Again, caught with its pants down.
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, a migrant-serving group based in Hong Kong scored the Philippine government over reported political backlash to Filipino workers in and bound to Taiwan of its decision to deport 14 Taiwanese nationals to Mainland China.
“When the news broke out in Taiwan, there have been calls echoed in the local media in Taiwan for President Ma Ying-jeou to conduct stiffer political actions against the move such as freezing the importation of Filipino workers. Recent developments have shown that such is the case even if there is no formal announcement yet. What mechanism has the Philippine government put in place to curb the possible adverse impacts to their nationals of the action they took on the case of the 14 Taiwanese? Obviously none,” said Joram Calimutan, APMM program coordinator.
“While the new minimum wage is a welcome news, the exclusion of almost half of foreign workers in Taiwan who are caregivers or work in households makes it discriminatory and unjust.”
This was declared today by Joram Calimutan, program coordinator, of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), a regional migrant centre based in Hong Kong as Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs earlier announced a new minimum wage for industrial-, agricultural-, and institution-based workers for this year.
The recent increase in minimum wage adjusted the monthly minimum salary to NT$17,880.00 from NT$17,280 or an hourly minimum rate of NT$98 from NT$95.
“Evidently, the Indonesian Consulate has sided with the recruitment agencies instead of serving and protecting Indonesian migrants in Hong Kong. They have openly refused to assist victims of cases of high agency fees and have continued to allow recruitment agencies to harass Indonesian migrants, their employers and families back home.”
This was declared by Eni Lestari, coordinator of United Indonesians Against Overcharging or PILAR as more than 350 Indonesian migrants trooped to the Indonesian Consulate from East Point Road in Causeway Bay to protest its continued indulgence of recruitment agencies in extorting exorbitant fees from Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong. The group also hit the policy of the Indonesian government of forcing them to go through recruitment agencies each time they process their contract in spite of the gross exploitation committed repeatedly by the agencies.
The protesters demanded that all Indonesian migrants in Hong Kong be allowed to process their contracts directly and to stop exorbitant fees charged by agencies.
“Only justice can compensate for the tragedy that has befallen migrant workers in Mexico.”
This was aired today by Ramon Bultron, member of the International Coordinating Body of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) as the group led some 30 migrant workers in Hong Kong in a protest action at the Consulate General of Mexico to demand justice for 72 slain migrant workers from various countries in South America.
“Migrants around the world are extremely angered by such brutality against our fellow foreign workers. Like millions of us, they were forced to leave their homeland to search for a better life for them and their family. As they suffered the injustice of poverty in their lives, they should be given justice in their death,” Bultron remarked.
Found with hands bound behind their backs and shot in the head in the Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas, these 72 migrants from Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador and Brazil were rounded up, intimidated and being extorted from by drug traffickers before they were all summarily executed.
Finally after more than a year of struggle, the remains of Marilou Sables, an undocumented OFW in Taiwan was exhumed and cremated on July 31st and will be repatriated on August 7. What the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), the de facto Philippine Embassy in Taiwan, initially wanted was for her remains to be left in an unmarked grave and they would just provide a scholarship for her daughter. Migrante-Taiwan and other organizations and individuals, however, persisted in ensuring that her body be sent back home as it was MECO itself which was negligent in handling this case.
Marilou Sables died of cardiac arrest on April 17, 2009 but according to ATN (Assistance to Nationals) chief Atty. Carlo Aquino in June that year that MECO had no funds for undocumented Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) even though MECO head Antonio I. Basilio stated that either MECO or the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs – Department of Foreign Affairs (OUMWA – DFA) can provide funding for her repatriation.
