More groups nix proposed psych test for migrant Pinoy domestics

MANILA, Philippines - Three more groups have joined critics of the government’s proposed mandatory psychiatric test for departing overseas Filipino household service workers (HSW). The Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC), the Apostleship of the Sea (AOS), and the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) claimed that the proposal of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) would not gauge if Filipinos are mentally fit to work abroad, but would be used to determine if HSWs could endure the abuses that might be inflicted on them by their employers. SMC’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 migrant workers were ready to experience abuse. “If the scaffolding is dangerous, (the government will) put workers who can jump 25 meters," Baggio said during an interview with reporters on Tuesday. AOS 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?" Bernardi said. For his part, CMA executive director Ellene Sana doubted the basis that the government would use in determining the mental fitness of HSWs. “They make decisions then consult us, This is not an effective partnership." Is this the solution?" she said. It was stated in the DFA’s “Proposed Psychiatric Examination for HSWs" 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 “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 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. - Kimberly Jane T. Tan, GMANews.TV