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15 Filipina domestics who died in Lebanon mostly fell from buildings


MANILA, Philippines - Almost five female migrant domestic workers in Lebanon die monthly mostly through suicide by hanging or due to falling from high buildings, and a number of them are Filipinos. New York-based international non-government organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that 15 Filipino domestics died mostly from “unnatural causes," – the second highest number of fatalities recorded in the last 20 months among foreign house helpers in Lebanon. The deaths occurred amid the existing deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the said war-torn country in Western Asia. From January 1, 2007 to August 15, 2008, HRW said 95 foreign domestic helpers died in Lebanon. The highest number of fatalities were recorded among Ethiopian domestic workers with 64 deaths; followed by Filipino domestics with 15 deaths; Sri Lankan house helpers with nine deaths; Bangladeshis with four deaths; and one fatality each among helpers from Madagascar, Nepal, and Eritrea. Most of the overseas domestics — 42 of them — reportedly committed suicide by hanging and other unknown means. Twenty five fell from high floors, balconies or buildings; seven died in car accidents and other unknown road mishaps, while five died from carbon monoxide suffocation. Three died of cancer; another three due to “natural death" of unknown details; and one each died of brain hemorrhage, through electric shock; beating by employer; drowning in a pool, and through being killed by her brother or boyfriend. “Domestic workers are dying in Lebanon at a rate of more than one per week. All those involved — from the Lebanese authorities, to the workers’ embassies, to the employment agencies, to the employers — need to ask themselves what is driving these women to kill themselves or risk their lives trying to escape from high buildings," said Nadim Houry, HRW senior researcher. Mostly in their 20s Data culled by GMANews.TV from the HRW death list showed that only 30 of the 95 migrant domestic workers were identified. Majority of them – 24 – were in their 20s; five were in their 30s; and 1 was in her 50s. Five of the 15 Filipino domestics died after falling from high floors or buildings; four others succumbed to either lung problem or heart failure; two others died due to carbon monoxide suffocation; one through a car accident; another died of cancer, while the last one gave in to brain hemorrhage due to high tension. Only three of the 15 dead Filipino domestics were identified — Alima Nuraya, 26, who reportedly died of carbon monoxide suffocation; Anelyn Sayson, 21, who reportedly fell from a high floor; and Jwana Sizar Firualdi, 24, who was believed to have committed suicide by hanging. Data from the Philippine government showed that there were 29, 412 OFWs in Lebanon as of 2006. When the fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces broke out in mid-2006, deployment ban to Lebanon was imposed among OFWs. About 6,000 Filipinos, mostly domestics, were flown back to the Philippines at the time. According to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, nearly two of every three OFWs evacuated from Lebanon in 2006 were undocumented. In May 2008, migrant advocacy group Migrante-Middle East asked how 5,000 additional OFWs could have entered Lebanon amid the existing deployment ban. The group said it got the information on the 5,000 OFWs from the Filipino-Lebanese Friendship Association based in Lebanon. In August 2008, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Claro Cristobal was quoted in news reports as saying that there were about 500 OFWs, mostly household helpers in Tripoli, Lebanon. Suicide triggers Based on HRW’s interviews with embassy officials and friends of the overseas workers, most of the suicides were triggered by forced confinement, excessive work demands, employer abuse, and financial pressures. HRW said that an official of the Philippine embassy related that one Filipina committed suicide after her employer accused her of stealing a piece of jewelry, beat her up, and locked her inside the house. HRW cited a 2006 survey of 600 domestic workers in Lebanon which showed that 31 percent of the women said that their employers did not allow them to leave home. The survey was conducted by Dr Ray Jureidini of the American University in Cairo. The organization also cited the story of Nepalese Sarada Phuyal who hung herself on March 17, 2008 after struggling from her financial problems. “Sarada was depressed because she had a lot of pressure from her husband to send money. Her husband was very sick. The money she was sending was all spent on medical costs. She was very upset about this because she wanted the money for her children to go to school," HRW quoted a Nepalese who worked in the household where Phuyal stayed. Houry said the “suicides are linked to the isolation and the difficult working conditions these workers face in Lebanon." “While the Lebanese authorities cannot guarantee these women happiness, they should gurantee them the right to move freely, to work in decent conditions, to communicate with their friends and families, and to earn a living wage," Houry added. Suicide or escape? But the HRW doubts that many of these workers indeed committed suicide. Houry said that while police reports classified falling from buildings as suicides, HRW interviews suggested that most falls happened due to attempts of the workers to escape from their employers. Two of the workers interviewed by HRW who survived the fall said that “they were trying to flee employers who either had mistreated them or locked them in." “Many domestic workers are literally being driven to jump from balconies to escape their forced confinement," said Houry. According to HRW, Lebanese police investigate these cases. However, the investigations “reveal many flaws," as reported by lawyers representing domestic workers and officials working at the migrants’ embassies. The group cited the police’s failure to “always investigate whether the employer mistreated the employee." “And when they do, they limit themselves to general questions and accept the employer’s testimony without cross-checking their statements with information from neighbors or the family of the domestic worker," HRW said. HRW said that in cases where the worker survives the fall, “police often interview her without the presence of a translator and generally ignore the motives that led to her escape." Psychiatric test In the Philippines, the Arroyo administration is getting flak from several migrant advocacy groups for its proposal requiring household service workers to undergo psychiatric procedures before working overseas. The groups claim that the government’s proposal implies that Filipinos suffer when they work abroad because they are not mentally prepared for their jobs. The groups also say that the government primarily puts the blame on Filipinos rather than on their foreign employers, host countries, and the Arroyo administration’s failure to ensure the protection of OFWs or provide decent jobs to Filipinos who are lured to work abroad due to lack of better job opportunities in the Philippines. Scalabrini Migration Center’s Fr. Fabio Baggio said the impression he got from reports about the proposed mandatory test was that the government would like to determine whether Filipinos were ready to experience abuse abroad. “If the scaffolding is dangerous, (the government will) put workers who can jump 25 meters," Baggio said. Apostleship of the Sea director Fr. Savino Bernardi meanwhile asked if the test was “another way for the government to get away from its responsibility." According to Bernardi, the issue is not on who will be sent abroad, but in what places or countries will they be sent. “So why humiliate and endorse Filipinos to places where a good number of them would be maltreated?" 178 mental cases It was stated in the DFA’s “Proposed Psychiatric Examination for Household Service Workers" (HSW) that from 2006 to 2007, there were 178 mental cases involving Filipino domestics sent to Middle East countries. There were 26 mental cases among Filipino house helpers sent to Asian countries, while there were 24 other cases recorded in the Americas and in Europe, according to the DFA. The DFA said there were many reported cases of mentally unfit HSWs because “a large number of overseas Filipino workers leave without undergoing legal processes." The department said other reasons include:
  • Absence of actual physical or mental screening of OFWs despite issuance of medical certification;
  • Instruments used in assessing mental conditions of OFWs are limited in scope;
  • Aggravating factors such as work environment, cultural differences, language barriers, and emotional stress that affect OFWs’ physical and mental conditions; and
  • Relaxing of government rules on OFW screening to provide job placements for Sabah refugees and HSWs from Mindanao.
Under the DFA's proposal, OFWs will have to pay P1, 500 for the entire psychological procedure, which will be composed of the following: autobiography writing; Revised Beta Examination I; Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test; Machover figure drawing test; sentence completion test; Becker Depression Scale/Thematic Apperception Test; Rorschach Psychodiagnostic Test; and hand test. Migrante International said the proposed test showed the government’s low regard for Filipino workers. The group said the DFA should realize that deplorable working conditions overseas; verbal, physical, emotional and sexual abuse; torture and non-payment of wages are the major factors that drive OFWs to the brink of insanity. “By refusing to acknowledge these realities and by conveniently glossing over the fact that most of the time OFWs commit crimes to defend themselves, others are just plain victims of frame-up; the DFA, in essence, is condemning our OFWs," Migrante’s Concepcion Bragas-Regalado said. - GMANews.TV
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