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MANILA, Philippines?Overseas Filipino workers groups in the Middle East are gearing for the hearings being conducted in the Middle East by the House committee on overseas workers affairs (Cowa) which is supposedly formulating new legislation for the protection of OFWs in the region.
Migrante-United Arab Emirates, a chapter of the OFW alliance Migrante-Middle East, said it would attend the hearings scheduled November 2 and 3 in Abu Dhabi and November 4 and 5 in Dubai.
Another hearing has been scheduled in Amman, Jordan on November 6 and 7.
The hearings in the Middle Eastern countries, which are major OFW destinations, are ?not just a historic event but a milestone as well for Cowa which for the fist time will conduct an investigation, hearing the issues and concerns directly from the OFWs themselves as resource persons,? said Nhel Morona, Migrante-UAE secretary-general in a statement.
He said the group was hoping to put on the agenda of the meetings "the rampant cases of labor malpractices, abuses and maltreatment, sex-trafficking and illegal smuggling; the provision of legal assistance as mandated by the Migrant Workers Act of 1995 for OFWs in jail and on death row, the growing numbers of run away and stranded OFWs and the undocumented," among many issues.
Morona said the Migrante chapters are awaiting invitations to the hearing, presumably to be sent by Cowa through the various Philippine diplomatic offices in UAE and Jordan.
There are 35 members of the committee, which is chaired by Compostela Valley Representative Manuel Zamora.
