The plight of women migrant workers in COVID times

Migrant workers are among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This was first reported in June last year by the International Labor Organization, and again last week by Kyodo News citing data about foreign workers in Japan.

More data came to me last February 4 and 11 in a consultation-dialogue and training series on strengthening coordination and access to quality services for Filipino migrant workers and survivors of gender-based violence. The webinar will run for another two sessions on February 18 and 23. It is organized by the Spotlight Initiative, a global partnership between the European Union and the United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women, in coordination with the Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College and the Office of Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon.

The Philippines has more female OFWs than male OFWs, the former comprising 55.8% of the total number. The female migrant workers are also younger, with about half of them in the 24-34 age group. Most of our migrant workers work in Asia and the Middle East, according to 2018 government data, with 24.3% of them in Saudi Arabia and 19.9% and 31.7% distributed in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries in Asia.

While there are managers and professionals among them, most OFWs are working in so-called elementary occupations which include domestic work. Gender stereotype roles influence occupational categories for women, and vulnerabilities crop up especially because many of our migrant workers are young women in elementary occupations. Most victims of discrimination are women on account of their nationality, gender, racial identity, and occupational category. While there are some success stories, many sad and tragic stories to this day come from countries like those in the Middle East where women are actually treated as second-class citizens, and domestic workers are treated as property.

Among the forms of violence that many Filipino women migrant workers face are exploitative working conditions and lack of access to healthcare, legal, and other social services. Standard work hours and pay are absent or, if existing, are not followed in many cases but which remain under the radar of state monitors. Women migrant workers who lack legal documentation are also at risk for abuse by state actors and these women have little power to complain or file charges. Based on data from the Department of Foreign Affairs, 75% of those who seek assistance per year from the embassy for complaints such as physical, verbal, and psychological abuse, sexual harassment and rape, are women.

In her talk during the webinar, Miriam College Prof. Aurora Javate-de Dios said that the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the situation of women migrant workers. Unlike past contagions like SARS, Ebola and MersCov which were confined in specific countries, COVID-19 is a global pandemic affecting the economies of both sending and receiving countries. Lockdowns and travel bans led to mass layoffs and decreased wages, limited the mobility of workers, and increased the risk of illness in their places of work.

“For women domestic workers, the pandemic increased their work demands and caretaking responsibilities for members of the household who are forced to remain indoors during the pandemic,” Javate-de Dios said, “they clean, cook, take care of children and elderly family members in addition to taking on extra duties cleaning and disinfecting homes.”

These difficulties are compounded when migrants now have to deal with travel bans and several requirements like COVID-19 health certificates. And when they return to the Philippines, OFWs likely face fragmented delivery of services from government agencies which lack resources to meet the health, accommodation, and transportation needs for laid-off returning migrants.

It takes a multi-faceted and systemic approach to address these problems facing our migrant workers especially women migrant workers. While relevant agencies like the POEA and DFA are on their feet dealing with these problems, admittedly, no government of countries where migrant workers originate is able to provide a sufficiently responsive assistance in an unprecedented crisis like this.

But there are immediate measures that can be done to ease the burdens Filipino migrant workers, especially women, are facing. For example, there are already existing national and international laws on migrant rights and protection. We can negotiate with host governments and invoke these laws as well as existing bilateral agreements under ILO Convention No. 97, specifically to include Filipino migrant workers in healthcare service entitlements as well as prioritization in their host countries.