QATAR: How OFWs fare in this tiny ME country

QATAR: How OFWs fare in this tiny ME country

Worker rights problems are numerous in this small nation of the Arabian Peninsula. One works 6 days a week, for 10 hours a day. Although some were able to fly back to the Philippines for vacation once a year, some workers who only get 30 days of rest every 2 years.  Many of them cannot afford to fly back to visit their families, or whose employers make it difficult to leave the country. 

Human trafficking is a growing dilemma in Qatar and neighboring countries such as the U.A.E and Saudi Arabia. Incidences of involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation have been documented by the US government and human rights organizations working locally. Threats of physical and financial harm are a common tactic of employers, whereas others actively restrict their employees’ mobility by confiscating passports, and other travel documents. Due to the secretive and hidden nature of human trafficking, obtaining accurate statistics on the problem is a challenge. However, it is thought that nearly 2.million individuals fell victim to trafficking between 1995 and 2005. It is also estimated that the slavery industry yields $32 billion in yearly profits. Qatar remains on the Tier 2 Watch List of the U.S. State Department*** because the country’s government does not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. 

The OFWs may be receiving better salaries in Qatar than in the Philippines, but a large number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have no cash savings at all.

Charmaine Pamela Bautista, information officer of the Housing and Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), estimates that 90% of average- and low-income OFW-earners in this country spend the bulk of their hard-earned money on food and education of their children.

One of the indications, she stresses, is that they visit her office to file salary, housing and other loans. These loans are payable in five, 10, 15 and up to 30 years.

Of the estimated 200,000 OFWs in Qatar, about 45,000 are housemaids and 70% are average- and low-income earners. Bautista believed that many of them wanted to own a house in their homeland to cut rental costs.

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Qatar remain optimistic that 2013 would be a good and promising year for them here and their families in the Philippines.

Although better salary tops the main reason for working in this country, most OFWs say that they feel safe and unharmed because of the low crime rate and strict implementation of security measures in this country. Once you commit a crime, there is no place to hide. CCTVs are everywhere and there are a lot of security personnel who give you a sense of safety.

Meanwhile, most families of OFWs are hopeful that their loved ones here will stay healthy and safe as they continue to strive for a better life.

According the Philippine Embassy in Qatar, 10 per cent of the tiny country’s population of some 1.8 million people are Filipino. The second most prevalent Asian group behind Indians and after Chinese, what makes the Filipinos stand out most in the Qatari work force is their role in higher management positions, part of a largest trend being scene abroad for overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs), especially those with a high command in English.

Yet while cultural concessions have been made, with the emir of Qatar allowing five church denominations to open up about five years ago,, the estimated 2 million Filipinos working overseas in the Middle East (mostly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, followed by Qatar) confront wage discrimination and unfair working conditions

*        http://illumemagazine.co...I-failure-ofdubai-123716

**     http://www.dreamcenter.o...recueprojectstat.pdf

***  http://www.gov/g/t...Is/tiprpt/2010/index.htm.

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