When Joanna Demafiles, a Filipina working as a domestic worker in the Middle East, was recently found dead inside a freezer of a Kuwaiti apartment, the Philippine government predictably resorted to what it always did following similar incidents in the past. It announced a two-year ban on Filipina workers going to Kuwait pending new agreements or until the noise dies down. Over the past three years, according to the Philippine Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), some 196 migrant domestic workers have died in Kuwait due to accidents, health problems and suspicious suicides.
Similarly, when Indonesian Adelina Lisao died after injuries incurred as a result of severe beatings by her employers in Penang, Malaysia, the Indonesian government immediately banned the deployment of domestic workers to that country. They now blame Lisao’s death on one illegal placement agency which recruited her, sending her off without the proper training and forth.
This is so tragically déjà vu. How many times have such incidents been reported since women from Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Nepal have been sent off to work in foreign countries to seek a livelihood because their own countries are incapable of providing for them? A lot. Yet, have we learnt at all how to ensure these women are duly protected from abuse? Very little, it seems. Just short-term cures to appease the public and maintain their political images.
It is difficult not to be cynical about this old, seemingly unsolvable problem. Perhaps we should look beyond legalities, administration and our trust on well-intended but ineffective officials. Let us go even further, beyond the training women workers supposedly get before they leave to work in foreign lands.
How about changing the negative attitudes and prejudices of employers towards menial workers? Although many people may deny it, we tend to discriminate or at least see people of lower stature as being a class below us. And this is most prevalent in Asia, in particular where the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ are wide. Somehow, there is a smug and superior attitude towards menial workers, proving that the notion of class or caste differences not only still exist among us, it is very much still practiced in daily life.
Let us not be hypocrites and close our eyes to how many maids and other menial workers inside our own homes are often mistreated, while we rave and rant over the abuse of women working overseas.
If we are to ensure that our migrant workers are not mistreated and abused, we should start at our homes, in our own societies. Let them be paid the minimum wage, or at least some amount to would meet their basic needs. But most of all, treat them as equals. Like everyone else, they are working to earn a living. Give them the respect and appreciation they deserve. This is nothing more than giving them their basic human rights.
But the process of changing attitudes is easier said than done, particularly when a society is still seeped in certain cultural norms. A public campaign to treat lowly, menial workers without prejudice, at homes, at schools and at workplaces, could be a start.
As for migrant workers, let the discussions between sending and receiving countries include clauses that would guarantee maximum protection for our workers, including strict enforcement of the regulations and the law against employers who mistreat and abuse them.
