A Filipina migrant worker, who was seven months pregnant, was found dead a few months ago in a vacant lot outside the City of Kuwait. The local police called up the Philippine Embassy and at dawn, we had to rush to the hospital morgue to witness the autopsy and the police identification of the victim. Another OFW was pushed from the third floor and she fell on the pavement below and is now a paraplegic, with broken spinal column.
These incidents illustrate the many tragedies involving our OFWs in the Middle East, and all over the world. And our government resources are never enough to respond to the tremendous demands for services.
The volume of welfare cases here in Kuwait alone calls for more personnel and budget. Too many complaints of illegal recruitment, trafficking and violations of human rights. The demands for services are overwhelming. And we are too few and too overworked.
If the whole truth has to be told so that the whole world would know, and if the entire reality has to be written, so that the present generation could learn important lessons from it, and the future could derive wisdom from these painful the events, the pages of the migrant workers tragedies would be soaked in the blood, sweat and the tears of hapless victims of physical direct assaults to human dignity, molestations and other forms of violence.
It is a great tragedy indeed, that our workers are exposed to all kind of risks. And while our government is indeed serious in its thrust for worker's protection, there are simply too much problems and too little resources. As we always sigh and cry from our Post, "our challenges are 'Kapantay Ay Langit,' while our resources are 'Bato Sa Buhangin'". It is a feeling of helplessness and frustration for our inability to deliver needed services adequately and well.
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Email: polo1jabriya@yahoo.com