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THE
Foreign Affairs and Labor Departments were asked on
Tuesday to look into reports that at least 51 Filipinos
were allegedly smuggled into Iraq, from Kuwait, to help
build a new US Embassy in Baghdad.
In a
privileged speech, Sen. Mar Roxas II urged foreign
affairs and labor officials to tap diplomatic channels
to verify the information which, he said, was presented
in a testimony before a US congressional committee.
If
verified, he added, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) should
immediately ensure the safe return of the said
Filipinos.
“These
51 Filipinos, and many others who may have a similar
plight, were supposedly duped into working in
Dubai, but they only learned that they were being brought to
Baghdad, when they were on the plane. If true, this is
forced labor at its worst,” Roxas complained.
He said
the information was revealed in a US hearing on July 26
of US Congress’s Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform during its investigation into alleged abuses in
the construction of the US Embassy in Iraq.
Roxas
reported that Rory Mayberry, an emergency medical
technician contracted to First Kuwaiti, the construction
company building the US Embassy in Iraq, testified
before the US congressional committee that he was tasked
to shepherd 51 Filipinos to Iraq. He admitted to the
committee that these Filipinos thought they were bound
for Dubai, to work in hotels there, and had no idea that
they were being brought to Baghdad.
“It is
distressing to hear that our fellow Filipinos are being
deceived into working in
Iraq
by unscrupulous contracting firms. I call on DFA and
DOLE officials to verify these reports, and if verified,
to ensure the safe return of our people,” Roxas added.
He added
that Mayberry also told the US Congress committee that
when the duped Filipinos raised an uproar in the plane
upon learning they were being brought to Baghdad, a
security officer supposedly working for the construction
company threatened them by waving an MP-5 submachine
gun. Eventually, he said that the Filipinos were
“smuggled into the Green Zone” of
Iraq,
past US security forces.
In his
testimony, Mayberry also told the committee that these
Filipinos, among other laborers forced to work on the US
Embassy in Iraq, were working without the proper safety
equipment, and many were injured in the process.
“As far
as I remember correctly, the ban on travel to Iraq had
not yet been lifted. Why do we then hear reports of
Filipinos ending up there?” Roxas asked. “If these
testimonies are true, then the stamps on our passports
saying ‘not valid for travel to Iraq’ means nothing.
Such stamp is not enough,” he added.
According to Roxas, “this is not just a violation of our
travel ban, this is forced labor. And unless we have
officially accepted that the days of slavery are back,
the government must act.”
Roxas
recalled that the government in 2004 banned Filipinos
from travelling to and working in
Iraq,
after Angelo de la Cruz, a truck driver working for a
Saudi trucking company, was abducted by Iraqi militants.
De la Cruz was released only after the Philippine
government pulled out its peacekeeping troops from Iraq.
Roxas
recommended that the Philippine Embassy in Iraq must
conduct an inspection of the US Embassy construction
site, get in touch with US officials there, and see for
themselves if there are indeed Filipinos in the
vicinity. |
