies, it is inappropriate for the government here to ease entry for foreign workers.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-75337466002097803992008-01-14T16:45:00.000+08:002008-01-14T16:47:18.689+08:00Congress oversight of OWWA funds sought01/13/2008 | 04:07 PM <br /><br />http://www.gmanews.tv/story/76307/Bulatlat-Congress-oversight-of-OWWA-funds-sought<br />http://www.bulatlat.com/2008/01/congress-oversight-owwa-funds-sought<br /><br /><br />BY AUBREY MAKILAN, BULATLAT<br /><br />A migrant group supported a senator's call for congressional oversight of the P10 billion ($246,305,418 at an exchange rate of $1=P40.60) Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) funds - which is being sourced from membership fees levied on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) - to avoid misuse and prevent the repeat of the $25 membership fee overbilling.<br /><br />Oversight<br /><br />Senate President Manny Villar has called for "stringent oversight" of the P10-billion OWWA funds to ensure that it is used properly and to avoid "lapses" such as the recent overbilling of the $25 fee collected from each departing worker.<br /><br />The supposed overcharging of OFW membership fee of $25 was reportedly implemented by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA). The overcharging emanated from the computation of the POEA, which based the fees to be collected on an exchange rate of P51 to $1. Senate President Manuel Villar Jr questioned this and said the fees should be based on the prevailing exchange rate of P41 to $1, thus, amounting to only P1, 025 instead of the current P1, 275 being collected. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said that it reduced the membership fee being collected from OFWs to P1, 044 since January 1, 2008. This, they said, is based on the preceding month's average peso-dollar exchange rate.<br /><br />"We have to make sure that the fund for overseas workers really works for the improvement of the conditions of our OFWs," said Villar, noting that a system that could check its performance should be in place.<br /><br />Villar’s proposal is being supported by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK). Unifil-HK chairperson Dolores Balladares said that their money in the OWWA should go through serious scrutiny and that the "plundering" of their money must stop.<br /><br />The Senator said that the OWWA is classified as a government corporation with a budget outside congressional budget review.<br /><br />"The President, for all her powers, has to go to Congress for money but OWWA with all membership contributions coming from OFWs is exempt (from going through Congressional budget allocations)," he said. "It can allocate and spend its own money without congressional authorization."<br /><br />The Senate President said that the OWWA funds, at the least, should pass congressional scrutiny like in the case of the National Power Corporation, also a government corporation. The NPC submits its budget to Congress even if the latter does not approve it, he said.<br /><br />"This way we will have an idea and it becomes part of public record how much of every peso OWWA earns goes to direct services to OFWs and how much goes to overhead expenses, "he said.<br /><br />Anomalies?<br /><br />But aside from the congressional review, migrant group Unifil-HK also called for the scrapping of the OWWA Omnibus Policies. The policy implemented in 2003, said migrant leader Balladares, "further constricted the funds allocated to the welfare of Filipino migrant workers while, at the same time, strengthening the stranglehold of the government to the funds." She added that the OWWA Omnibus Policies implemented a mandatory per contract collection of membership fee, suspended programs such as the General Financial Assistance Program, and gave the president the opportunity to place more of her people inside the agency governing board.<br /><br />"The OWWA Omnibus Policies was created for the sole reason of increasing the collection of OWWA and giving freer rein for GMA to dip her hands into the fund, she said, noting that the policy never included provisions to improve services to OFWs who had to go through numerous loops to get assistance from this office.<br /><br />Balladares said that almost P1 billion ($24,630,541) goes to the OWWA Fund annually but argued that its fund allocation has remained minimal. Worse, she said, the allotment for OFW direct services is greatly overshadowed by its cost of operations.<br /><br />OWWA started as a "welfare and training fund for overseas workers" created by former President Marcos in the late 1970s. It has grown into an agency with total audited assets of P9.95 billion ($245,073,891) as of end 2006. In 2005, it collected P1.258 billion ($30,985,221) from 994,191 about-to-be-deployed workers with the promise that for a $25-fee, a member will receive up to P100, 000 ($2,463) in disability benefits and P200, 000 ($4,926) in accidental death benefits.<br /><br />But Villar said that this year, total payout in insurance benefits reached only P163 million ($4,014,778), an amount dwarfed by OWWA's payroll and operating expenses. The argument for stricter "executive and legislative oversight" of OWWA, he said, was put forward after audit observations made by the Commission on Audit for fiscal year 2006.<br /><br />Balladares noted that only $2 from every $25 that migrant workers pay is allocated to direct services to OFWs, while the big chunk of the money goes to operational expenses, controversial investments and unaudited appropriations, citing the Smokey Mountain Rehabilitation Project and the Middle East Preparedness Team funds for the evacuation of Filipinos from Iraq that allegedly never happened.<br /><br />Balladares also said that the transfer of the OWWA Medicare Fund to PhilHealth was also anomalous. In February 2003, she said, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order 182 ordering the transfer following a letter by then PhilHealth president Francisco Duque allegedly saying that the transfer will have a significant bearing on the 2004 elections.<br /><br />"The government's handling of the OWWA fund stinks to high heavens and must be addressed as soon as possible," she said.<br /><br />In the proposed congressional review of the OFW money, Unifil-HK encouraged the Congress to involve OFW groups in uncovering the alleged "mismanagement and misappropriation of the OWWA Fund and eventually, in instituting reforms in the OWWA that can genuinely benefit OFWs," such as a system of check and balance in the management of the OWWA fund and placing more OFW representatives recommended by OFW organizations to the OWWA board of trustees.<br /><br />Negligence<br /><br />Aside from the possible misappropriations, Villar said, uncaring foreign post personnel also aggravate the plight of distressed OFWs.<br /><br />Villar called for the identification and punishment of embassy and consular officials and personnel who refuse assistance or display incompetence in extending help to Filipinos, which further aggravates the condition of distressed OFWs around the world.<br /><br />The Senate President received a letter from the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) accusing some members of the diplomatic corps of bad attitude, negligence and incompetence in attending to the cases of Filipino migrant workers in distress.<br /><br />CMA cited the case of Teresita Santos, a sewer who was gang raped in August 2005 by five Saudi nationals. The perpetrators were found guilty and were sentenced to four years of imprisonment and 500 lashes each. But Santos accused Philippine consulate personnel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia of depriving her of proper legal advice that allegedly almost caused her to lose her case.<br /><br />In a letter-complaint submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Santos said it was only through the help of fellow OFWs that she was able to file a case against her perpetrators. Moreover, she accused Assistance to Nationals personnel of blocking the hearings.<br /><br />Villar also cited the case of Julian Camat, Hermilo Ramos and Napoleon Fabregas, who worked for a cargo handling company in Jeddah. They were sentenced by a Saudi court to one and a half years of imprisonment for stealing computers in January, 2003. But, Villar said, the three actually served four years and four months in detention because of the alleged negligence of the Consulate General in Jeddah.<br /><br />"The seeming insensitiveness and indifference of a number of our diplomatic and consular officials and personnel have been reported and they are destroying the image and dignity of a larger, more committed, devoted and excellent public servants in foreign service," Villar said.<br /><br />CMA also presented the case of Esnaira Angin, a Muslim woman from Maguindanao, who was one of the four OFWs in Dubai whose house was broken into by three Emirati and one Omani national in November, 2005. She was stabbed on her chest and back while trying to resist her attackers. Angin, an undocumented OFW, said she sought the help of the Assistant Labor Attache for her repatriation to the Philippines before the incident took place but was allegedly denied help and shelter at the labor office because she lacked money to pay the necessary fees.<br /><br />"The mindset and thinking of our corps of foreign service must be changed to realize that their existence in countries where they are detailed and stationed is a gift to our citizens, particularly the OFWs. They must show compassion, which OFWs richly deserve," Villar asserted.<br /><br />With these reports, Villar filed Proposed Resolution No. 248, urging the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to conduct an inquiry on allegations of bad attitude, negligence and incompetence in handling cases of distressed OFWs by some Philippine embassy and consular personnel stationed in various countries.<br /><br />He also filed Senate Bill 1879, which seeks to amend Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995. SB 1879 seeks to impose penalties on Philippine consular officials and other government personnel who fail to act on complaints of, or to give assistance or render service to migrant workers, their families and overseas Filipinos in distress.<br /><br />"Over a decade after its enactment, RA 8042 has not entirely lived up to its intended purpose," said Villar, noting that Filipinos abroad continue to suffer under abusive employers, inhumane working conditions and various human rights violations.<br /><br />Under SB 1879, officials and personnel who fail or refuse to render service and/or assistance will be punished with suspension from office of not less than 30 days to dismissal from the service with forfeiture of retirement and other benefits depending on the gravity of the offense, and shall be disqualified from holding any other government office in the future.<br /><br />Villar has earlier filed Proposed Resolution No. 189 urging the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment and Foreign Relations to conduct an urgent omnibus inquiry on the plight of detained Filipino workers in various countries in order to formulate remedial measure and devise a package of assistance to protect OFWs.<br /><br />"An assessment of the legal and social remedies being afforded by our embassies and consular offices to our kababayans (countrymen) detained abroad for various offenses is imperative to ascertain sufficiency of assistance for the protection of OFWs," said the Senate President. - BulatlatMigrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-71133933230845609572008-01-13T15:43:00.000+08:002008-01-13T15:45:34.162+08:00DUE TO STRONG PESO: OFWS LOSE P700 PER $100 REMITTED10 January 2008<br />IBON<br /><br />The strengthening peso has resulted in a sharp cut in overseas Filipino <br />workers’ (OFWs) incomes, costing them over P700 per $100 remitted, <br />according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.<br /><br />From January to December 2007, the exchange rate of the peso to the <br />dollar has strengthened by almost fifteen percent. This means that over <br />the period, the family of an OFW who remitted $100 in January were able <br />to exchange it for P4,891. By December this had fallen to P4,174 or a <br />decline of P717.<br /><br />Such a reduction is especially painful given the increasing prices of <br />basic goods and services in the country. For example, from January to <br />November 2007 the cost of an 11-kg liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) <br />cylinder increased by P76.94 to almost P600. Manila Water also recently <br />implemented a rate hike that will cost consumers who consume 30 cubic <br />meters per month an additional P60 on their bills.<br /><br />“Overseas workers were forced to tighten their belts and remit more of <br />their income to make up for the lost value,” said IBON research head <br />Sonny Africa. Monthly remittances grew 26% from P1.1 billion in January <br />to P1.4 billion in October.<br /><br />The strengthening peso and its effect on OFWs’ incomes reveals the folly <br />of the government’s labor export policy and its continuing reliance on <br />migrant workers’ remittances. (end)Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-2618674613593303032007-11-02T22:02:00.000+08:002007-11-02T22:03:32.988+08:00Migration no guarantee out of rural poverty -WBISAGANI DE LA PAZ, OFW Journalism Consortium<br />11/02/2007 | 03:36 PM <br />http://www.gmanews.tv/story/66919/Migration-no-guarantee-out-of-rural-poverty--WB <br /><br />MANILA – Contrary to popular beliefs, migration, despite the volume of money it brings, has neither brought rural folks out of poverty nor is it a sure fire way for farm people to clamber aboard the prosperity wagon.<br /><br />“Where migration is more or less permanent, income from migration depends on the success of the migrant and the reason for migration. So migration is not a guaranteed pathway out of poverty," the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development said in its recently released report, debunking several myths on agricultural development.<br /><br />The Washington, United States-headquartered IBRD, popularly known as The World Bank, cited in its 386-page report that “despite massive rural-urban migration, rural poverty will remain dominant for several more decades in Asia."<br /><br />The bank’’s World Development Report 2008 that focused on identifying ways for governments to lift some 600 million rural people from extreme poverty has said that while this has been achieved, it is not due to migration.<br /><br />“More than 80 percent of the decline in rural poverty is attributable to better conditions in rural areas rather than to out-migration of the poor," the report titled “Agriculture for Development" said.<br /><br />“So, contrary to common perceptions, migration to cities has not been the main instrument for rural (and world) poverty reduction," it added.<br /><br />In fact, authors of the World Bank report noted that out-migration of people from rural areas has even contributed to the constant rate of poverty rate in cities.<br /><br />The report, released October 19, noted that while the poverty rate of US$1-a-day has been declining in developing countries –from 28 percent in 1993 to 22 percent in 2002- , this “has been mainly the result of falling rural poverty (from 37 percent to 29 percent) while the urban poverty rate remained nearly constant (at 13 percent)."<br /><br />The report also noted that during the period under study, 1993-2002, there was an 81-percent reduction in rural poverty worldwide. But this is “ascribed to improved conditions in rural areas; migration accounted for only 19 percent of the reduction."<br /><br />Migration, the report said, “lifts some of the rural poor out of poverty but takes others to urban slums and continued poverty." <br /><br />Notional<br /><br />Even remittances from abroad are downplayed by the report on contributing to national poverty rate declines.<br /><br />While the report acknowledges that there are “indirect effects of urbanization on rural poverty through remittances and rural wage changes," this is “through tighter rural labor markets."<br />But this argument, the report’s authors said, has a conservative but unlikely assumption: all rural-urban migrants are poor.<br /><br />The bank computed migration’s contribution to rural poverty reduction using the US$2.15 poverty line rather than the US$1.08 extreme poverty line “because it is unrealistic to think that all migrants are extremely poor."<br /><br />Even so, using the same assumption that all those who migrate are poor, the report noted that reduction in rural poverty would still hit 81 percent, “not to migration." <br /><br />“Indeed, almost all the decline in South Asia and East Asia is because of a genuine decline in poverty in rural areas. Even when China is excluded from the sample, 67 percent of the reduction in rural poverty is from causes other than migration," the report said.<br /><br />According to data compiled by the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (Imdi), there is no direct correlation between the number of Filipinos going overseas for temporary or permanent work and stay, and the poverty incidence levels.<br /><br />For example, the National Capital Region, composed of more than a dozen cities, has posted a 4.3-percent poverty incidence level in 2003. In an eight-year period beginning 1998, almost a million overseas Filipinos came from this region.<br /><br />However, the data that the nonprofit group Imdi compiled couldn't cite if these Filipinos just used the NCR as temporary residence prior to going overseas or which rural area they came from if they, indeed, migrated from farm villages.<br /><br />It is difficult to determine so since the NCR is the reservoir of major government agencies processing the export of Filipino labor as well as the receptacle for the air travel and remittance industries.<br /><br />Likewise, despite Davao del Sur, for example, posting a 24-percent poverty incidence rate and having recorded 55,117 Filipino migrants, Batanes island posted only a 9.2-percent poverty incidence level despite only 72 of its residents having left that fishing and farming province that’s the tip of the Philippines.<br /><br />Another example is Pampanga, President Gloria Arroyo's home province, which posted a six-percent poverty incidence level. It is second to the NCR for having the most number of Filipino migrants at 125,226. Compare this to Pangasinan, home province of former President Fidel V. Ramos, which had 111,029 of its citizens migrating in the eight-year period ending 2005. Still the province posted a poverty incidence level of 18.6 percent, more than double neighboring Pampanga’s.<br /><br />With the exception of Batanes, 14 provinces have poverty incidence levels above the national average of 25.7 percent. <br /><br />“The high poverty levels of these provinces can perhaps explain why citizens from these areas cannot easily migrate overseas," the Imdi scoping study on migrant philanthropy released last August said. <br /><br />Impacts<br /><br />Even the World Bank report admits it is difficult to establish migration’s direct impact on rural poverty reduction levels.<br /><br />“Migration can be a climb up the income ladder for well-prepared, skilled workers, or it can be a simple displacement of poverty to the urban environment for others," the report noted.<br /><br />The report also cited that while remittances from migrants back to the farm household “can relax capital and risk constraints, the relationship between migration and agricultural productivity," for one, is “complex."<br /><br />“The (temporary) absence of household members reduces the agricultural labor supply. Agricultural productivity can therefore fall in the short run but rise in the long run as households with migrants shift to less labor intensive, but possibly equally profitable, crops or livestock," the report said.<br /><br />Remittances, the report noted, “often drastically change the composition of the rural population" and “can pose (their) own challenges for rural development, because migration is selective."<br /><br />“Those who leave are generally younger, better educated, and more skilled. Migration thus can diminish entrepreneurship and education level among the remaining population," the report said.<br /><br />Likewise, the report cited there are evidence suggesting migration “is most accessible for the wealthiest and best educated of the rural population, as moving requires means to pay for transportation and education to find a good job."<br /><br />“Moreover, better-educated migrants are the most likely to have a successful migration outcome," the report added. <br /><br />It particularly cited the Philippines as having more female migrants to urban areas faring better than the less-educated males.<br /><br />The report estimated some 575 million people migrated from rural to urban areas in developing countries over the past 25 years.<br /><br />Of these, it said, “400 million lived in transforming countries, where migration flows increased to almost 20 million a year between 2000 and 2005."<br /><br />Migration flows as a share of the rural population have been traditionally highest in urbanized economies, but they have fallen over 2000–05 to an annual rate of 1.25 percent. In transforming and agriculture-based economies, the annual flow of out-migration steadily increased to 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent of the rural population, respectively.<br /><br />The report also noted that international migration out of rural areas is male-dominated in Ecuador and Mexico, but female-dominated in the Dominican Republic, Panama, and the Philippines. - OFW Journalism Consortium<br /><br /><br />Note: To download the complete World Development Report 2008, go to this link: http://siteresoruces.worldbank.org/INTWDR2008/Resources/2795087-1192111580172/WDROver2008-ENG.pdfMigrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-85694496733176762002007-10-22T22:11:00.000+08:002007-10-22T22:16:05.736+08:00RP is 4th largest recipient of overseas remittances in Asia - UN10/22/2007 | 03:52 PM <br /><br />The Philippines ranked as fourth top recipient of overseas remittances in Asia, receiving $14.65 billion in 2006, a United Nations report showed.<br /><br />The report, released in time for the Oct 19 opening of the International Forum on Remittances in Washington DC, said the $14.65 billion remittances sent to the Philippines was based on "a conservative estimate."<br /><br />The amount includes the $12.8 billion remittances coursed through the banks, as reported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, plus OFW earnings sent through informal channels such as door-to-door delivery.<br /><br />The report titled, "Sending money home: Worldwide remittances to developing countries" by the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) listed India on top of the list, receiving $24.5 billion, followed by Mexico with $24.2 billion and China with $21 billion. <br /><br />Russia, with $13.7 billion, ranked next to the Philippines.<br /><br />Lower remittance charges<br /><br />The report prompted Sen. Loren Legarda, chairman of the Senate committee on economic affairs, urged the government to “quickly draw up and execute a roadmap toward purposely driving down excessive remittances charges."<br /><br />"We have to consciously bring down burdensome remittance fees. This is the single most efficient way for us to truly make full economic use of remittance inflows," Legarda said.<br /><br />The senator lamented that migrant workers spend a staggering total of up to $1.72 billion every year to pay for remittance fees, or 13.5 percent of the $12.8 billion that they sent home through banks in 2006.<br /><br />Legarda said her estimate was based on a study by the International Monetary Fund, which pegged at 13.5 percent the average transaction cost of remittances to the Philippines, with OFWs paying anywhere from $15 to $26 in transfer fees for a typical $200-remittance.<br /><br />"If we reduce by half the amount spent by OFWs to pay for remittance charges, this would easily translate into an additional $860-million worth of inflows every year. This is a lot of extra money coursed through the pockets of their families here and the economy," she said.<br /><br />Remittances, the bulk of which go to poor families in the rural areas, could contribute to prosperity in the countryside, according to the IFAD report.<br /><br />The IFAD is a special UN international financial institution dedicated to fighting poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. - GMANews.TVMigrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-29311180939508341042007-08-13T10:05:00.000+08:002007-08-13T10:08:00.277+08:00Asia's labor force to grow by 200 million, says ILOAgence France-Presse<br />Last updated 08:20am (Mla time) 08/13/2007<br /><br />http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id=82183<br /><br />GENEVA -- Asia's economies face the challenge of finding jobs for an extra 200 million workers between now and 2015, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report out Monday.<br /><br />It said the region will have its work cut out to improve the quality of jobs on offer and ensure the benefits of Asia's future economic growth are distributed more evenly as the labor force, currently 1.8 billion, increases.<br /><br />"One thing is clear: doing business as usual is not sustainable over the long term," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "Asia is experiencing unprecedented growth and development.<br /><br />"At the same time, vulnerabilities arising from environmental pressures, economic insecurity, shortcomings in governance and unequal income distribution pose a threat to the region's future development."<br /><br />"Visions for Asia's Decent Work Decade: Sustainable Growth and Jobs to 2015", has been presented to an ILO Asian Employment Forum in Beijing running from Monday to Wednesday.<br /><br />Government representatives, trade unionists and employers from some 20 countries in Asia and the Pacific will attend.<br /><br />The report said the service economy would be the main source of new jobs and by 2015 would have become the biggest single sector employer, representing about 40.7 percent of the region's jobs.<br /><br />It also predicted the share of industrial jobs would rise from 23.1 percent of the total jobs market in 2006 to 29.4 percent in 2015.<br /><br />By contrast, agricultural jobs would by 2015 have declined to 29.4 percent of the market from 42.6 percent, said the report.<br /><br />And that trend from rural to urban jobs would create greater wage inequalities between the classes of workers, part of a broader wage gulf between the extremely poor and other workers.<br /><br />In fact the report identified the problem of the working poor -- those living on less than two US dollars (1.5 euros) a day -- as one of the major challenges facing the region.<br /><br />More than one billion -- 61.9 percent of the workforce -- still worked in the informal "black" economy with little or no social protection.<br /><br />While this was down from 67.2 of the workforce a decade earlier, it was still a cause for concern, said the report, especially since it was not expected to fall much further by 2015.<br /><br />The report identified a number of other challenges facing the region including: <br />-- an ageing labor force, which in some countries meant that as many as one in four people would be over 65 by 2015; <br />-- increasing migration that would see millions of workers quitting Asia in search of jobs; <br />-- the inability of wage growth to keep pace with labour productivity in some countries; <br />-- long working hours becoming the norm in many parts of Asia.<br /><br />"Meeting the challenges facing the region will require far-sighted thinking and careful planning," said Somavia.<br /><br />"We all need to work together to make globalization and economic growth more inclusive."Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-43058201729885535112007-07-31T21:48:00.000+08:002007-07-31T21:50:49.892+08:00Filipino workers in Iraq deceived, abused - reportFilipino workers in Iraq deceived, abused - report<br />07/27/2007 | 05:58 PM <br /><br />Filipino workers promised jobs in Dubai hotels were deceptively recruited and trafficked to Iraq for a massive US Embassy construction project in Baghdad, two former American civilian contractors of a Kuwaiti company testified at the US Congress on Thursday.<br /><br />The foreign workers, including Filipinos, experienced physical abuse and substandard working conditions, said John Owens, an American citizen who worked for First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co. as a construction foreman for six months.<br /><br />The Kuwaiti firm was awarded the $592-million contract for the construction of the US Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. This was said to be the largest US diplomatic mission in the world.<br /><br />“Conditions there were deplorable, beyond what even a working man should tolerate," Owens said in his testimony before the House committee on oversight and government reform on allegations of waste, fraud and abuse in the construction project.<br /><br />“Foreign workers were packed in trailers tight. There was insufficient equipment and basic needs – stuff like shoes and gloves. If a construction worker needed a new pair of shoes, he was told, ‘No, do with what you have’ by First Kuwaiti managers," Owens said based on a transcript of the congressional proceedings.<br /><br />“The contract for these workers said they had to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week, with some time off on Friday for prayers," he said.<br /><br />Rory J. Malberry, also an American who worked as emergency medical technician at the embassy site under a subcontract, said First Kuwaiti managers asked him to escort 51 Filipinos through the Kuwait airport and onto a flight to Baghdad.<br /><br />“I was given my flight information to Baghdad. At this time, First Kuwaiti managers asked me to escort 51 Filipino nationals to the Kuwaiti airport and make sure they got on the same flight that I was taking to Baghdad. Many of these Filipinos did not speak any English," he told US congressmen.<br /><br />"I wanted to help them make sure they got on their flight OK, just as my managers had asked. We were all employees of the same company after all. But when we got to the Kuwait airport, I noticed that all of our tickets said we were going to Dubai. I asked why? The Kuwaiti manager told me that because Filipino passports do not allow Filipinos to fly to Iraq, they must be marked as going to Dubai," Malberry said.<br /><br />Washington Post reported on Friday that US State Department officials disputed the testimonies of Owens and Malberry. <br /><br />It quoted Howard J. Krongard, the State Department’s inspector general in charge of investigating the project, saying that he conducted a “limited review" on the conditions of foreign laborers at the construction site in Baghdad and did not find reasons to substantiate the claims. <br /><br />The inspector general of the US-led military force in Iraq also conducted inquiries, he said.<br /><br />“Nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe that trafficking-in-persons violations or other serious abuses occurred at the construction workers’ camp at the new embassy compound," Krongard told the committee.<br /><br />The Filipinos worked at the embassy construction site with laborers from India, Pakistan and Sierra Leone. <br /><br />Malberry said he had read Krongard’s report. “It's not worth the paper it's printed on. This is a cover-up. I'm glad that I have this opportunity to set the record straight," he told the committee.<br /><br />Malberry said the workers were told they would be working in hotels in Dubai, not in Baghdad.<br />According to him, the First Kuwaiti managers even instructed him specifically not to tell the Filipinos they were being taken to Baghdad.<br /><br />“As I found out later, these men thought they had signed up to work in Dubai hotels. One fellow I met told me in broken English that he was excited to start his new job as a telephone repair man. They had no idea they were being sent to do construction work on the US embassy," Malberry said.<br /><br />"Mr. Chairman, when the airplane took off and the captain announced that we were headed for Baghdad, all you-know-what broke lose on that airplane. People started shouting. It wasn't until a security guy working for First Kuwaiti waved an MP-5 in the air that people settled down," he said, addressing Rep. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the oversight committee.<br /><br />"They realized they had no other choice but to go to Baghdad," he said. “Let me spell it out clearly. I believe these men were kidnapped by First Kuwaiti to work on the US Embassy," Malberry said.<br /><br />According to the Washington Post report, the US Department of Justice is also investigating First Kuwaiti’s labor practices, particularly the allegations that foreign workers were brought into Iraq under false pretenses and were unable to leave because the company had confiscated their passports.<br /><br />The Kuwaiti firm was awarded the contract because no US company met the terms for the construction project, the committee was told. Company officials declined the congressional panel’s invitation to testify.<br /><br />The report also said foreign workers came from countries in South Asia and the Philippines because of the difficulty of hiring Iraqis to work inside the heavily fortified Green Zone. <br /><br />In the transcript of Thursday’s proceedings, Malberry testified that he “witnessed" the trafficking of the Filipinos. <br /><br />“When flying from Kuwait to Baghdad, I saw a bunch of workers with tickets to Dubai. Mine was the only one that’s for Baghdad. When I asked the First Kuwaiti manager, he said, ‘Shhh, don’t say anything. If the Kuwaiti customs knows they’re going to Iraq, they won’t let them on the plane’," Malberry said.<br /><br />When the plane landed on Baghdad, the workers were then taken away in buses to the construction site. <br /><br />Malberry said First Kuwaiti assigned him as “security liaison, among other tasks" at the construction site although he claimed to have “more experience with building<br />embassies than anybody else on that site."<br /><br />“I think the American people might understand what was going through my head over there as I watched this abusive and unprofessional practice taking place. I kept thinking it would get better. I kept telling myself that it would get better, and after more time had passed and things didn't get any better, I felt so bad all the time and I realized it was time to resign and speak up for those who do not have a voice," he said. <br /><br />Waxman, a Democrat congressman from California, remarked: "It does not help matters that there are only three career State Department officials on site to oversee this massive project. Everyone else is a private contractor." - GMANews.TVMigrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-88589722150604728752007-06-06T17:09:00.000+08:002007-06-06T17:10:31.432+08:00Gulf states threaten to ban Filipino workers05/31/2007 | 10:08 PM <br /><br />The Gulf states -- Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman – may no longer accept Filipino workers unless the Philippine government take steps to clarify its policy imposing $13 daily penalty on foreign employers who would not pay their workers on time and at a minimum of $400 a month.<br /><br />The Committee for Importing Foreign Workers of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) unanimously agreed in a meeting on Thursday to stop importing Filipinos until Philippine labor laws are clarified, Dylan Bowman of Kuwait New Agency reported.<br /><br />GCC, also known as the Cooperation Council of the Arab States in the Gulf, is a trade bloc involving six Arab Gulf states with many economic and social objectives, including the formulation of similar regulations in various fields such as economy, finance, trade, customs, tourism, legislation, and administration.<br /><br />The report acknowledged that the Philippine government raised the minimum salary of its workers overseas was intended to improve the standard of living of its citizens.<br /><br />“Participants agreed to submit this recommendation [to stop importing Filipinos] to the decision-makers in the GCC and expressed hope that this recommendation would be implemented as soon as possible," Abdel-Aziz Al-Ali, head of Kuwait's domestic labor offices, told the Kuwait News Agency.<br /><br />“We understand the important international implications of this issue and we are dealing with it accordingly," Al-Ali said.<br /><br />Based on POEA data, the six GCC member-states employ 435, 190 Filipinos as of December-2006, and this is broken down into: Saudi Arabia – 223, 459; UAE – 99, 212; Kuwait – 47, 917; Qatar – 45, 795; Bahrain – 11, 736; and Oman – 7, 071.<br />Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar are among the top 10 popular destinations of OFWs.<br /><br />The new regulations issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) partially took effect on December 15, 2006, was fully implemented beginning March 1, 2007 pegged the minimum salary for Filipino domestic workers, including stay-in care givers, at $400, up from $200. <br /><br />Foreign employers are also required to sign a declaration stipulating they would pay a fine of around $13 a day if they do not pay their Filipino workers on time, and at the prescribed rate spelled out in the labor contract.<br /><br />The minimum salary regulations are not binding on any of the GCC’s six member states, but if employers do not agree to them then the Filipino government will not process their staff’s contracts, Kuwait News Agency said.<br /><br />Asaad Derbas, head of the Kuwaiti delegation to the meeting of the GCC Committee, said the decision to stop importing Filipinos was taken because the Philippine government “used the issue as a political tool in its recent general election."<br /><br />He said the issue had a negative impact on the countries importing Filipino workers. - GMANews.TVMigrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-32423672187295167802007-06-06T17:08:00.000+08:002007-06-06T17:09:02.302+08:00UAE gives illegal workers 90 days to regularize stay or leave06/05/2007 | 04:08 PM <br /><br />Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us <br />After Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates has also tightened its rules on illegal workers by declaring a three-month amnesty beginning June 4 to allow them to regularize their status or leave the country without paying heavy penalties or being jailed.<br /><br />Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Libran Cabactulan said the embassy was encouraging the illegal Filipinos working in the Gulf state to come out and benefit from the amnesty. The offer, he said, is “with good intentions."<br /><br />Consul General Antonio Curameng in Dubai said he is convening a meeting with consulate officials, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to discuss arrangements, draft necessary guidelines and facilitate the repatriation of the illegal workers.<br /><br />Curameng said the consulate is just awaiting official communication from UAE authorities before disseminating the information to the Filipino community. <br /><br />Undocumented foreign workers in the UAE, including Filipinos, are expected to flock to their embassies and consulates following the decision of the UAE Cabinet to adopt the amnesty program.<br /><br />Saudi Arabia has implemented a two-month amnesty for illegal workers that ended May 31. Kuwait has also followed suit.<br /><br />Corollary to the amnesty program, the UAE Ministry of Justice was also reported to be preparing strict rules that would impose heavy fines on people who shelter illegal immigrants or hire absconding workers. <br /><br />After the UAE government’s announcement of three-month amnesty for illegal residents, airlines are gearing up to meet the possible rush on outbound flights from Dubai.<br /><br />During the last general amnesty in UAE from January 1 to June 30, 2003, nearly 100,000 illegal residents had benefited, according to a report in Khaleej Times. <br /><br />UAE ranks second to Saudi ArabiaMigrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-56185196089445706452007-06-06T17:05:00.000+08:002007-06-06T17:07:56.819+08:00Laborers to Be Informed of Their Rights Through HRC PamphletsRaid Qusti, Arab News <br /> <br />RIYADH, 6 June 2007 — The government-funded Human Rights Commission (HRC) announced here yesterday that it was working with the Labor Ministry to publish pamphlets that would inform laborers of their rights under Saudi law.<br /><br />The aim of the pamphlet is to address concerns that laborers are unaware of the legal mechanisms that are afforded to them in the Kingdom. The pamphlet also aims to spread awareness among employers, informing them of penalties for breaking labor laws and violating workers’ rights.<br /><br />“We are working hard on the issue with the Labor Ministry,” said Muhammad Al-Khunaizan, HRC board member.<br /><br />The official did not mention when the pamphlets would be released, but stated that they were being processed.<br /><br />The Saudi labor sector has seen numerous violations of guest-worker rights, including non-payment of salaries for months or failure of sponsors to provide room and board as agreed upon.<br /><br />A report published by the National Society for Human Rights, another rights body in the Kingdom, suggested that the sponsorship law in the Kingdom be eradicated altogether and the government should step in to fill the role currently held by individual Saudi sponsors.<br /><br />In another development, HRC officials requested the US State Department to publish a booklet or pamphlet printed in Arabic to be given to all Saudi travelers, including students, to the United States.<br /><br />According to HRC officials, the aim of the proposed pamphlet is to “specify the rights of Saudi travelers that would avoid harassment.”<br /><br />The request was made to Erica Barks-Ruggles, deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor. The US official and her accompanying delegation met Turki Al-Sudairi, president of HRC, and several members of the board. This is her fourth visit to the Kingdom and her second this year.<br /><br />Board members also brought to the attention of the visiting official the matter of a Saudi student, Mishaal Al-Rabeah, whose visa was canceled by US immigration authorities on arrival in the US recently.<br /><br />“This is just one of the problems Saudi students face when arriving in the United States. The visa, issued by the US Embassy in Riyadh, was canceled. The error was not on his part,” a board member told the US official.<br /><br />The US official said she was not aware of the incident but would investigate.<br />HRC also announced that Saudi women would be appointed for the first time in its next board reshuffle after three years.<br /><br />“God willing, the next board will have Saudi women,” said Al-Sudairi. “We are currently studying it. And there is a big possibility that it will take place.”<br />He said that as with all new board members, the appointment would come from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.<br /><br />The current board consists of 24 members — 18 full-time members and six part-time members. The president is appointed by the king and has a rank of minister.<br /><br />Al-Sudairi also said that a Saudi woman, a former civil service employee, was hired by HRC to deal with issues related to women in Riyadh.<br /><br />He said part of HRC’s support of Saudi women has recently included the establishment of two women’s sections in HRC offices in the Eastern Province.<br /><br />Among the issues discussed at the meeting between the HRC and the US officials were ways to identify areas of cooperation in the judicial system and commercial sector.<br />The US delegation evinced keen interest in the progress of HRC regarding its human rights awareness campaigns targeted at the people living in the Kingdom. HRC officials, on their part, said that they were doing so “gradually” in the Kingdom, bearing in mind the conservative nature of its people and trying carefully not to make moves that would backfire.<br /><br />The US officials said they were seeking to specify common areas of cooperation in the judicial system.<br /><br />They specified their interest in the development of commercial law in Saudi Arabia, especially after the Kingdom joined the World Trade Organization. They also proposed that a curriculum be established in Saudi universities that would educate students on commercial law.<br /><br />HRC officials and the US delegation also discussed the subject of human traffickingMigrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-27220219406851043792007-04-28T16:46:00.000+08:002007-04-28T16:48:34.929+08:00Sri Lanka Places Restrictions on Recruitment of MaidsMohammed Rasooldeen, Arab News <br /> <br />URL:http://www.arabnews.com/page=1§ion=0&article=95452&d=26&m=4&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom<br /><br />Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama addressing reporters in Riyadh. <br /> <br />RIYADH, 26 April 2007 Sri Lanka has imposed restrictions on the recruitment of housemaids, which includes a total ban on hiring women who have children less than five years of age.<br /><br />Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, who wrapped up a three-day visit to the Kingdom, told reporters yesterday that female domestic workers who have children below five would not be sent abroad as housemaids. his is not only because of their discontented life here but it also creates social problems back home,?he said.<br />Homesickness has been identified as one of the primary causes of labor problems among housemaids working in the Kingdom. housemaid who came here leaving a five-month-old baby ran away from her workplace because she desperately wanted to see her child,he added.<br /><br />The Sri Lankan government has initiated programs to look after the families of housemaids, by providing scholarships for their children in government schools, but infants still need to be with their mothers, the minister said, stressing that in future only women who are above 25 years of age would be granted permission for overseas deployment.<br /><br />Speaking about the problems of runaway housemaids, Bogollagama said this is only a fraction of the housemaid population in the Kingdom. he problems are mainly due to misunderstandings between the employer and their employee, non-payment of wages and ignorance about the cultural environment in the host country,he said.<br /><br />While stressing on his government stance to blacklist job agents in Colombo that send unskilled women as domestic aides, Bogollagama requested the Saudi National Recruiting Committee to check on local recruiting agents who are behind such nefarious activities.<br /><br />Saudi Ambassador in Colombo Muhammad Mahmud Al-Ali and Sri Lankan Ambassador A.M.J. Sadiq were present at the press briefing held at the Royal Conference Palace.<br />Bogollagama said a second Sri Lankan airline would start services to the Kingdom. esides SriLankan Airlines, the government is keen on introducing Mihin Air to the Kingdom to serve the Sri Lankan expatriates here,the minister said, pointing out that the new airline, which began operations early this year, is a government-owned budget airline. e are negotiating to modify our bilateral aviation agreement with the Kingdom to accommodate this new airline,he said.<br /><br />Mihin Air, which is fully funded by the state treasury, will cater not only to migrant workers but also to the tourism industry as a low cost carrier. his will be a great boon to low-income migrant workers who would like to save money on their travel. It would also provide customers with an opportunity to travel at prices 50 percent cheaper,he said.<br /><br />The minister described his talks with Saudi officials as successful and said that his government is interested in strengthening political, economic and cultural relations with the Kingdom.<br /><br />Bogollagama said they had agreed to negotiate and finalize bilateral agreements on avoidance of double taxation, combating terrorism, extradition, prisoner exchange and investment protection. Earlier at a meeting at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the minister said the country offers an attractive package to foreign investors.<br /><br />Sri Lanka, an investment hub in Asia, has attracted a large clientele of investors from all parts of the world since the country has abundant natural resources and cost-effective labor for viable projects,he stressed. <br /><br />He pointed out that the Free Trade Agreement with India would give free access to a larger market in the sub-continent to products manufactured in the island.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-42846620593165836772007-04-28T16:41:00.000+08:002007-04-28T16:45:31.113+08:00Ministry Acts to Stop Problem of Runaway MaidsP.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News <br /> <br />URL: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=95448&d=26&m=4&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom<br /> <br />JEDDAH, 26 April 2007 <br /><br />The Labor Ministry has taken tough actions to prevent maids from running away from their Saudi sponsors in search of better salaries and facilities. Saudis employing these runaway maids will be fined SR20,000 and banned from recruitment, said Muhammed Al-Dowaish, a legal consultant at the ministry.<br /> <br />He said recruitment offices involved in sheltering the illegal maids and hiring them out to Saudi families would be closed down and their licenses withdrawn.<br /> <br />The maids will be deported and will not be allowed to come back to the Kingdom, Dowaish said, spelling out the new measures taken by the ministry. Runaway maids have become a difficult problem facing Saudi families. Many maids run away from their sponsors as a result of torture, nonpayment of salaries and difficult working conditions.<br /> <br />Employment offered by some recruitment offices and Saudi families will encourage maids to run away from their legal sponsors,?Dowaish said, adding that the new measures would put an end to this negative phenomenon.<br /> <br />f they have any problem with sponsors, maids should approach the police or the labor office or the governorate for a solution,?the official said. hey would not run away if they didn expect somebody to shelter them or provide them jobs,?he added. Last year the ministry announced new regulations for recruiting household workers. Ahmad Al-Zamil, deputy minister for labor affairs, stressed that the ministry would deny the right to employ domestic servants to any household that mistreats its workers in any way and would force employers to pay their dues.<br /> <br />Not all maids who disappear, however, are runaways. A number are regularly kidnapped and forced into prostitution by gangs. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice recently raided two apartments in Dammam where two Asian maids had been imprisoned and forced to work as prostitutes.<br /> <br />One of the maids said she was living with her Saudi sponsor and had popped out to get something from a nearby shop when she was kidnapped by a taxi driver who raped her and then sold her to another expatriate for SR7,000,?said a commission member in Dammam.<br /> <br />A Bangladeshi taxi driver was arrested in Riyadh recently in connection with the kidnapping of several maids. Police said the driver had been kidnapping maids and then forcing them into prostitution for a long time. He would tell maids that he could get them better jobs and would ask them to run away from their sponsors. Then he would imprison them in an apartment and charge people SR300 to sleep with them,?said a police officer in Riyadh.<br /> <br />An Indonesian Embassy source said they received about 10 complaints from maids every day. Most of them involve abuse and include severe beatings, suicide, kidnapping, rape, withholding of salary for months and years, sexual harassment and impregnation. <br /> <br />Unfortunately, people here are very cruel to maids. They treat them with suspicion and abuse them in many ways,?he said. The rate of domestic servants fleeing their sponsors in the Kingdom is as high as 70 percent, one report said. When they flee, to find jobs with higher salaries, their sponsors lose large amounts of money which were spent in recruiting them and paying for their visas. People who hire maids illegally say that the recruiting system is too complicated and has too much unnecessary red tape.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-80117119812852537282007-04-25T23:53:00.000+08:002007-04-26T00:03:53.436+08:00Illegal migrants' right to work wins support of public in pollIllegal migrants' right to work wins support of public in poll<br />By Colin Brown<br />Published: 25 April 2007<br /><br />A campaign for an estimated 500,000 illegal workers in Britain to be given the official right to earn a living would have popular support, according to findings in an opinion poll.<br /><br />The plight of illegal immigrants who are denied any right to work has been called "modern-day slavery". It is said to be flourishing in Britain while we avert our eyes to the scandal under our noses.<br /><br />Liam Byrne, the Immigration minister, said mass migration had enriched Britain but left UK society so "unsettled" that the issue could cost Labour the next general election. But an opinion poll commissioned by Strangers into Citizens - a campaign to give employment rights to illegal immigrants -shows that 66 per cent of people in the would accept refused asylum-seekers and those who had overstayed their visas if they worked and paid taxes. The poll was conducted last weekend by ORB with a sample of 1,004 adults across the<br /><br />"This poll makes clear that just talking tough will not be enough to fob off the UK public on immigration, " said Habib Rahman, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. "They want the political parties to get real and respond in a way that is workable and fair to migrants who are living as members of our society."<br /><br />"Strangers into Citizens" is calling for the Government to allow a pathway for long-term illegal workers in this country to earn a living legally. They will hold a rally at Trafalgar Square on Monday 7 May to call for all immigrants who have been in this country for four years to be allowed a work permit for two years. It would become a route to "leave to remain" indefinitely while they work and pay taxes.<br /><br />The campaign challenges the Home Office policy of stepping up the removal of illegal immigrants, who have either overstayed their visas or been refused asylum.<br /><br />Mr Byrne is introducing a points-based managed migration system, with tighter border controls and a crackdown on employers who recruit illegal immigrants. Austin Ivereigh, the co-ordinator of the campaign, said: "We are not calling for a general 'amnesty' but a six-year pathway to citizenship for long-term migrants. It is certainly not issuing a 'green light for unprecedented migration'." He said one-off naturalisation programmes had been introduced in Spain, Germany and the US as part of a wider strategy of border enforcement. "It may not stop illegal immigration - that is a matter for border controls - but they do bring thousands out of limbo, recognise realities, clear asylum logjams, bring huge benefits to the state and shrink the underground economy on which people-trafficking and exploitative employers thrive," said Mr Ivereigh.<br /><br />Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, said: "Migrants contribute hugely to the economic, civic and cultural life of London. To have a substantial number of them living here without regular status - because of deep-rooted failings in the immigration system - is deeply damaging to London as well as to them."<br /><br />The Labour deputy leadership candidate Jon Cruddas said: "We must deal with those who no one wants to talk about - the 500,000 or so who have no status. Regularisation is about providing a solution to the problem everyone knows exist but which everyone runs from."<br /><br />Jack Dromey, the deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, said the economic and moral case for an "earned amnesty" for migrants was overwhelming. "<br /><br />'Denis', 32, doctor: 'I would have gone home a long time ago if it was safe' <br /><br />He is secretive and deeply troubled by the threat of being returned to his native Zimbabwe<br />Denis - not his real name - will not show his face and insists on anonymity. But the 32-year-old is a qualified doctor. "It is very difficult and it is humiliating, " he said. "I am a professional person, but I am living on handouts from my friends."<br /><br />He speaks good English and was trained as a doctor before he fled Zimbabwe in 2002 after threats to his life. Since settling in this country he has got a girlfriend, also a Zimbabwean illegal immigrant, and they have a daughter, aged 18 months.<br /><br />"I am crashing down at a flat," he said. "I am not supposed to be here. We are staying with a friend who has a council flat, but she is not supposed to have us here. She is afraid she will be evicted if they find us." Denis is adamant he will not work illegally. "I want to be a professional doctor. I am afraid of taking any other work that will undermine my career. I am so scared for my life. I would have gone home a long time ago if I felt it was safe. I came to Britain because I just wanted somewhere safe and better to work. I cannot go anywhere else because my documents are with the Home Office."<br /><br />'Lucas', shop assistant: 'I always try to stay away from trouble'<br /><br />A young Venezuelan with a big smile and a gentle manner, "Lucas" has been living in the UK for 10 years, first studying English and working part time, and then working full time.<br /><br />He has done a variety of jobs - as a cleaner, working in a hotel and teaching Spanish on a freelance basis. For the past two years he has worked in a shop, and is well-liked by his colleagues and customers. His employers are not aware of his immigration status. He has a national insurance number and has paid taxes and national insurance contributions in all of his jobs.<br /><br />He has survived as an undocumented worker by working hard and keeping a low profile. "I am very careful, and always try to stay away from trouble," he says. He avoids the authorities as much as possible - he would be very wary of reporting a crime to the police, and does not have a GP. If he were to fall ill he would go to A&E, where he could be treated anonymously.<br /><br />He arrived in London in 1998. "I came to the UK on a tourist visa and then enrolled as an English student for two-and-a-half years," he says. When he tried to renew his visa a third time, however, he was told that he had been in the country for too long.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-70949215823099634632007-04-22T19:01:00.000+08:002007-04-22T19:02:57.789+08:00Skilled Filipino Immigrants StonewalledLeah Diana<br />Special to the Sun<br />Tuesday, February 20, 2007<br /><br />Re: B.C is busy helping skilled immigrants find right jobs, Feb. 12<br /><br />Contrary to Minister of Economic Development Colin Hansen's claim about inaccuracies in reporting of his government's programs, it is the minister himself who is making inaccurate statements.<br /><br />While Hansen claims his government is doing a lot to help skilled immigrants find jobs, many Filipino immigrants (despite being highly educated and skilled) continue to be marginalized and economically segregated into low-paying jobs. Many find the costly and long processes required by professional regulatory bodies as impossible barriers to their recognition and accreditation.<br /><br />For example, hundreds of Filipino nurses in British Columbia are trapped working under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), because nursing is not given any occupational points under the Canadian immigration system. They are forced to work as private nurses and caregivers for the elderly and sick for minimum wage or below for two years despite a dire nursing shortage in the province.<br /><br />We met with the minister in 2000 to bring up this issue, but our recommendations have not been implemented.<br /><br />While we agree that professional regulatory bodies have the responsibility to ensure the public's health and safety, we question the minister's rigid view on English language skills and equivalency standards. Philippine educational institutions are at par with many other countries and Filipino immigrants to Canada are already required to be competent in one of two official languages before they are admitted into Canada.<br /><br />Hansen should put the money where his mouth is. While he touts increasing budgets for so-called solutions to the problem of professional accreditation, we haven't seen any of that money flowing to community-based organizations such as ours that are helping facilitate the recognition and accreditation of Filipino and other foreign-trained nurses. To date, the Filipino Nurses Support Group has conducted review classes and assisted more than 300 nurses working under the LCP to obtain accreditation devoid of any help from the provincial government.<br /><br />Without the political will to recognize foreign-trained professionals, the promises of Hansen and other politicians remain empty.<br /><br />Leah Diana is vice-chair of the Philippine Women Centre of B.C.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-85404072677257008632007-04-22T18:57:00.000+08:002007-04-22T19:00:36.109+08:00Indonesia, Malaysia: Overhaul Labor Agreement on Domestic WorkersIndonesia, Malaysia: Overhaul Labor Agreement on Domestic Workers<br />Proposed Malaysian Migrants Bill Would Violate Basic Freedoms<br /><br />(New York, February 21, 2007) – At their meeting this week, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyuno should commit to stronger protections for Indonesian migrants working in Malaysia, Human Rights Watch said today. Abdullah is in Jakarta to receive an Indonesian award for heads of state, the Bintang Republik Indonesia Adipradana.<br /><br />Approximately 2.5 million migrants work in Malaysia, and the majority are Indonesians working in plantations, construction and domestic service. Gaps in labor laws and punitive immigration policies have left many migrants at risk of abuse and labor exploitation by employers and recruitment agencies.<br /><br />Malaysia recently announced plans to introduce new legislation that would restrict migrants to their workplace or living quarters. Such measures violate workers’ right to freedom of movement. The resulting isolation would also put them at risk of other abuses, as demonstrated in the case of the approximately 300,000 migrant domestic workers in Malaysia. Many domestic workers already confront restrictions on their movement and communication.<br /><br />“Instead of improving the situation, Malaysia’s proposed foreign worker bill will make it dramatically worse,” said Nisha Varia, senior researcher on women’s rights in Asia for Human Rights Watch. “It’s shocking that Malaysia is even considering a proposal that would give employers freedom to lock up workers.”<br /><br />As Human Rights Watch reported in “Help Wanted: Abuses against Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Indonesia and Malaysia,” Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia often work grueling 16 to 18 hour days, seven days a week, and earn less than 25 US cents per hour. Some suffer physical or sexual abuse. These workers are excluded from key protections in Malaysia’s main labor laws, and nongovernmental organizations and the Indonesian mission in Malaysia have received thousands of complaints from domestic workers in recent years.<br /><br />In Indonesia, labor agents often subject prospective workers to extortion, discriminatory hiring processes, and months-long confinement in overcrowded training centers. In Malaysia, some labor agents turn a deaf ear to women’s complaints about abusive treatment and pleas to return home.<br /><br />The two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in May 2006 to regulate migration of domestic workers. Positive measures included the introduction of a standard contract and protections against cutting workers’ salaries to repay fees borne by the employer. However, it allows employers to keep workers’ passports, prohibits workers from marrying, and fails to introduce clear standards on a minimum wage, a weekly day off, or monitoring mechanisms for labor agencies.<br /><br />“While creating the MOU was a step in the right direction, both Indonesia and Malaysia continue to drag their feet in guaranteeing the most important protections for these women,” said Varia. “Domestic workers have to rely on the whim of employers rather than the rule of law for decent working conditions.”<br /><br />Human Rights Watch said that Indonesia and Malaysia should reform the MOU to, at a minimum, include: <br /><br />· A commitment to pursue legislative changes to extend equal protection under Malaysia’s labor laws to domestic workers, specifically Section XII of the Employment Act of 1955 and the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1952. <br />· The right of workers to hold their own passports. When employers or agents hold workers’ passports, this form of control makes it difficult for workers to escape abusive conditions or to negotiate better working conditions and full payment of their wages.<br />· A standard contract that ensures minimum labor protections, including: a 24-hour rest period per week; a fair minimum wage; a limitation on working hours per week; benefits; and safe working conditions. <br /><br />· The creation of clear mechanisms to provide timely remedies for migrant domestic workers in cases of abuse, and to outline sanctions for employers and labor agents who commit these abuses. Migrant domestic workers with pending criminal cases or labor complaints should be allowed to work while waiting for their cases to be concluded. <br /><br />· Stronger regulations governing recruitment agencies, with clear mechanisms to monitor and enforce these standards. Issues such as agency fees, standard contracts, provision of accurate information, and conditions of training centers should be addressed.<br />· Protection of workers’ ability to form associations and unions.<br />“Migration benefits both countries tremendously – by providing important services to Malaysia and needed income to Indonesian workers,” said Varia. “But, despite a long history of large migration flows, Malaysia and Indonesia have lagged behind other countries in ensuring basic protections for migrant workers.”<br /><br />To view the July 2004 Human Rights Watch report “Help Wanted: Abuses against Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Indonesia and Malaysia” in English, please visit:<br /><a href="http://hrw.org/reports/2004/indonesia0704/">http://hrw.org/reports/2004/indonesia0704/</a><br />To view the report in Indonesian, please visit:<br /><a href="http://hrw.org/indonesian/reports/2004/indonesia0704/">http://hrw.org/indonesian/reports/2004/indonesia0704/</a><br />To listen to broadcast-quality audio commentary by Nisha Varia, senior researcher on women’s rights in Asia for Human Rights Watch, on abuse against domestic workers, please visit:<br /><a href="http://hrw.org/audio/2007/wr2k7/english/essays/migrants.mp3">http://hrw.org/audio/2007/wr2k7/english/essays/migrants.mp3</a><br /><br />For more information, please contact:<br />In New York, Nisha Varia: +1-917-617-1041<br />In London, Brad Adams: +44-20-7713-2767Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1176130153430942902007-04-09T22:43:00.000+08:002007-04-09T22:49:14.016+08:00The STRIVE ACT is Corporate Designed Immigration ReformBy Javier Rodriguez April 4, 2007<br /><br />The debate in the nation on immigration reform is definitely on and the cards are once again stacked. The Gutierrez-Flake STRIVE ACT of 2007 is a corporate monster most of the way. It doesn't come close to meeting the human rights standards set forth by the international community for the more than 200 million migrants in the planet who, by designs of corporate globalization and its rising capitalist transnational class, have been forced to leave their home countries in search of a new life.<br /><br />On the contrary the new STRIVE ACT, like last year�s failed Sensenbrenner-HR4437 and Hegel-Martinez S2611, will criminalize immigrants, allow enforcement of immigration law by police agencies, calls for more extreme border enforcement, calls for building 20 more detention centers for immigrants, will erode human rights for future deportees and future immigrants, it will impose an employer verification program, it will delay legalization for the 13 million immigrants already here for many years and not surprisingly it does not set realistic standards to resolve the immigration issue period.<br /><br />Overall, if approved, it will further set back the struggle for immigrant empowerment, make present and future immigrant workers more vulnerable to exploitation and drive them further underground.<br /><br />The international criteria for immigrants set in 1987?, says migrants, within three years of living in the host country, have earned their right to legalize their status. By then, they have established roots in their adopted communities, creating family, children, culture, education, business and religion.<br /><br />This is a sounder humane approach to a real earned right to legalization, to be united with their families and to the stabilization of their lives. <br /><br />In 1986, through the IRCA Immigration Reform Act, several million urban and farm workers, undocumented immigrants, regularized their status through a radically different set of standards. A one year wait for their permanent residency and five more for citizenship and the right to vote without having to leave the country.<br /><br />The farm worker clause was even more humane with a requirement of only three months of farm work in the previous two years to qualify. It set forth a fee of only $150.00 per applicant. That�s it. It was a family oriented law though far from perfect.<br /><br />NOW COMPARE. By Cong. Luis Gutierrez own words, under the STRIVE ACT, the legalization part will not be implemented for two years until Congress confirms that the security border enforcement measures of the new law are in place, and then, only then will the legalization process begins.<br /><br />Then after, the first of two three year permits for non immigrant status will be issued with the right to a social security, a drivers license and leave and return to the country. After the sixth year the immigrant will have the right to solicit permanent residency.<br /><br />But instead of an automatic �Green Card� into the hands of the 13 million immigrants, all applicants will be placed in the back of the line for another 5 to 10 years wait, until the applications of 3 million plus potential immigrants now in process, which the STRIVE Bill does not address, are resolved.<br /><br />It does not stop there. An added five year wait to qualify for citizenship and the right to vote, which means, approximately a total 18 to 21 years to exert full earned constitutional rights which all Americans now enjoy under the constitution.<br /><br />Is this a corporate panacea or not?The proposed house bill also establishes a quota for 450,000 yearly Conditional Workers, a euphemism for the old Guest Workers Program. Conditional Workers will have the right to: two three year working permits with the right to change jobs, to organize, bring their families and children with the right to school, to a drivers license, a social security and lastly, with an existing good moral conduct and no criminal background, the right to legalize. Seductive isn�t it. <br /><br />But like their 13 million immigrant counterparts already in the US, which hypothetically speaking, will be waiting in line for years for the �coveted Green Card� this sector will be highly vulnerable to small and large corporate business misconduct. Admittedly though, on par, the future undocumented sector will be several notches more exploitable.<br /><br />According to leaks emanating from the Capital in the last two weeks, the Kennedy-McCain Senate proposal will use the same framework of S2611 which died last year. If so, for certain the conciliation process between the House and Senate will be a water down process for the Fable-Gutierrez Bill.<br /><br />For the immigrant rights movement and allies the central question is �What is to be Done�? Already at the gate in tacit support of this concept is a powerful conglomerate of the most active wing of labor, big business, the Latino establishment, Democrats and Republicans, the church hierarchy, the Mexican and Central American governments and the moderate wing of the immigrant rights movement. And it is well financed with a war chest of $4 million dollars.<br /><br />The accomplishments of the 2006 mass immigrant struggle are historic. Most notable was energizing the electorate and along with the antiwar sentiment changing the correlation of forces in Congress against the extreme right.<br /><br />Without a doubt President George W. Bush and the Republicans are in a weaker position although his shock troops have launched a near fascist campaign against the country�s undocumented creating havoc and terror.<br /><br />At this point, the correlation of forces is absolutely not favorable except that the country�s progressive forces and allies move from traditional lobbying towards mass mobilization in an attempt to gain the upper hand and influence the national debate for a more inclusive pro worker immigration reform.<br /><br />The activists response to the governments ICE raids and deportations campaign has been toe to toe and it appears, has set the conditions for another round of mega mass mobilizations. We shall see if the people respond accordingly again on May 1st International Workers Day in defense of their dignity and humanity. The challenge is as historic as in 2006.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Javier Rodriguez is the media and political strategist for the March 25 Coalition and a co-founder of the May 1st National Movement. </span><a href="mailto:Jrodhdztf@hotmail.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">Jrodhdztf@hotmail.com</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> 323-702-6397</span>Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1163748899854065602006-11-17T15:19:00.000+08:002006-11-17T15:35:00.256+08:00Into the breach again: US looks to FilipinosAsia Times Online, 17 Nov 2006<br /><br />Into the breach again: US looks to Filipinos<br />By Cher S Jimenez<br />MANILA<br /><br />When the United States moves to downsize its military facilities in Okinawa, Japan, and begin construction on new military bases designed to house 8,000 marines and their families on the Pacific island of Guam, Filipino construction workers will likely do most of the heavy lifting.<br /><br />In September, Philippine labor officials accepted an invitation from Guam - a US territory - to discuss hiring 15,000 Filipino construction workers to work on the new military facilities, including barracks, administration buildings, schools, training <a rel="nofollow">target</a> sites, runways and entertainment establishments. On-land construction activities on Guam are set to begin early next year and the estimated US$10 billion project is scheduled for completion in 2014.<br /><br />The US Congress' Overseas Basing Commission had earlier estimated that the cost of relocation and building the new base in Guam, including facilities for a new command post and housing for the marines' family members, at about $2.9 billion.<br /><br />For undisclosed reasons, the US military now says the total cost will be closer to $10 billion, of which Japan has agreed to shoulder 59% of the bill. Cheap Filipino labor, it is believed, will help bring down those spiraling costs. If the deal is done, it will mark the latest big hire of Filipino workers by the US military and its affiliated business interests.<br /><br />The US has employed more than 7,000 Filipino workers - nearly half of them undocumented - in its four main military camps in Iraq, according to Philippine labor officials. Neither the Philippine nor US governments has publicly owned up to how thousands of Filipino workers have slipped into Iraq and found work on US military facilities. US federal policy prohibits the employment of non-Americans inside US military facilities, but the Bush administration's heavy use of private contractors has blurred the lines between public and private functions.<br /><br />After a Filipino truck driver killed in Iraq caused a domestic uproar against the Philippines' participation in the United States' war effort, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in July 2004 banned any new deployments of Filipino workers to Iraq. Philippine-based non-governmental organizations tracking Arroyo's support to the United States' global counter-terrorism campaign contend that both Washington and Manila have quietly decided to ignore the official ban to maintain the steady supply of cheap, English-speaking Filipino workers in Iraq. Washington clearly seems to favor Filipinos over other English-speaking nationalities for its most crucial and sensitive military-related construction projects.<br /><br />In March 2002, Washington and Manila secretly processed the papers of 250 Filipino construction workers to help build new or overhaul old detention facilities now in use at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the US controversially holds hundreds of suspects as part of its "global war on terror" campaign, according to Philippine officials. For their efforts, Filipino workers received a $1,000 monthly salary - far below what it would have cost the US military to employ US citizens.<br /><br />Contractual gratitude Local labor recruiters have been told by government officials that the Guam assignment is a US reward for the Arroyo administration's strong support for its "war on terror". There is also an element of trust: US soldiers frequently train with their Philippine counterparts and US advisers are currently training and providing logistical support to Arroyo's campaign against Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines.<br /><br />Philippine officials estimate that if and when Filipino workers are deployed to work in Guam, they will earn wages similar to those paid for the Guantanamo operation. From the United States' perspective, hiring cheap Filipinos makes good economic sense at a time when the US military budget has spiraled out of control with the mounting expense of operations in Iraq and to a lesser degree Afghanistan. It also appears to be part of a quiet outsourcing process: the US Department of Defense's 2005 base realignment and closures recommendations aimed to pare "unnecessary management personnel" at Guam's existing facilities, including "military, personnel and contractor personnel", to the tune of 174 lost jobs over the period spanning 2006-11. Cheaper Filipinos are expected to fill some of the lost contractor positions, Philippine labor sources say.<br /><br />And they will be charged with building facilities alongside some of the most advanced and important assets the US military maintains outside the continental US. This includes Andersen Air Force Base, which can handle aircraft ranging from unmanned aerial vehicles to long-range strategic bombers, and Apra Harbor, which services everything from nuclear submarines to aircraft carriers. Andersen's special hangar facilities are designed specifically to protect the special radar-evading skin of B-2 bombers.<br /><br />Sources from the Philippine recruitment industry say that, apart from their low cost, Filipino construction workers are "highly favored" by the US because of their English-language skills. According to industry sources, Middle Eastern companies that have recently hired large numbers of Filipino construction workers there are often subsidiaries of or somehow affiliated with big US reconstruction firms, including Halliburton, Bechtel and Flour Daniel.<br /><br />"Americans favor Filipino workers because we can understand them and they speak English," said Loreto Soriano, president and chairman of the board of LBSeBusiness, a Manila-based recruitment firm. "Construction manuals and plans are written in English, so we can follow easily, and that's what they like." Their overall skill sets, including their ability to work with modern construction technology, however, are very much in question. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) recently said that from 2001 to 2005 it was only able to meet 56% of global orders for 103,167 construction workers because of their low skills, including their inability to operate modern construction technology.<br /><br />Much of that demand has come from the Middle East, where booming oil prices have led to a flurry of new construction and infrastructure projects. Soriano said the Philippines generally could not meet the surging demand for highly qualified construction workers, including welders, flame cutters, plumbers, pipe fitters and carpenters.<br /><br />For the past few months, job advertisements for construction workers and engineers rose by almost 29%; there were new requests for 4,000 overseas placements in September, according to official statistics. As of 2005, the Professional Regulation Commission registered 312,478 construction-sector professionals, where nearly one-third was listed as qualified civil engineers.<br /><br />However, the POEA, the government agency that oversees labor deployment abroad, had registered only 737 professionals over the period spanning 2002-04. Now, local employers are complaining about the growing number of construction workers who leave their jobs without notice after they have been placed overseas. Some in Manila fear that if the government paves the way for 15,000 workers to take jobs in Guam, the already labor-strapped local Philippine construction could come to a total grinding halt. However, that could also happen to the planned new military facilities in Guam if Filipino workers lack the skills to implement US building designs effectively and efficiently.<br /><br /><br />Cher S Jimenez is a Manila-based journalist with the BusinessMirror newspaper.<br />She recently received a grant from the Ateneo de Manila University to conduct investigative journalism on illegal workers in the United Arab Emirates.<br /><br /><br />(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about <a rel="nofollow">sales, syndication</a> and <a rel="nofollow">republishing</a> .)Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1161762873271449222006-10-25T15:51:00.000+08:002006-10-25T15:54:33.710+08:00DoLE suspends OFW deployment to KazakhstanBy Veronica Uy<br />INQ7.net<br />Last updated 02:42pm (Mla time) 10/25/2006<br /><a href="http://globalnation.inq7.net/news/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=28647">http://globalnation.inq7.net/news/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=28647</a><br /><br />THE Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) on Wednesday suspended the processing and deployment of Filipino workers to Kazakhstan five days after clashes broke out between Turkish and Kazakh workers.<br /><br />Acting Labor Secretary Danilo Cruz told INQ7.net the order is “effective today until further<br />notice.”<br /><br />He issued the order shortly after a multi-department meeting attended by Foreign Affairs undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr., acting administrator Viveca Catalig of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, administrator Marianito Roque of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and a representative of local recruitment agency International Security Development (ISD).<br /><br />Cruz also said a composite team composed of the Philippine ambassador and consul general to Pakistan, the Philippine labor attaché to Riyadh, and a representative of ISD will be sent to Tengiz, Kazakhstan “to assess the situation and conduct dialogue with the Filipinos there.”<br />He said they are expected to arrive in Kazakhstan on Friday.<br /><br />From their meeting, the acting labor chief said it was learned that although there is “continuing provocation from Kazakh workers,” the Filipino workers there are not in so much danger.<br /><br />"Aside from reinforced security from private security guards and the Kazakhstan government, the Filipinos have been moved to quarters separate from other nationalities,” he said.<br /><br />However, he said, the Philippine government has asked Bechtel, the Filipinos' employer, to have a separate mess hall for Filipinos as all nationalities eat at the same mess hall.<br /><br />Asked if the Filipinos have returned to work, Cruz said they have not yet done so.<br /><br />Earlier, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Filipino workers will be asked to return to work Wednesday or Thursday.<br /><br />Cruz belied reports that 40 were killed in the riot last October 20. He said no one was killed, but 300 were injured, two of them seriously.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1161588869937044672006-10-23T15:19:00.000+08:002006-10-23T15:34:30.266+08:00A U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Workers Trafficked to Build Worlds Largest EmbassyA U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest Embassy<br />by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch<br />October 17th, 2006<br /><a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14173">http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14173</a><br /><br />Things began looking more sketchier than ever to John Owen as he boarded a nondescript white jet on his way back to Iraq in March 2005 following some R&R in Kuwait city. Employed by First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, the lead builder for the new $592-million US embassy in Baghdad, Owen remembers being surrounded at the airport by about 50 company laborers freshly hired from the Philippines and India. Everyone was holding boarding passes to Dubai -- not to Baghdad.<br /><br />"I thought there was some sort of mix up and I was getting on the wrong plane," says the 48-year-old Floridian who was working as a general construction foreman on the embassy project.<br /><br />He buttonholed a First Kuwaiti manager standing near by and asked what was going on. The manager waved his hand, looked around the terminal and whispered to keep quiet.<br /><br />"'If anyone hears we are going to Baghdad, they won't let us on the plane,'" Owen recalls the manager saying.<br /><br />'Not Valid for Iraq'<br /><br />The secrecy struck Owen as a little odd, but he grabbed his luggage and moved on. Everyone filed out to the private jet and flew directly to Baghdad. "I figured that they had visas for Kuwait and not Iraq," Owen offers.<br />The deception had all the appearances of smuggling workers into Iraq, but Owen didn't know at the time that the Philippines, India, and other countries had banned or restricted their citizens from working in Iraq because of safety concerns and growing opposition to the war. After 2004, many passports were stamped<br /><br />"Not valid for Iraq."<br /><br />Nor did Owen know that both the US State Department and the Pentagon were quietly investigating contractors such as First Kuwaiti for labor trafficking and worker abuse. In fact,<a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14178"> the international news media had accused First Kuwaiti repeatedly of coercing workers to take jobs in battle-torn Iraq</a> once they had been lured to Kuwait with safer offers.<br /><br /><br />The Kuwait-headquartered, Lebanese-run company has billed several billion dollars on US contracts since the war began in March 2003. Much of its work is performed by cheap labor largely hired from South Asia and the company has an estimated 7,500 foreign laborers in the theater of war.<br /><br />Now, with a highly secretive contract awarded by the US State Department, First Kuwaiti is in the midst of building the most expensive and heavily fortified US embassy in the world. Scheduled to open in 2007, the sprawling complex near the Tigris River will equal Vatican City in size.<br /><br />But Owen says that working on the project proved to be one of the worst jobs he has ever had in his 27 years of construction work.<br /><br />Not one of the five different US embassy sites Owen had worked on around the world previously compared to the mess he describes. Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia all had their share of dictators, violence and economic disruption, but the companies building the embassies were always fair and professional, he says. First Kuwaiti is the exception. Brutal and inhumane, he says "I've never seen a project more fucked up. Every US labor law was broken."<br /><br />Seven months after signing on with First Kuwaiti in November 2005, he quit.<br />In the resignation letter last June, Owen told First Kuwaiti and US State Department officials that his managers physically assaulted and beat the construction workers, demonstrated little regard for worker safety, and routinely breached security.<br /><br />And it was all happening smack in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone -- right under the nose of the State Department that had quietly awarded the controversial embassy contract in July 2005.<br /><br />He also complained of poor sanitation, squalid living conditions and medical malpractice in the labor camps where several thousand low-paid migrant workers lived. Those workers, recruited on the global labor market from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and other poor south Asian countries, earned as little as $10 to $30 a day. As with many US-funded contractors, First Kuwaiti prefers importing labor because it views Iraqi workers as a security headache not worth the trouble.<br /><br />Despite numerous emails and phone calls about such allegations, neither First Kuwaiti general manager Wadih Al Absi nor his lawyer Angela Styles, the former top White House contract policy advisor, have responded. After a year of requests, State Department officials involved with the project also have ignored or rejected opportunities for comment.<br /><br />Your Passports Please<br /><br />That same March Owen returned to work in Baghdad, Rory Mayberry would witness similar events after he flew to Kuwait from his home in Myrtle Creek, Oregon.<br /><br />The gravely voiced, easy-going Army veteran had previously worked in Iraq for <a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=15">Halliburton</a> and the private security company, Danubia. Missing the action and the big paychecks US contractors draw Iraq, he snagged a $10,000 a month job with MSDS consulting Company.<br /><br />MSDS is a two-person minority-owned consulting company that assists US State Department managers in Washington with procurement programming. Never before had the firm offered medical services or worked in Iraq, but First Kuwaiti hired MSDS on the recommendation of Jim Golden, the State Department contract official overseeing the embassy project. Within days, an agreement worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical care was signed.<br /><br />The 45-year-old Mayberry, a former emergency medical technician in the Army who worked as a funeral director in Oregon, responded to a help wanted ad placed by MSDS. The plan was that he would work as a medic attending to the construction crews on the work site in Baghdad.<br /><br />Mayberry sensed things weren't right when he boarded a First Kuwaiti flight on March 15 to Baghdad -- a different flight from Owen's.<br /><br />At the airport in Kuwait City, Mayberry said, he saw a person behind a counter hand First Kuwaiti managers a passenger manifest, an envelope of money and a stack of boarding passes to Dubai. The managers then handed out the boarding passes to Mayberry and 50 or so new First Kuwaiti laborers, mostly Filipinos.<br /><br />"Everyone was told to tell customs and security that they were flying to Dubai," Mayberry explains. Once the group passed the guards, they went upstairs and waited by the McDonald's for First Kuwaiti staff to unlock a door -- Gate 26 -- that led to an unmarked, white 52-seat jet. It was "an antique piece of shit" Mayberry offers in a casual, blunt manner.<br /><br />"All the workers had their passports taken away by First Kuwaiti," Mayberry claims, and while he knew the plane was bound for Baghdad, he's not so sure the others were aware of their destination. The Asian laborers began asking questions about why they were flying north and the jet wasn't flying east over the ocean, he says. "I think they thought they were going to work in Dubai."<br /><br />One former First Kuwaiti supervisor acknowledges that the company holds passports of many workers in Iraq -- a violation of US contracting.<br /><br />"All of the passports are kept in the offices," said one company insider who requested anonymity in fear of financial and personal retribution. As for distributing Dubai boarding passes for Baghdad flights, "It's because of the travel bans," he explained.<br /><br />Mayberry believes that migrant workers from the Philippines, India and Nepal are especially vulnerable to employers like First Kuwaiti because their countries have little or no diplomatic presence in Iraq.<br />"If you don't have your passport or an embassy to go to, what you do to get out of a bad situation?" he asks.<br /><br />"How can they go to the US State Department for help if First Kuwaiti is building their embassy?"<br /><br />Deadly 'Candy Store' Medicine<br /><br />Owen had already been working at the embassy site since late November when Mayberry arrived. The two never crossed paths, but both share similar complaints about management of the project and brutal treatment of the laborers that, at times, numbered as many as 2,500. Most are from the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. Others are from Egypt and Turkey.<br /><br />The number of workers with injuries and ailments stunned Mayberry. He went to work immediately after and stayed busy around the clock for days.<br /><br />Four days later, First Kuwaiti pulled him off the job after he requested an investigation of two patients who had died before he arrived from what he suspected was medical malpractice. Mayberry also recommended that the health clinics be shut down because of unsanitary conditions and mismanagement.<br /><br />"There hadn't been any follow up on medical care. People were walking around intoxicated on pain relievers with unwrapped wounds and there were a lot of infections," he recalls. "The idea that there was any hygiene seemed ridiculous. I'm not sure they were even bathing."<br /><br />In reports made available to the US State Department, the US Army and First Kuwaiti, Mayberry listed dozens of concerns about the clinics, which he found lacking in hot water, disinfectant, hand washing stations, properly supplied ambulances, and communication equipment. Mayberry also complained that workers' medical records were in total disarray or nonexistent, the beds were dirty, and the support staff hired by First Kuwaiti was poorly trained.<br /><br />The handling of prescription drugs especially bothered him. Many of the drugs that originated from Iraq and Kuwait were unsecured, disorganized and unintelligibly labeled, he said in one memo. He found that the medical staff frequently misdiagnosed patients. Prescription pain killers were being handed out "like a candy store ... and then people were sent back to work."<br /><br />Mayberry warned that the practice could cause addiction and safety hazards. "Some were on the construction site climbing scaffolding 30 feet off the ground. I told First Kuwaiti that you don't give painkillers to people who are running machinery and working on heavy construction and they said 'that's how we do it.'"<br /><br />The sloppy handling of drugs may have led to the two deaths, Mayberry speculates. One worker, age 25, died in his room. The second, in his mid-30s, died at the clinic because of heart failure. Both deaths may be "medical homicide," Mayberry says -- because the patients may have been negligently prescribed improper drug treatment.If the State Department investigated, Mayberry knows nothing of the outcome. Two State Department officials with project oversight responsibilities did not return phone calls or emails inquiring about Mayberry's allegations. The reports may have been ignored, not because of his complaints, but because Mayberry is a terrible speller, a problem compounded by an Arabic translation program loaded on his computer, he says.<br /><br />Accidents Happen<br /><br />Owen's account of his seven months on the job paints a similar picture to Mayberry's. Health and safety measures were essentially non-existent, he says. Not once did he witness a safety meeting. Once an Egyptian worker fell and broke his back and was sent home. No one ever heard from him again. "The accident might not have happened if there was a safety program and he had known how to use a safety harness."<br /><br />Owen also says that managers regularly beat workers and that laborers were issued only one work uniform, making it difficult to go to the laundry. "You could never have it washed. Clothing got really bad -- full of sweat and dirt."<br /><br />And while he often smuggled water to the work crews, medical care was a different issue. When he urged laborers to get medical treatment for rashes and sores, First Kuwaiti managers accused him of spoiling the laborers and allowing them simply to avoid work, he says.<br /><br />State Department officials supervising the project are aware of many such events, but apparently do nothing, he said. Once when 17 workers climbed the wall of the construction site to escape, a State Department official helped round them up and put them in "virtual lockdown," Owen said.<br /><br />Just before he resigned, hundreds of Pakistani workers went on strike in June and beat up a Lebanese manager who they accused of harassing them. Owen estimates that 375 laborers were then sent home.<br /><br />'Treated Like Animals'<br /><br />Recent First Kuwaiti employees agree that the accounts shared by Owen and Mayberry are accurate. One longtime supervisor claims that 50 to 60 percent of the laborers regularly protest that First Kuwaiti "treats them like animals," and routinely reduces their promised pay with confusing and unexplained deductions.<br />Another former First Kuwaiti manager, who declines to be named because of possible adverse consequences, says that Owen's and Mayberry's complaints only begin "to scratch the surface."<br /><br />But scratching the surface is the only view yet available of what may be the most lasting monument to the US liberation and occupation of Iraq. As of now only a handful of authorized State Department managers and contractors, along with First Kuwaiti workers and contractors, are officially allowed inside the project's walls.<br /><br />No journalist has ever been allowed access to the sprawling 104-acre site with towering construction cranes raising their necks along the skyline.<br /><br />Even this tight security is a charade, says on former high-level First Kuwaiti manager. First Kuwaiti managers living at the construction site regularly smuggle prostitutes in from the streets of Baghdad outside the Green Zone, he says.<br /><br />Prostitutes, he explains are viewed as possible spies. "They are a big security risk."<br />But the exposure that the US occupation forces and First Kuwaiti may fear most could begin with the contractor itself and the conditions workers are forced to endure at this most obvious symbol of the American democracy project in Iraq.<br /><br />David Phinney is a journalist and broadcaster based in Washington, DC, whose work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, New York Times and on ABC and PBS. He can be contacted at: <a href="mailto:phinneydavid@yahoo.com">phinneydavid@yahoo.com</a>.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1157797935833968872006-09-09T18:31:00.000+08:002006-09-09T18:32:20.800+08:00ON THE JAPAN-RP ECONOMIC PACTON THE JAPAN-RP ECONOMIC PACT<br />IBON Foundation<br />September 9, 2006<br /><br /><br />The upcoming Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) will bring dubious gain to the local economy while severely limiting government’s policy options to develop domestic industries.<br /><br />The agreement, which is reportedly set to be signed at the Asia-Europe Meeting in Helsinki, Finland on Sep. 10-11, 2006, has been under negotiation away from public scrutiny for the last four years. Officials provide few details but it is reported that the agreement will cut import tariffs on industrial goods by 90% within 10 years and provide concessions for Japanese direct investment in the domestic automobile and electronics industries.<br /><br />The Philippines will abolish tariffs on at least 60% of its steel imports from Japan. Tariffs on Japan-made cars will also be fully eliminated in 2010. In exchange, Japan will lower tariffs on Philippine bananas and pineapples, while the Philippines removes tariffs on Japanese grapes and pears. Japan will also allow a year-on-year quota of some 200 Filipino nurses and caregivers. It had also been reported that the JPEPA would remove mutual restrictions on Japanese and Philippine investors, as well as prohibit performance requirements.<br /><br />Both governments have already said that the agreement will be positive for both the Philippines and Japan in terms of trade and investment. However the JPEPA is actually an unequal agreement between unequal parties that, moreover, is biased for the more powerful Japanese economic interests. The biggest gainers are Japanese investors who will keep setting up export enclaves in the Philippines that are unintegrated with the domestic economy. They will continue to import most of their inputs and components, exploit fiscal incentives, stifle workers’ rights to organize, and hire labor as cheap as they can get. The Philippines will also be foregoing millions in dollars in tariff revenues from Japanese imports.<br /><br />Japan and the Philippines are such grossly unequal economies that nominally equal terms can never mean a “level playing field”. The Japanese economy (US$4.4 trillion GNI in 2004) is 50 times larger than the Philippines’ and its GDP per capita is 35 times larger. Japan accounts for some one-third of foreign investments (with a cumulative US$3.5 billion in Japanese investments 2003) in the Philippines and one-fifth of its external trade (with US$14.2 billion in total Japan-Philippines trade in 2004). And yet, for instance, the country’s domestic industrial base has continued to deteriorate despite the majority of Japanese investments being in the manufacturing sector.<br /><br />The Philippine government is surrendering policy tools under the JPEPA that, ironically, Japan itself used heavily. The Japanese government greatly protected its domestic industries from the late 19th century until the early 1980s. Japan’s industrial might in cars, trucks, shipbuilding, computers and consumer electronics was built up in through almost a century of sustained intervention and protection, especially in their early stages. Average weighted industrial tariffs reached as high as 30-40 percent. The Japanese government required technology transfers from US, French and UK investors, or brazenly pirated technology through so-called “reverse engineering”. Government agencies were obliged to procure goods and services strictly from Japanese firms. Japanese technological and productive capacity would not have developed if not for these many decades of active state support.<br /><br />The far-reaching JPEPA is also the dangerous first step towards complete government renunciation of developing the Philippine economy. What little public information there is about JPEPA indicates about a dozen areas for liberalization that collectively go far beyond anything proposed even in the currently dormant World Trade Organization (WTO). These include: the elimination or reduction of tariffs on industrial products and agriculture, forestry and fishery products; liberalization of services sectors such as construction, outsourcing, air transport, health related and social services, tourism and travel-related services, maritime transport services, telecommunications and banking; national treatment, MFN Treatment and performance requirement prohibitions; and supposedly easier entry of qualified Filipino nurses and certified caregivers.<br /><br />The JPEPA also includes various provisions on: Government Procurement, Competition Policy, Intellectual Property, Dispute Avoidance and Settlement, Improvement of the Business Environment, Mutual Recognition and Bilateral Cooperation.<br /><br />As the country’s first full-fledged bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), the benchmark it sets for liberalization will determine the shape of all FTAs to come. If the Philippine government sets high trade and investment liberalization standards in JPEPA then it will be obliged to also give these to partners in subsequent FTAs lest it be accused of discrimination. The country’s negotiating position in all subsequent trade and investment agreements will be gravely undermined. The end result of the JPEPA and other such agreements will be to shut the door to real domestic industrial growth and economic progress.<br /><br />The government is also treating our health professionals and caregivers as mere commodities when it touts the “quotas” supposedly being given by Japan for these jobs as a good thing. The reality is that these mostly women health workers and caregivers will bear the burden of overcoming formidable language, certification and even racist and patriarchal barriers. Because of its desperation for quick sources of foreign exchange, the Philippine government is placing the burden on the cheap export of skilled Filipinos. It should instead focus on creating the strong domestic economy that will create opportunities for Filipinos at home.<br /><br />The Philippine government affirms its commitment to the destructive policies of neoliberal globalization. Instead of using the collapse of the WTO Doha Round talks as an opportunity to rethink its commitment to neoliberal globalization, it is giving up its sovereignty piecemeal on a country-by-country basis through bilateral and regional economic agreements.<br /><br />Japan, on the other hand, makes further headway in consolidating Southeast Asia as a source of cheap agricultural, mineral and other raw materials for Japan as well as a captive market for Japanese industrial goods. Aside from the Philippines, Japan has already signed or is negotiating FTAs with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam. #Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1157784823258656982006-09-09T14:50:00.000+08:002006-09-09T14:53:43.613+08:00Medical workers may be losers in FTAJapan Times<br />Medical workers may be losers in FTA<br />By Glenn Omanio<br />9 September 2006<br /><br />MANILA (Kyodo) Philippine officials may be upbeat about finalizing the bilateral free-trade agreement with Japan this weekend, but there is some concern that the country’s medical workers will be the losers in the deal.<br /><br />The FTA will mean freer movement of people between the two countries, something the Philippines welcomes. Professionals, including doctors and nurses, are eager to get high-paying jobs in wealthy countries.<br /><br />Japan is keen to follow other rich countries by having foreign nurses fill the shortage at home and has opened its labor market to Filipino nurses and caregivers.<br /><br />But Filipinos may be in for a big disappointment as Japan has put in the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement that it will only accept caregivers who are college graduates, and nurses who are fluent in Japanese and can pass its nursing license examination — in Japanese.<br /><br />Analysts say Japan’s position of only giving visas to health workers who can speak Japanese could backfire as the rising demand for health workers in wealthy nations, also facing rapidly aging populations and falling fertility rates, will mean stiff competition to get workers from poorer countries.<br /><br />The agreement does not specify the number of nurses Japan will accept, but media reports said that Tokyo will set an initial cap of 500 nurses per year and will increase the number depending on the need.<br /><br />"Japan seemingly wants to preserve the homogeneity of its people. In a very global world, it is an exception. Japan should learn from other countries on their openness in accepting other people," said Federico Macaranas, head of the Manila-based Asian Institute of Management Policy Center.<br /><br />Macaranas said that while fluency in the local language is important for nurses to perform their duties, Japan could relax this requirement to allowing non-Japanese speakers to serve English-speaking Japanese people.<br /><br />He said many English speakers in Japan are wealthy and can afford to hire private nurses and caregivers.<br />Marilyn Yap, president of the Philippine Nurses Association, said the language requirement is harsh and decreases the chances of Filipino nurses passing the national exam.<br /><br />"In order for you to take the Japanese board exam, you have to master the language. It takes time. That’s our concern," Yap said.<br /><br />An indication of just how hard a Japanese exam would be for Filipino nurses is the the pass rate for information technology workers, who also must take a certification exam. A average of 5 percent of Filipino applicants have passed the exam since it was offered in 2002.<br /><br />In an test program in the mid-1990s, only one of 13 Filipino nurses finished the two-year Japanese language program and passed the national nursing exam.<br /><br />Yap said Japan will have to compete with other countries in attracting Filipino nurses and caregivers, adding Japan should offer higher salaries and better nonmonetary packages to compensate for the language requirements.<br /><br />Given the same salary and work benefits, Filipino nurses, most who speak English fluently, would rather choose English-speaking countries such as the United States or Britain over Japan because of the language barrier.<br /><br />"It remains to be seen if Filipino nurses will be accepting offers to work in Japan. I am reluctant," Yap of the nurses association said. "If there are any other options easier, I’d take that."<br /><br />Every year, as many as 8,000 Filipino nurses leave for Saudi Arabia, continental Europe and the United States, according to Philippine labor statistics.<br /><br />The United States remains the favorite destination. Nurses can bring their families and they earn as much as<br />$4,000 a month compared to the $ 200 they get at home, studies show.<br /><br />The World Health Organization estimates that by 2008, Britain will need 25,000 doctors and 250,000 nurses while the United States will need around 1 million nurses in the next decade to meet the projected shortfall.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1157620613566631692006-09-07T17:13:00.000+08:002006-09-07T17:16:53.900+08:00Migrant Women Are Big Money Senders To Home Country : UN<a href="http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=19532">http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=19532</a><br /><br />New York (ANTARA News) - Women constitute half of the estimated 190million international migrants worldwide and are responsible for the largest amount of remittances, the UN Population Fund said Wednesday. Women migrants sent home a total of 232 billion dollars in 2005, of which 167 billion dollars went to developing countries.<br /><br />Remittances and foreign direct investments are the main sources of economic development in many developing countries.<br /><br />In an annual report, A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration, the UN population agency said that remittances could be even higher than reported because migrants often use informal channels. The report focused on the roles of migrant women and their economic impacts on their home countries.<br /><br />It said that the international community only recently has begun to grasp how much migrant women contribute to the world economy and the social well-being of the population in their home countries.<br /><br />"Women are migrating and will continue to do so," the report said as reported by DPA."Although women and youth have always made up a considerable proportion of international migrants, their contributions have largely gone unnoticed. Their voices must be heard.<br /><br />"The report noted that migrants' total remittances were larger than the official development assistance provided by governments, which have been urged to set aside 7 per cent of their gross national products (GNPs) to help poor countries. Only the Nordic countries have met that target.<br /><br />Of the 1 billion dollars Sri Lanka received in remittances in 1999, more than 62 per cent came from women migrants, the report said. The Philippines annually receives 6 billion dollars in remittances, one-third from women migrants.<br /><br />Bangladeshi women working in Middle Eastern countries sent home 72 per cent of total remittances in their country, of which 52 per cent were earmarked for families' daily needs, health care and education. Brain drain But international migration has resulted in a brain drain for many countries.<br /><br />The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the migration of women includes many nurses and physicians, depriving home countries of badly needed medical personnel.<br /><br />Developed countries, where the ageing population requires more medical personnel, benefit from this migration. WHO set a minimum ratio of 100 nurses per 100,000 residents in all countries. Some poor countries have only 10 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants. By contrast, Finland and Norway each have 2,000 nurses per 100,000 inhabitants.<br /><br />While developing countries have tried to stop the flow of skilled woman migrants, the demands for nurses and doctors has continued to grow in wealthy countries. WHO said that by 2008 Britain would need 25,000 more doctors and 250,000 more nurses than in 1997.<br /><br />The US has projected the need for an additional 1 million nurses by 2020 because of the ageing population. Canada and Australia projected deficits of 78,000 nurses and 40,000 nurses, respectively, in the next four to five years. "This is partially owing to demographic ageing brought on by lower fertility rates and longer life expectancies in industrialized countries," the report said. (*)Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1156820461151171392006-08-29T11:00:00.000+08:002006-08-29T11:01:01.556+08:00Immigrants to Britain should meet wage target: think tank<span style="font-size:85%;">Agence France-Presse</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Last updated 09:35am (Mla time) 08/29/2006</span><br /><a href="http://business.inq7.net/money/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=17781"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://business.inq7.net/money/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=17781</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">LONDON -- Britain should set an income target for immigrants and those who do not meet it should not be allowed to settle in the country, a think tank was set to propose Tuesday.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The Daily Telegraph reported that Migrationwatch would propose that migrants with an income of less than 27,000 pounds (51,200 dollars, 40,000 euros) a year not be allowed to permanently settle in Britain.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">That income figure, which only one in five migrants reach, is the level at which a person begins making positive contributions whether measured by taxes paid or by contribution to gross domestic product, the think tank argues. Individuals with lower incomes put pressure on existing infrastructure.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The average wage in Britain last year was 28,210 pounds according to government statistics.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">While low-income workers should still be allowed into Britain to work, Migrationwatch says they should not be allowed to settle permanently.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Immigration has returned to the forefront of public debate in Britain in recent weeks after the government released figures showing more than 427,000 people from the eight new eastern European EU member states have come to work in Britain since the bloc's enlargement in May 2004.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Those figures exclude self-employed workers, a category believed to cover many eastern Europeans in the building trade. Once those are also included, the overall number is closer to 600,000 by some accounts.<br /></span>Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13237505.post-1155109477314140752006-08-09T15:41:00.000+08:002006-08-09T15:44:47.986+08:00OWWA Fund Juggling Confirmed by COAFunds transferred to Smokey Mountain and PhilHealth, records show<br />OWWA fund juggling confirmed by CoA<br />By Angie M. Rosales<br />08/08/2006<br /><a href="http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20060808hed1.html" target="_blank" eudora="autourl">http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20060808hed1.html</a><br /><br />Charges of alleged juggling of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) funds held in trust by Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) dating back to the Ramos administration, was established yesterday by Senate investigators with two sectors, the Commission on Audit (CoA) and a non-government organization claiming the same findings, based on documents culled by the two agencies.<br /><br />At least half a billion pesos was shown to have been illegally used when OWWA was made to engage in the Smokey Mountain housing development project while another P500 million or exactly P530 million of its funds was transferred to PhilHealth amid objections by some board members representing land- and sea-based migrant workers.<br /><br />This piece of information corroborates an earlier expose made by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago during a privilege speech a few years ago concerning a project undertaken by R-II Builders Inc. of businessman Reghis Romero.<br /><br />Worth of the said project, to date, has already ballooned to at least P1 billion and the government, “technically” is yet to recoup both investments and interest earnings although the principal amount had been “reimbursed” to OWWA by another government agency, the Home Insurance Guarantee Corp. (HIGC).<br />The HIGC stood as the “guarantor” to the amount OWWA “loaned” to enable R-2 Builders to undertake the Smokey Mountain Development and Reclamation Project, in joint joint venture with the National Housing Authority as the land owner.<br /><br />Alongside this development, Senate probers learned there is “available” P7.1 billion OWWA funds currently deposited in Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank), P3.2 billion, in Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) billion and P703 million in various banks.<br /><br />Senators sitting as members in the panel chaired by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, upon hearing the testimonies given by Connie Regalado of Migrante International, and attested by OWWA resident auditor Gemiliano Maloles, were at a loss on why there is a squabble over the availability of funds needed for the repatriation of OFWS stranded in Lebanon.<br /><br />“This investigation occurred because during the height of the Lebanon crisis , the (Philippine) embassy (in Beirut) complained that there are no funds available…the rumors again on this issue that there’s no money came about recently and then here it shows that there is over P7 billion in funds. So OWWA has funds. Then why is it (it is) so parsimonious in giving funds?” asked Sen. Joker Arroyo.<br /><br />Senators were told by Maloles that government actually can dip its fingers into these funds, if need be, but it would get a lesser amount because the account will be rendered pre-terminated.<br /><br />“If they have such funds, why is Malacanang asking for a supplementary budget (for workers’ evacuation)?” Estrada commented before reporters during a briefing that proceeded after the hearing.<br /><br />Senators were also told that the reported P530 million transferred to Philhealth, alleged to have been made without any consultation with migrant workers as provided by OWWA charter and existing laws, are yet to be “replenished” by the government, according to Rosemarie Trajano of Kanlungan Center, an NGO working for OFWs’ welfare.<br /><br />Based on the presentation by Maloles, OWWA’s annual revenues, the latest of which was for the year 2005, totaled P1.3 billion coming from fees and taxes received from OFWs alone, excluding those from so-called investments and interests income while expenses incurred included benefits paid to migrant workers and overhead operations amounted to P673 million last year.<br /><br />More or less, OWWA had P650 million net collections based on fees and returned interest income of P462 million last year.<br /><br />Regalado claimed before senators that based on records they collated, a total of P8 billion to include that with Philhealth and the Smokey Mountain project were poured by the government to other agencies over the years.<br /><br />It was Regalado who told senators the transfer of funds to Philhealth was not approved by OFWs’ representatives sitting in the OWWA board of trustees.<br /><br />“In the P530 million OWWA medicare funds transferred to Philhealth, the first move was done in Feb. 2, 2004, OWWA board resolution 005 approving the transfer of said amount and based on the statement of OWWA, the transfer was made in 2005.<br /><br />She then said that after President Arroyo signed EO 182 for the transfer of the fund, in Feb. 2, 2004, the OWWA board of trustees approved resolution No. 005 for the transfer of the P530 million.<br /><br />She said after the amendment was sone, stated that the actual transfer wasmade in March 2005….they have the report, the OWWA. It was submitted to the House committee on overseas workers’ affairs during a hearing last March 29.<br /><br />“It was, the OWWA Medicare funds, collected from each OFW of P900 per year…actually it accumulated up to P4 billion and P530 was transferred to Philhealth..the Medicare program of OFWs is now handled by Philhealth.<br /><br />She said this was an illegal transfer because the money of OWWA is a trust fund and it is owned by the migrant workers and the transfer was done without proper consultations from the migrant workers themselves.<br />“We were raising the issue that before any transfer of funds or before the OWWA board of trustees should decide where the money should be spent, especially in matters like the Medicare funds, there should be a consultation with migrant workers but it was not really done.”<br /><br />She saud she was in HongKong in 2003 when the former president of Philhealth Francisco Duque appeared in an OFWs’ forum in the Philippine consulate. He said it was a consultation but in reality it was not because he was already selling Philhealth (cards) to OFWs and during that time Mrs. Arroyo signed EO 182 on the transfer of funds. She charged rgar Duque was actually marketing it, explaining the benefits from income. It was not a consultation. It was in July 2003. I was still the chairperson of United Filipinos in Hong Kong….<br /><br />“The proposed transfer of OWWA funds was actually in relation to the plan of President Arroyo to run in 2004 presidential elections,” she said.<br /><br />As to the Smokey Mountain project, an initial investment was made in Feb. 6, 1995 of P93.1 million with a<br />face value of P100 million on the same month, she said citing documents from OWWA.<br /><br />“On Feb. 9, 1995, the OWWA secretariat headed by then OWWA chief, followed by administrator Wilhelm Soriano who assumed office in may 23, 1005, facilitated the investment of P459.4 million worth of Smokey Mountain project participation certificates with a face value of P500 million.<br /><br />“From October 1996 to the maturity value of the initial investment as of Oct. 2000 was P905.9 million or a 92 percent increase in five years.<br /><br />“But based on CoA annual audit report on the OWWA for the year ending Dec. 2005, it was found out that the OWWA’s investment in the Smokey Mountain project participation certificate now has a face value of P664 million was made in violation of DoF circular 194-8 are not within the maturity date.<br /><br />“And I have here a copy of the summary of the investment portfolio, it’s not only P664 million, in 2000 it says that from the OWWA main fund that comes from membership fee collection, there is a total of P664 million investment and from the Medicare fund of P171 million or a total of P835 million,” she said.<br /><br />Regalado further testified that such undertaking was illegal, “because a private firm cannot own or acquire a land for public domain”, citing the ruling rendered by the CoA.<br /><br />The matter, when pursued by Sen. Sergio Osmena III, yielded similar claims from Maloles who explained before senators that the P500 million investment or principal amount, technically speaking, has yet to be recovered by the government since another government office, the HGIC “refunded” the amount to OWWA.<br /><br />The P500 million income from 8.5 percent annual interests has not yet been given, Maloles said.<br /><br />“That’s another scam because the Filipino people paid who for it. the HIGC is another government corporation…we know they’re the guarantor but obviously there’s a scam there because it’s operating a port and yet they did not pay the interest so they used the money of the workers,” said Osmena.<br />Not even the principal has been returned, Maloles said.<br /><br />“So OWWA invested and it’s in the nature of a loan…(with 8.5% interest)…and so R-2 Builders neither paid principal nor interest on that P500M,” Osmena said.<br /><br />OWWA invested P500 million, of this, it is supposed to have earned another P500 million in interests over the years, roughly about P1 billion. Of the P1 billion, P500 million was paid back to OWWA by HIGC…representing the principal,” said Maloles.<br /><br />“So R-2 still owes P500 million in accumulated interests,” the senator said.<br /><br />“Technically sir it is already the HIGC that is assuming…this was paid in tranches, it’s not a one-time payment,” Maloles clarified.<br /><br />Asked by Osmena to there were any earnings OWWA got from the said project, Soriano who is currently commissioner of the Human Rights Commission (CHR), explained that there was none because they merely assumed the role of being a participant in the project.Migrant Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128521598575851698noreply@blogger.com1