EDITORIAL - Abused

A picture of the mother who dumped her newborn baby in an airplane lavatory bin is starting to emerge, and it is one of exploitation and abuse. The woman invited for questioning by the National Bureau of Investigation has reportedly admitted being the mother of the abandoned baby. Government agents who tracked down the woman through a bloodstained Gulf Air seat from Bahrain said she might have become pregnant after being raped by her employer in Bahrain. The woman was reportedly recruited illegally for work in Qatar before ending up in Bahrain, where sexual abuse might have prompted her to return home.

If the rape story is true, she is not the first victim of illegal recruiters to suffer sexual abuse, and she won’t be the last unless authorities score significant victories in the campaign against human trafficking. Sarah Balabagan was made to lie about her age by human traffickers to work illegally as a maid in the United Arab Emirates. In July 1994, she killed her 85-year-old employer who tried to rape her, stabbing him 34 times.

There have been many other cases of sexual and physical abuse, less sensational, with the victims’ responses less tragic than those of Balabagan and the woman on the Gulf Air plane. With the continuing exodus of Filipinos from their own country to seek better opportunities overseas, the government needs to upgrade the state’s capability to protect its citizens from human traffickers. Foreign governments have offered assistance in this crime that crosses national borders.

The government also needs to boost counseling programs for victims of abuse. Marriages can be destroyed and families broken as a result of abuse suffered by overseas workers, adding to the victims’ trauma. Reports said many people have expressed interest in adopting the baby abandoned on the plane, and the infant is currently receiving help from various sectors. The mother also needs a lot of help.