Calls of Distress from Detained OFWs Greet 2007

Barely two weeks into 2007 and the office of Migrante International is already swamped with requests for assistance from detained overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and complaints of government inaction on these cases.

BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat

Barely two weeks into 2007 and the office of Migrante International is already swamped with requests for assistance from detained overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and complaints of government inaction on these cases.

Kuwait detainees

Gil Librea is now working in Kuwait after experiencing inhuman working conditions as a factory worker in Taiwan. When he entered Kuwait, he was questioned because of irregularities in his travel and work documents. So he went to the Philippine Embassy there to ask for their assistance in straightening out his papers.

He was surprised to learn that his problem is nothing compared to the plight of three fellow OFWs detained in a police station in Kuwait.

Librea and a Filipino friend Dodong Ombina visited, last Dec. 29, the three OFWs detained in Rumiathiya police station in Kuwait. The three were identified as Carmelita Rosario Lagata, Rowelyn Monilla and Laila Haiden.

Last Dec. 31, Ombina was preoccupied not with the New Year celebrations but with the case of the three detained OFWs. He sent an email to Migrante International requesting assistance for the three. He also described Legata’s case.

According to Ombina, Lagata was a domestic helper working with a Kuwaiti family for three months. She had to do all the household work, deprived of sleep and with no day off. She was able to escape from her employer by jumping from the second floor of the apartment building where they were staying. She broke her back and legs in the process.

Ombina wrote that Lagata’s employer brought her to the Al Razi hospital. Lagata was not able to walk for two months, Ombina said. After her injuries started to heal, she was released from the hospital and was turned over to the police for investigation.

Legata sought the help of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait. But embassy representatives advised her to go with the police adding that the investigation would last for three days only.

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