Nearly 4,000 Filipinos jailed abroad, says Tulfo

Nearly 4,000 Filipinos in overseas jails, says Tulfo

Thousands of Filipinos are stuck in jails around the world and need the protection of the government, said Philippine Senator Raffy Tulfo. In his first privilege speech at the Philippine Senate on Wednesday (August 17), Tulfo called for government support for 3,827 Filipinos he said were languishing in jails in 52 countries. Tulfo showed his colleagues a series of video clips highlighting what he calls as “the reality” of the state of many Filipino migrant workers who experience grave physical and sexual abuse from their foreign employers. “My dear colleagues, happiness in the life of an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) is never guaranteed. The reality of the situation is that many of our countrymen are habitually abused by their foreign employers. Even more of them need repatriation and are stuck in our embassy’s shelters that are ill-equipped to harbor them safely,” Tulfo said. As chairperson of the newly-created Migrant Workers Committee, Tulfo vowed to pass measures that would ensure that all Filipino workers abroad are protected and that Filipino embassies may be empowered to “institute offices dedicated solely to the vetting of prospective employers and the enforcement of the laws that are meant to protect OFWs." “The first thing I will do is to find out if jailed Filipinos abroad have been given legal assistance. What’s their condition? Have their families been given assistance?” Tulfo said in Filipino. He said that many OFWs continue to experience maltreatment by their employers. He also noted that Philippine embassies do not have sufficient funds to care for all distressed Filipinos. Tulfo noted that the new Department of Migrant Workers Act has given hope to OFWs facing problems abroad. There are 1.77 million OFWs worldwide, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. “The birth of the Department of Migrant Workers is the rebirth of hope that we may yet fix the system and improve our means to be proactive in the defense of our OFWs,” Tulfo said. Tulfo said the new Committee on Migrant Workers will focus on passing laws to help Philippine embassies quickly extract or repatriate abused OFWs. “We, standing as one, have the opportunity to pass laws that would authorize our embassies abroad to institute offices dedicated solely to the vetting of prospective employers and the enforcement of the laws that are meant to protect our OFWs,” Tulfo said. He added that the committee will work on a streamlined process to give legal aid to OFWs in cases against their employers abroad. ICA/Expat Media

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