Anti-human trafficking awardee to OFWs: Report sexual harassment cases | Pinoy Abroad | GMA News Online

Source: GMA News

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/314406/pinoyabroad/news/anti-human-trafficking-awardee-to-ofws-report-sexual-harassment-cases

June 25, 2013 1:30pm

Migrant workers' advocate Susan Ople, who was recently honored by the United States for her efforts to stop human trafficking, urged overseas Filipino workers to report incidents of sexual harassment.

Ople, former labor undersecretary and president of the Ople Policy Center, said two former OFWs intend to file complaints of sexual harassment against certain labor personnel. 

 

In a news release on Tuesday, Ople said the two OFWs were willing to share their stories so that other OFWs seeking refuge in half-way houses abroad would be spared from sexual harassment..

 

"One of them had already met with our lawyers while we expect the second victim to come forward anytime this week. Though they are not involved in the "sex-for-flight" controversy, their traumatic  experiences at these shelters are important to underscore the urgent need for reforms," said Ople.

The OFW advocate called on overseas Filipinos who have stayed or continue to stay in embassy premises and OWWA-run shelters to share their experiences with the staff of the Blas F. Ople Center. 

The center is named for Ople's late father, who held high-ranking positions in the Philippine government, such as the posts of Senate president, Labor Secretary, and Foreign Affairs Secretary.

"This is your chance to help others. Share what you know and we will do our best to document your experiences and convert all of these into a confidential report as basis for justice and reforms," Ople said.

 

The Ople Center can be reached via 833-5337 and 833-9562 or through blasoplecenter@hotmail.com. 

"Sexploitation"

Accusations against embassy officials and personnel are varied:
running a sex ring, where Filipino wards are forced into prostitution;
sexual molestation; and
the so-called “sex for flight” scheme where female Filipino workers under the embassy’s custody are reportedly being offered immediate repatriation in exchange for sex.

The issue about the sex-for-flight scheme erupted even though return tickets to the Philippines are actually given out for free by the Philippine government to distressed Filipinos.

On Monday, at least three alleged victims, including one who accused a Philippine labor attaché of sexual molestation, in the "sex for flight" scandal in Philippine diplomatic posts in the Middle East have come forward in a sweeping government investigation, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said.  

The official, whom Del Rosario did not identify, was the first embassy personnel to have been tagged in the scandal outside Kuwait, Syria and Jordan.

These three posts were earlier named by party-list Rep. Walden Bello as having the most number of incidents of sexual abuses committed by Philippine officials against distressed Filipinos staying in embassy shelters.

 

Del Rosario explained that the Philippine investigation into the scheme has been expanded to include its diplomatic posts in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, where a large concentration of Filipinos working mostly as domestic helpers are based.

Awardee

 

Ople was one of those who received the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) heroes award for 2013 from US Secretary of State John Kerry in a ceremony at the US State Department in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. 

 

The awards were handed out alongside the release of the 2013 TIP report, which ranks countries according to their efforts to fight human trafficking.

When United States Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas congratulated Ople, he called her a "nanay" for her advocacy.

 

"Her strong advocacy for the welfare of OFWs has made her a 'nanay' in the truest spirit of the word," Thomas said in a statement released by the US Embassy. - VVP, GMA News

 

 

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Information is key in fight against human trafficking «

June 20, 2011

by mpost

QUEZON CITY—Ignorance, and not poverty, is the main reason why people fall prey to human trafficking syndicates.

Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) executive director Mary Grace Tirona made this observation during the Communications News Exchange Forum held at the Philippine Information Agency last week.

Thus, the CFO has embarked on information and advocacy activities addressed to prospective Filipino migrants and overseas Filipino workers, Tirona said.

One of this is the community education program that engages communities in dialogues and discussions on the issue of human trafficking, she said, adding these are conducted in Metro Manila and in the provinces.

The country was placed under Tier 2 watch list by the US State Department in its 2010 Trafficking Report. This means the country is identified as a source and as a destination and transit point for trafficked men, women and children for sex trade and forced labor.

Community education program seeks to assist prospective migrants in making informed decisions on working or migrating abroad, as well as generate community involvement on migration concerns, the CFO said.

The program also aims to raise public awareness on various issues concerning migration, intermarriages and existing government policies and programs directed against illegal recruitment, documentation fraud and trafficking in persons, among others.

Tirona said an informed citizenry can help in combating the problem of human trafficking.

Apart from dialogues, the CFO also set up the 1343 Action line against human trafficking last March.

The action line operates 24/7 to receive inquiries, reports and complaints related to human trafficking.

Tirona urged victims of human trafficking, and the public who may have knowledge of such illegal activity to make use of this hotline.

The hotline has received around 2,800 calls, Tirona said. Of these, the agency was able to refer 24 active cases to various agencies for resolution and action.

Tirona said the “porous” nature of the country’s borders—with several entry and exit points—makes it difficult for authorities to detect human trafficking activities and arrest perpetrators.

The enormity of the problem has prompted the government to create the Inter-Agency Council Against Human Trafficking to combat this trans-boundary crime.

Information is key in fight against human trafficking «
Source: /mindoropost.com

Malaya | National: Trafficking takes its toll on women

MONDAY MAY 02, 2011

 

BY KITT MOLINA and ALETA SANTOS

Hope for the Youth Foundation and VERA Files

This is a true story about a crime that, despite the existence of a law, has gone unpunished.
"Nora," 22, is a victim of human trafficking, one of up to 100,000 Filipino women and children who are believed to be victimized every year. A single parent, she comes from a poor family living in the outskirts of Metro Manila. Under R.A. 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, however, Nora may not reveal for this story her true name or those whom she has accused of committing the crime.

It has been almost two years since she and two other Filipinas filed a case of illegal recruitment and human trafficking against the local agency that deployed them to South Korea where they were forced to work as "guest relation officers" or GROs and engage in acts of prostitution. Their case gathered dust until one of the complainants filed an affidavit of desistance, which, as Nora expected, led to the dismissal of the case. They sued their local recruiter for money claims due to unpaid wages but this, too, was dismissed by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

"Nadi-dismiss po sa NLRC ’yung case dahil ’yung isang kasama bumaligtad, kaya po lumakas ang laban ng kabila. Narinig naming gumawa siya ng desistance kasi napapagod na raw po siya at nagpabayad na lang siya. Trinaydor niya pa rin kami. (Our case filed with National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) was dismissed because one of us had a change of heart which helped the other side. We heard she filed an affidavit of desistance because she got tired and would rather be paid. She betrayed us)."

Both cases have been appealed by Nora who did not expect that her fight for justice would come to naught given the reported all-out campaign of the government against human traffickers. Moreover, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Overseas Filipino Workers has initiated the filing of the criminal case against the local recruiter. The committee, with the help of a lawyer from Malacañang, was instrumental in rescuing Nora and her two co-workers from the South Korean nightclub where they worked. The officials demanded from the local recruitment agency the return of the three Filipina workers to the Philippines.

The Philippine embassy in South Korea was not involved at all in the repatriation of the trafficked Filipinas. "Sa palagay ko, alam ng embassy dun pero pinagtatakpan (I think the embassy there knows but they’re covering it up)," says Nora.

RECRUITERS’ STRATEGY
Ironically, it is now Nora who is on the defensive. She has been charged with perjury and falsification of public documents by her recruiter, which continues to send Filipina entertainers to South Korea despite a pending complaint against the agency before the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).

Being used against Nora was the blank document signed by her mother who was told that this was a requirement for the quick deployment of her daughter to South Korea. The day before her departure, Nora also signed a hand-written document stating that she owed her recruiter P30,000. The document stipulated her monthly salary would be $300 to be given on her seventh month at work with a three-month deduction as placement fee and reimbursement for other expenses.

"Ganyan talaga ang strategy ng recruiters. They file counter-charges at magtatagal ang kaso hanggang mag-settle na lang ang complainant. ’Yan ang problema sa ating judicial system. (That’s the usual strategy of recruiters. They file countercharges which prolong the case and force the complainant to go for a settlement. That’s the problem with our judicial system)," says Erwin Puhawan, a paralegal of the Kanlungan Center Foundation Inc., who helps Nora follow up her case.

Prosecutors abet the practice of settling even criminal cases, which is patently wrong, adds Puhawan, the only person who agreed to be identified in this story.

But the problem lies not just in the judicial system but also in the law itself. The Kanlungan paralegal says human-trafficking victims run the risk of violating the confidentiality clause of the anti-human trafficking law when they expose and identify illegal recruiters to warn others about the modus operandi. The law prohibits public disclosure of the name and personal circumstances of the trafficked person as well as of the accused.
But even without naming names and places, Nora’s experience in South Korea stands out for the boldness of her recruiter.

On the day that Nora and her companions arrived in Manila escorted by airport security, several personnel of the recruitment agency that deployed them were also at the airport waiting for their arrival. The victims had to hide from their recruiter’s staff to get out of the airport.

SOURCE, TRANSIT, DESTINATION POINT
The Philippines has been identified in the 2010 US State Department trafficking report as a source, transit and destination point of human-trafficking victims. The same report noted the pervasive corruption in the country, which has allowed human trafficking to flourish with either the tacit or explicit permission of officials in government units and agencies assigned to combat the problem.

The Philippines has been on the State Department’s Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years, and was in danger of being downgraded this year to Tier 3 Watch List, which would mean a drastic cut on humanitarian and non-trade-related aid.

But the downgrade was averted with the rush of 22 convictions involving 23 human traffickers before the release of the State Department Human Trafficking Report for 2011 in June.

President Aquino recently announced that the Philippines would be removed from the Watch List although it would still be categorized under Tier 2. In this category are those governments that "do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards."

A $32-billion industry that victimizes 12.3 million adults and children around the world, human trafficking has been described as a form of modern-day slavery.

BONDAGE
Indeed, Nora and her companions were kept in bondage during their two-week stay in South Korea. Hired in Manila as singers of a band, they were required to wear sexy dresses and assigned to entertain inside private rooms where customers mashed their breasts and touched their genitals.
"Puros kabastusan ang nangyayari sa loob ng kwarto. Lahat po ng kababaihan dun ganun din ang ginagawa (All kinds of obscenities are happening in that room. They do these to all the women)," recalls Nora of her first day at the club.

Nora says they were made to greet guests by raising their skirts and pulling down their panties. Several times, customers forced Nora to dance naked, to masturbate and to perform oral sex on them. She could only cry while customers laughed at her misery and rage.

On their first day at work, Nora and her two companions decided that they would go back to the Philippines, but the question was how. They did not have money and escape seemed impossible. Their South Korean employers confiscated their passports upon their arrival. They were always guarded and threatened with arrest. Two mamasans assigned to them warned that they, together with their parents, would be arrested if they escaped.

Their world outside of the nightclub was confined to a small room where they stayed before the daily grind started at 4 p.m. Work at the club usually ended around 4 to 6 a.m. or sometimes until 9 a.m. In one of the clubs where she was transferred, Nora noticed cameras all over the place. Their moves were closely monitored.

"Sobrang dami pong mga Pilipina dun (There are so many Filipinas there)," says Nora of the people she met and saw at work. Some of the Filipina "guest relations officers" or GROs working in the bars were also deployed by her local recruiter.

STILL HOPING
According to Nora, the South Korean nightclub owners did not let them go easily despite the intervention of a Malacañang official in the case. They were furious upon learning that Nora and her two companions were able to call up and inform their families in Manila about their situation. They tried to convince the three Filipinas to stay, with a promise that they would be deployed to a different club. When the three stood their ground, one of the club owners threatened to kill them.

Before finally allowing the three Filipinas to go home, they were asked to sign a waiver stating that they were returning to the Philippines because they were homesick.

In Manila, Nora discovered at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration that her real salary was $600 a month, not $300, and that her contract was for one year, not two years.
Nora has since found a job at a trading store in Manila, but is in danger of losing it because of her frequent absences.

"Lagi akong absent dahil inaasikaso ko ang anak ko na laging nagkakasakit at ’yung kaso ko (I’m always absent because I have to take care of my son who is often sick and I have to attend to the case)," she explains.

Still, Nora is not giving up hope. With the assistance of the nongovernment organization Kanlungan, she wants to pursue the criminal case against her recruiter. She hopes employers—and society in general—would be more sympathetic to trafficking survivors like her who fight for dear life almost daily.
*** VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for truth.

Source: Malaya | National
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24/7 hotline vs human trafficking launched «

Image via Wikipedia

March 17, 2011

by mpost

MANILA—Victim of human trafficking? Dial 1343.

The 1343 Actionline against Human Trafficking was launched Tuesday in a bid to curb the problem of human trade in the Philippines.

The Inter-Agency Council against Human Trafficking-Advocacy and Communications Committee (IACAT-ADVOCOM) has partnered with the Dynamic Outsource Solutions in finalizing the program’s launch.

The 1343 Actionline is a 24/7 hotline that will respond to emergency or crisis calls from victims of trafficking.

It can be reached from any point in Metro Manila and is also accessible from the provinces using Manila’s area code 02.

Soon, it will become toll free nationwide, said IACAT-ADVOCOM chair Secretary Imelda Nicolas of the Commission on Overseas Filipinos (CFO). She added that it will later be available free of charge worldwide.

“We are equipped to respond to their needs and if necessary, refer their cases to specific government agencies or our non-government organization partners,” Nicolas said.

Nicolas said that the 1343 hotline will also serve as a database of trafficking cases, making it easier to track trafficking victims and their offenders.

“We need to document cases and fill the gaps of services and programs needed to eliminate trafficking,” she said.

Aside from the 1343 Action line for victims of trafficking, the CFO will intensify education and information drives on the pros and cons of migration through its Community Education Program (CEP).

The CEP involves barangay-level training on to avoid illegal recruitment and human trafficking and to prepare would-be migrants for life abroad.

Source: mindoropost.com

24/7 hotline vs human trafficking launched «

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Philippines vows to curb human trafficking - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

First Posted 13:04:00 02/06/2011 

WASHINGTON DC, United States—Visiting Vice President Jejomar Binay assured on Wednesday, February 2, the Philippines' commitment to stem human trafficking and illegal recruitment, and promised to take the country off the US Trafficking of Persons watch list.

Binay, a Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers Concerns, made the assurance Wednesday night, two days before his crucial meeting with the United States' top official on human trafficking issues scheduled on Friday.

The meeting between Binay and Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, chief of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, is one of the high points of the vice president's four-day visit to the United States.

His trip comes at a time when the United States has stepped up its efforts to curb human trafficking, a global problem that victimizes at least 12 million every year.

CdeBaca told a press briefing Tuesday that some countries, including some US "stratregic allies" were in grave danger of being further downgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 3 on the Human Trafficking watch list because they were not doing enough to stem what is considered a form of "modern-day slavery."

"This year is the first year that the automatic downgrade provision, which is a feature of the 2008 Trafficking Victim Protections Act, is in place," CdeBaca said.

"Countries that have been on Tier 2 Watch List, which is the next-to-last step of the report, for two consecutive years will have to either improve on the merits or be downgraded to Tier 3," he added.

As Secretary Hillary Clinton suggested in the cabinet-level meeting on human trafficking, CdeBaca said, ranking another country is never an easy task, but turning away from an action in the face of modern slavery is intolerable.

The Philippines, a close ally and treaty partner of the United States, was listed in Tier 2 in 2009 and again in 2010. This means it could be downgraded to Tier 3, unless Manila could convince the US it has done better in stemming human trafficking and illegal recruitment.

Vice President Jejomar Binay who is currently in the US capital acknowledged the problem and assured that the Aquino administration "is doing its best to stem human trafficking and is sending guilty parties to jail."
Binay also thanked the United States for hiring Filipino workers and for its commitment in safeguarding their rights.

He cited a report from the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking in Persons (IACAT) in Manila there have been "significant strides" in the prosecution of human traffickers and illegal recruiters.

From the last quarter of 2009 to the whole of last year, the IACAT report said, 15 persons have been convicted for violation of human trafficking laws.

"I assure you, this is just the beginning. We will go after them and we will not stop until these traffickers go to jail," he told Washington DC-based Filipino journalists Wednesday night at a briefing in the Philippine embassy.

In fact, he said he was glad to know that a political officer from US embassy official attends the meetings of a top-level Philippine committee he chairs tasked to go after traffickers.

Binay said that as Presidential Adviser for OFW Concerns his main priorities are to prevent illegal recruitment and to prosecute illegal traffickers, adding that one way of doing this was to keep applicants engaged and informed of the rules and their rights.

It has been observed that "80 percent" of problems involving overseas Filipino workers are rooted in their "allowing themselves to get into questionable provisions," like paying unauthorized and exorbitant placement fees.

In some cases, according to Overseas Workers Welfare Officer Adonis Duero, unwitting job applicants for overseas jobs are sweet-talked into coughing up excessive placement fees by illegal recruiters that do not exist, and they end up being stranded, jobless, and penniless abroad.

Duero, who is based at the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles, has recommended that job orders being offered by recruiters to applicants be verified and double checked by labor authorities "before processing applications and before actual deployment of the workers to their job sites abroad."

Such a meticulous system of checking and cross-checking, Duero explained, would weed out fake job offers as well as make sure they are still available when the OFWs are booked for their flights abroad.

Duero said that he has encountered cases of stranded OFWs who were handed their job contracts by the recruiters just before they board their planes to their destinations.

This illegal practice is being resorted to by the unscrupulous recruiters for a number of reasons, he said.

First, the recruiters make sure that "placement fees" called in local parlance as "lagay" are paid in full; and second, the workers are given little or no chance to back out, even when the salary they get is far less than the rate promised during the initial process of application.

Several victims of human trafficking this reporter has interviewed in the US said their recruiters "were so greedy they even asked for $100" from the departing workers, which they had to skim off their limited, often borrowed, travel or pocket money.
 

From FilAm Star

 

Source: GlobalNation.inquirer.net 

Philippines vows to curb human trafficking - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

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Senate probe sought on POEA's alleged role in human trafficking - Pinoy Abroad - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

Image via Wikipedia

01/18/2011 | 06:55 PM

 

  Sen.Antonio Trillanes IV has filed a resolution seeking an inquiry into the alleged collusion within the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) that he said leads to the trafficking and illegal recruitment of some aspiring overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

Senate Resolution 329 asks the Senate blue ribbon committee to investigate a complaint filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) about alleged connivance between some POEA officers and three licensed recruitment agencies in exploiting some 100 OFWs.

In the resolution, Trillanes said there was suspicion of collusion because the licenses of the agencies were already cancelled but the penalties given to them were not implemented.

“A Senate inquiry in aid of legislation would help clarify the true situation within the POEA and address, through legislation, policy and structural gaps that enable wanton violations of rules, and regulations and labor laws by licensed recruitment agencies," he said.

Trillanes said that from 1982 to 2011, the market for overseas workers has grown exponentially with the POEA saying that around 3,000 Filipinos leave for abroad to work daily.

“The national interest clearly indicates that the global demand for Filipino workers must be balanced with the need to safeguard their rights through duly-verified job contracts, carefully-screened foreign employers, and professionally competent as well as honest licensed recruitment agencies," he said.

The Philippines has been placed in the Tier 2 Watch List of the United States Department of State due to the large number of unresolved human trafficking cases, and is in danger of falling into the Tier 3 category, which would put at risk around $250 million in non-humanitarian assistance from the United States. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMANews.TV
Source: GMANews.TV

Senate probe sought on POEA's alleged role in human trafficking - Pinoy Abroad - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

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Journal Online | BI special counters shut down

by Lee Ann P. Ducusin

Wednesday, 29 December 2010 18:55

THE Bureau of Immigration yesterday ordered the removal of all immigration special assistance counters in international airports to prevent human traffickers from using them in their illegal activities. Immigration acting chief Ronaldo Ledesma issued the memorandum “in view of recurring incidents of escorting or facilitating of passengers” through these special counters. “Human trafficking syndicates, in cahoots with some incorrigible immigration personnel, continue to search for ways to enable them to send trafficking victims out of the country and into perilous destinations abroad, especially our aspiring overseas Filipino workers,” he said. Ledesma said closing down the special assistance counters is just one of the many steps the BI is taking to stop human trafficking. He said the immigration bureau will however continue to provide an exclusive counter for APEC Business Travel Card holders and holders of diplomatic or official passports pursuant to international commitment or practice. “This shall be stationed at the most visible area, preferably the centermost counter,” so that monitors could easily spot unauthorized use of the exclusive counter,” the BI chief said. Source: journal.com.ph

Journal Online | BI special counters shut down

Pinoy couple meted maximum prison time for human trafficking | ABS-CBN

Image via Wikipedia

By Don Tagala, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

Posted at 12/14/2010 6:39 PM | Updated as of 12/15/2010 12:47 PM

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida - After pleading guilty to forcing at least 39 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to work under threat of arrest and deportation, the Filipino owners of a labor contracting company in Boca Raton, Florida were sentenced to maximum prison time allowed by law.

Sophia Manuel, owner of Quality Staffing Corporation Services and the mastermind of a human trafficking operation, was sentenced to 78 months.

Her husband, Alfonso Baldonado, who helped her, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison.

After Manuel and Baldonado get out of jail, they will be on a 3-year probation.

It was an emotional victory for the abused workers.

“It’s only right that [they] were sentenced to the maximum jail time because of how they abused us. There are other victims out there that have not spoken yet,” said Jofer Trinos.

This is also considered a landmark case. Manuel is the first visa fraud case successfully prosecuted in the state of Florida.

The Filipinos came to the US as guest workers in 2007 and 2008. After paying up $5,000 in recruitment and placement fees, their American dream turned into a nightmare.

Twenty-eight of them were cramped inside one house. Many of them became jobless, hungry and deep in debt in the Philippines.

For 4 months, they said they slept like canned sardines — more than 6 of them shared each room. Some even slept on the kitchen and garage floors.

“We said enough was enough. So we ran away and told authorities we needed some help,” Jhoanna Pio said.

The workers’ lawyer, former Florida Assistant Attorney General Marissa de Guzman-Cobb said, “With the bad economy back home, the sense of desperation makes it easy for predators like this couple to prey on our kababayans.”

De Guzman-Cobb added, “When something sounds good to be true — always ask, ‘What’s the catch’?”

T-Visas are now being processed by the Department of Homeland Security for these victims of human trafficking. This will allow them to work legally in the US and earn their citizenship to be able to petition for their immediate family to come to America in the near future.

The court is expected to give the workers restitution for a million dollars or more. Balitang America

Source:.abs-cbnnews.com

Pinoy couple meted maximum prison time for human trafficking | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features

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Aquino told: Stop forced migration, create jobs at home - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Image via Wikipedia

INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:27:00 07/26/2010

MANILA, Philippines—Migrante International, an alliance of overseas Filipino workers, families and advocates worldwide, today called on President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino to make good his promise of stopping forced migration by generating more local jobs.

"Our people are being forced to go abroad out of desperation," said Garry Martinez, chairperson of Migrante International.

Martinez said that there are currently 11 million OFWs and an estimated 3,800 leaving the country at a daily rate. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) recorded 1.9 million OFWs in 2009 alone.

"The economy's lack of development resulting in job loss at home is the root cause. It is a sad consequence when our labor force is uprooted from their families, forced to endure unfair labor practices and abuses, and in some cases, suffer injury and death, in exchange for cheap labor because of government failure to address poverty and unemployment," he said.

OFW remittances have kept the economy afloat amid fiscal deficit and the global economic crisis. Remittances have reached record-high levels at $1.6 billion last May.

"But while the national economy benefits from OFW remittances, the surge has unfortunately made it convenient for the government to skirt around curbing poverty and creating decent jobs at home," Martinez said.

He said," Aquino should decisively deviate from the past Arroyo administration's labor export policy and focus instead on developing the national economy." OFWs should be top priority

Martinez said that forced migration has induced grave problems such as illegal recruitment, human trafficking, modern-day slavery, discrimination and immigration crackdowns, leaving in their wake thousands of OFWs in death row, jailed or stranded overseas.

Migrante has recorded 1,665 cases of human trafficking from 2003 to 2009, with women and children as the most common victims of white slavery and forced labor. Meanwhile, there are currently 102 cases of OFWs in death row, of which 66 are from China and 26 from the Middle East; while 226 are stranded and languishing in Filipino shelters in the Middle East, Somalia and Taiwan.

"There are also thousands in jails abroad who are enduring the most deplorable and cruel of conditions and lacking much-needed support from the DFA, Philippine embassies and consulates." Of present, he said, they have recorded at least six OFWs from the Middle East Region whose remains are yet to be sent back home.

"Unfortunately, in the past, the government had failed to provide assistance, welfare and protection to OFWs. Agencies such as the DFA, POEA, OWWA and their representatives in Philippine embassies and consulates abroad have been subject to numerous complaints from OFWs and their families," said Martinez.

Instead, he said, they have but figured in numerous cases of corruption and accused of imposing exorbitant state exactions and conniving with big illegal recruitment syndicates.

"Urgent actions are needed. OFWs should be of topmost national priority in the Aquino administration," he said.

"The re-appointment of Sec. Alberto Romulo in the DFA, for one, offers dim hopes for OFWs. We hope that it does not entail the continuation of the status quo."

He asked Aquino to immediately investigate Romulo in the DFA's anomalous e-passport contract, which has gained ire anew from OFWs after the imposition of steeper e-passport in the country and abroad.

Martinez also called on Aquino to "audit and investigate" where the OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Agency) funds have gone.

The OWWA manages funds coming from $25 contributions per contract of each OFW. OWWA funds are said to have reached P12 billion in 2010. OFWs, however, say that the funds they contributed do not trickle down to much-needed welfare service from the OWWA. For instance, in 2005, of the 5,168 OFWs jailed, about 900 were denied services by the OWWA.

Migrante International joined other sectors in today's People's SONA rally with an internationally-coordinated action with its chapters abroad.

Aquino told: Stop forced migration, create jobs at home - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos