Jordan cracks down on undocumented Filipino workers

MANILA, Philippines—Authorities in Jordan have started to crack down on undocumented workers and arrested at least 28 Filipino workers  since Monday, a migrants rights group said Saturday.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said in a statement his group continued to receive requests for assistance from undocumented Filipino workers in Jordan who fear that they might be caught in the crackdown.

“As per reports we have received from some of the undocumented OFWs who asked our assistance, there are 20 women OFWs  who used to work as domestic workers in Jordan  (who) were nabbed by the host government last Monday,” Monterona said. The following day, eight undocumented OFWs were caught by Jordanian authorities, he added.

Monterona said that reports from undocumented OFWs showed that Jordanian authorities were conducting house-to-house searches in the capital, Amman,  and other cities.

“A report reaching us is that the host government recently issued an instruction to conduct house-to-house search to clean up the country amid proliferation of undocumented migrants,” Monterona said, adding that his group was still trying to verify if the crackdown was targeting only Filipinos or other nationals as well.

Monterona said most of the undocumented OFWs were those who had been forced to run away from their employers due to maltreatment and violations of their employment contracts.

He noted that deplorable working conditions and abuse prompted the Philippine government to impose a ban on the deployment of household service workers to that country in January 2008.

Monterona, who is based in Saudi Arabia, also urged the Philippine embassy in Jordan to provide assistance to the arrested OFWs for their documentation or immediate repatriation.

He said that Migrante estimated that there were 40,000 to 50,000 OFWs  in Jordan but “60 percent, or even more, are undocumented.”