Lack of enforcement mechanism blamed for OFW trafficking to Iraq

A Manila-based migrant workers’ group on Friday blamed the lack of enforcement mechanism of the travel ban to Iraq for the reported “smuggling" of the 51 Filipino workers from Kuwait. Ellene Sana, executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) said that “prior to the implementation of the travel ban in 2004, the government should have put in place strict enforcement mechanism, knowing that high-paying jobs in war-torn Iraq continue to lure overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Middle East countries." She said that the simple stamp saying “not valid for travel to Iraq" on Philippine passports doesn’t make sense without mechanisms to enforce the ban. The government should strengthen bilateral negotiations with heads of countries OFWs use as entry points to Iraq. Sana also said their office has collected testimonies affirming the presence of many Filipinos in Iraq even after the ban. She cited the 700 Filipino truck drivers who had contacted CMA using the SOS-SMS hotline, a short messaging service where distressed OFWs can send information. The truck drivers easily cross Kuwait-Iraq borders daily. In 2004, the government banned Filipinos from traveling to and working in Iraq, after Iraqi militants abducted Angelo dela Cruz, a truck driver working for a Saudi trucking company. The abduction, which became a well-publicized case, had forced the government to impose the travel ban to Iraq, minus a clear enforcement mechanism, Sana said. Dela Cruz was released only after the Philippine government pulled-out its peacekeeping troops from Iraq. The case of the 51 workers who was “trafficked" to Iraq to work in the construction of the sprawling US embassy in the country, highlights the issue that the travel ban has not stopped Filipinos from working in Iraq, Sana added. Sana cited a joke among Filipinos in Iraq: “‘Di na baleng mamatay sa Iraq na may trabaho kay sa mamatay na gutom sa Pilipinas" (We would rather die having jobs in Iraq than die of hunger in the Philippines). The Department of Foreign Affairs has already sent a high-level team to the Middle East to investigate the report based on Rory Mayberry’s testimony that he was once asked to escort 51 Filipinos to Baghdad to work at the construction of the sprawling US Embassy compound there. Mayberry used to be an emergency medical technician for First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Company, which the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration blacklisted in 2004 for labor violations. The company has again emerged, this time for possible violations of the government ban on the deployment of Filipinos to Iraq. - Luis Gorgonio, GMANews.TV