Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello PHOTO TAKEN FROM FACEBOOK.COM
MANILA, Philippines—In the eastern metropolitan areas of Saudi Arabia, the sex-to-fly-home deal is called a “part-time” job.
Tales of sexual exploitation of runaway overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to come out, with three workers from the Saudi cities of Al-
Khobar and Dammam narrating their experiences to serve as a cautionary tale, according to Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello.
Bello said the women met with him and Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and detailed allegations of how one of them was made to provide sexual favors to a “middleman” who would fix their papers and link them with the Philippine labor office, and how a high-ranking labor official told another to engage in “part-time work,” a known term for prostitution there, to earn money to go home.
Each of the women was later made to pay 2,300-3,000 Saudi riyals (P26,500-P35,500) for the plane tickets home, even though the document later given to them showed that the air fares were gratis in accordance with government policy, Bello told the Inquirer in an interview on Saturday.
The women suspected that the money they paid was divided among Saudi officials who processed their repatriation and Philippine officials, he said.
Bello said the three women, who returned to the Philippines earlier this year, disclosed their stories to him and Baldoz because they hoped these would contribute in some way to ensuring that fellow OFWs won’t have to go through the same ordeal.
But the women are very reluctant to file a formal complaint because they feared that the officials involved had influential connections and would retaliate against them, he added.
What they mainly asked Bello was help in getting psychological counseling so that they could move on with their lives and “become whole again,” according to Bello, who added Akbayan would provide this service.
“They called their experience a nightmare,” he said. “They just wanted to erase what happened to them so they could resume a normal life. But they felt they have a responsibility to their fellow OFWs so that their experience won’t be repeated, which is why they narrated their experiences.”
Bello said that with the disclosures, he hoped the Department of Labor and Employment would include Al-Khobar in its investigation of the alleged sexual exploitation of distressed OFWs, an issue that the Akbayan lawmaker exposed earlier.
The department’s investigating team flew to the Middle East on Saturday to begin its mission.
Recounting the three women’s stories, Bello said that in the Al-Khobar-Dammam area, circulating among OFWs were the contact numbers of three individuals who were supposed to be able to help runaway workers fix their papers and get in touch with the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) so that they could be repatriated.
Saudi police feared
These three individuals are known as alias Guanzon, alias Rauf, and alias Biazon, he said. The women were unsure whether these men were officially connected to the labor office, but he said the workers were sure of the men’s close relationships with the Filipino officials there.
Bello said that aside from asking for money from runaway OFWs, one of these apparent middlemen would demand sexual favors from the workers, usually for several days. One of the three women admitted to succumbing to this demand.
There have also been times when other women would be passed off to the men’s friends, he said.
Based on the accounts, many runaway Filipino women have found themselves agreeing to the sexual demands of one of the middlemen because they otherwise risked being arrested by the Saudi police, who they feared would rape them before turning them over to the Saudi Social Welfare Authority for deportation.
Some runaway OFWs had also been able to get in touch with top labor officials in Al-Khobar, but they allegedly got “really rude treatment” from them, Bello said.
One woman narrated that a top Philippine labor official told her she was a burden to the government and should engage in “part-time work” so that she could earn money to go home. The official even asked her whether she wanted a white man, an Indian or an Arab, but she rejected this.
Plain prostitution
“‘Part-time work’ is universally translated by OFWs as prostitution. So what the Polo officials are advising people is to do prostitution,” Bello said.
He said he asked the women whether the term could have been referring to some house cleaning work, but the women told him that was not the case. “They said everybody knows that ’part-time work’ only has one meaning, and that is to sell yourself,” he said.
One of the three OFWs admitted she had engaged in the practice, Bello said.
Based on the women’s tale, he said, doing this kind of part-time work was not uncommon that the unofficial OFW shelter in Al-Khobar (unofficial because it’s not recognized by the Saudi government), which is handled by Philippine labor officials, has a reputation of being known as a prostitution center.
Many of the clients were from Aramco, a Saudi Arabian oil company that employs foreigners, he added. The rates range from 200 to 500 riyals (P2,300 to P5,750), with workers who were new to the trade able to command the higher fees, he said.
Bello also said the OFWs who were able to cough up money were given preferential treatment in repatriation, and this had led to bad blood developing between workers with money and those without resources who had been waiting for months to go home.
He also said the three OFWs were angry that they were made to pay for their plane tickets home when these are supposed to be free. They wanted to recover the money they paid if it would be possible, he said.
Originally posted: 7:42 pm | Sunday, June 30th, 2013