Most Filipino maids in Syria won’t come home

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine government faces the difficult task of evacuating some 5,000 Filipino household services workers (HSWs) out of Syria as most, if not all, of them are undocumented and their employers would not willingly let them go, a recruitment consultant and migration specialist said on Sunday.

Emmanuel Geslani said the maids’ passports are being held by their employers who will not be easily convinced to release them and give exit visas out of the country.

“Despite nationwide protests all over Syria against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, his government is fully in control of all exit points and all expatriates leaving Syria need exit visas to get out of Syria,” Geslani added.

He said that out of the 17,000 overseas Filipino workers in Syria, less than a thousand are documented by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

“Household service workers and others are flown to Syria by illegal recruitment syndicates operating in our airports. These OFWs, mostly from depressed areas in Mindanao and the Visayas, and some under-aged, are under the control of their employers who paid US$ 1,800 to $2,000 to the illegal recruiters for their services,” Geslani said.

The POEA stopped the deployment of OFWs to Syria last August amid escalating protests against the Assad regime. Last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs called on all Filipinos to leave Syria as soon as possible due to worsening violence there.

Geslani, citing recruitment industry reports and accounts of Filipino maids earlier repatriated from Syria, said the undocumented domestics work in undesirable working conditions and each month, a portion of their salaries are deducted to pay for the cost of their deployment.

“Most of them if not all are only receiving $150 to $200 each month—way below the mandated $400 dollars of the POEA. They are prone to abuse and maltreatment since they were flown in under a salary deduction scheme and were not even properly trained to work as HSWs,” he added.

Foreign Assistant Secretary Ricardo Endaya, a Middle East expert, was sent by the government this week to help the Philippine embassy staff in Damascus in convincing the employers to let go of their Filipino maids.

“However, many of the Syrian employers are demanding a payment of $2,000 to 3,000 for their expenses in procuring the maids and finding replacements. This is the reason why despite our good intentions to repatriate our maids, we have to face this stumbling block in our desire to repatriate them,” Geslani said.