By EUNICE del ROSARIO
Published: 20th April 2007
MORE Filipino workers have sought shelter at the Philippine Embassy this week. The number of the ‘runaways’ at the shelter, Zinj, last Sunday went down to 80 from 96, but as of yesterday the number went up again to 92, said an embassy spokesman.
“Ninety-six was the most we’ve ever provided shelter for,” he said.
“Considering we get up to three to four workers coming to us for assistance or shelter each day, it is to no surprise the number has gone up once again to 92 in a short span of four days.”
Despite the overcrowding in the two-storey shelter, he said that each worker had enough food and water on a daily basis.
By EUNICE del ROSARIO
Published: 20th April 2007
MORE Filipino workers have sought shelter at the Philippine Embassy this week. The number of the ‘runaways’ at the shelter, Zinj, last Sunday went down to 80 from 96, but as of yesterday the number went up again to 92, said an embassy spokesman.
“Ninety-six was the most we’ve ever provided shelter for,” he said.
“Considering we get up to three to four workers coming to us for assistance or shelter each day, it is to no surprise the number has gone up once again to 92 in a short span of four days.”
Despite the overcrowding in the two-storey shelter, he said that each worker had enough food and water on a daily basis.
“There is no shortage of food or water for them and we have a strict policy that the shelter must remain clean, particularly the three toilets,” said the official.
The shelter on average houses more than 40 workers a month, the majority of who are housemaids whose complaints include overwork, unpaid salaries, sexual harassment and physical abuse.
A large number of them are undocumented workers, which means that their employers or agencies have brought them to Bahrain on tourist visas.
This has heightened concerns that employers have opted to bring maids here on tourist visas because they do not want to comply with the new $400 (BD151) minimum wage rule.
The increase of ‘runaways’ at the shelter may also be attributed to the fact that airlines are now in their busy summer season.
The embassy spokesman said that although the majority of the workers’ cases were classified as serious, there were still those who run away from their employers “for no good reason”.
“Unfortunately, we can’t force them to return to their employers as the worker does not want to,” he said.
“We try our best to resolve each and every case.”
In the Philippines, it was reported yesterday that the number of Filipino workers abroad dropped by 11 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said that land-based deployment shrunk by 9.7pc, with only 190,850 workers leaving the country from January to March this year, compared to the 211,297 who left during the same period last year. Sea-based workers dropped by 15.1pc from 69,326 a year ago to 58,831 this year.
The POEA attributed the decline in the land-based category to the new regulations imposed by the government on the deployment of housemaids, including the increase of their salaries from $200 (BD75) to $400 (BD151).
A POEA official said that the drop in the number of Filipinos going overseas to work was expected.
Recruitment agencies based in Manila said they were expecting the employment rate to worsen unless the new minimum salary was scrapped.
“After the new rules were imposed, you can now count with your fingers the job orders from Middle East countries such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. We practically have no job orders from the countries that were our biggest markets,” said one recruiter.
© Gulf Daily News