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MANILA, Philippines -- The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Saturday denounced as "downright ridiculous" a plan to require every Filipino seeking overseas employment, particularly domestic helpers, to undergo a mandatory psychiatric examination.
The labor group said administering psychiatric tests on such a large scale would be problematic and might just turn into a racket victimizing overseas Filipino workers.
TUCP general secretary Ernesto Herrera said the number of foreign-bound Filipino domestic helpers with potential psychiatric issues was insignificant compared to the overall volume of OFWs.
Herrera said many actually develop behavioral issues on the job overseas, indicating that psychiatric problems were "largely environmentally induced, not necessarily organic."
"This is mainly due to vicious foreign employers who practically enslave their maids, and force them to work and live under inhuman conditions," he said.
Herrera said some abusive employers resort to detaining their domestic staff and denying them normal access to the outside world.
"Naturally, the maids risk developing behavioral issues over time," he said.
The office of the undersecretary for overseas workers affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs has "strongly recommended" the mandatory psychiatric test to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration which licenses recruitment agencies.
It made the recommendation based on information that seven out of 10 Filipino maids on death row in the Middle East have had a history of mental illness.
Herrera doubted if any psychiatric test could be properly administered on a large scale, considering the volume of outbound Filipino domestic staff.
He said the country does not have adequate behavioral health care services so that there are not enough psychiatrists and mental health professionals to conduct the tests and process the results correctly.
"We simply do not have the competence. What will happen is that untrained personnel of diagnostic centers will end up administering and interpreting the test results," he said.
