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THE US
government said initial investigation “found no
evidence” that foreign workers, including 51 Filipinos,
were being trafficked and forced to work at the
construction of the US Embassy in
Iraq.
However,
acting on President Arroyo’s orders, the Department of
Foreign Affairs (DFA) will send a team to the
Middle East to look into reports that at least 51 Filipino workers have
been smuggled into
Iraq,
through Kuwait.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that recruitment
agencies found responsible for the employment of
Filipino workers in Iraq, which is against the
deployment ban to that country, would be blacklisted.
The DFA
was instructed to immediately send a team to the Middle
East for the purpose of straightening out the
situation,” Ermita said when asked about the plight of
Filipino workers who were reportedly smuggled to Iraq to
help build the new US Embassy in Baghdad.
He added
that the team “was instructed to ensure that the people
there in the Middle East, especially in Kuwait through
Ambassador Eric Endaya, reiterate the policy of the ban
on the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq.”
The team
will be comprised of representatives from the DFA, the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
Ermita
said that the government may blacklist the recruitment
agencies working for the First Kuwait Trading and
Contracting Co., which reportedly lured Filipino workers
for employment in
Dubai, but were taken to
Baghdad
instead.
DFA
spokesman Claro Cristobal said the testimony of Rory
Mayberry, American employee of the subcontractor First
Kuwaiti Co. given at a US congressional committee
hearing on July 26, is now being taken seriously by the
government, including the President.
“The
Philippines shall investigate fully the circumstances
around the issue, verify each and every element in the
situation for the purpose of making sure that our
migrant workers don’t fall prey to what may amount to
trafficking,” said Cristobal.
Matthew
Lussenhop, spokesman for the US Embassy in Manila, said
that inspectors general of both the State Department and
the Multinational Forces in Iraq have conducted initial
investigations following the Mayberry report, but “found
no evidence” of any trafficking of workers to Iraq.
He said
the matter was not discussed during the bilateral
meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations and the US held on Wednesday at the Philippine
International Convention Center.
“Most of
the topics of the discussions were multilateral with the
Asean. To my knowledge, it was not taken up,” he said.
Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state of
East Asia and the Pacific, said in an interview: “I’m
not familiar [with the issue]. My understanding is that
it was looked into...but I’m sorry I’m not in a position
to comment much further.”
The DFA
said that the results of the investigation on the
trafficking of workers to Iraq would lead to the
crafting of new diplomatic and labor rules to stop the
criminal act that put the lives of the migrant workers
at stake.
“We will
ask our partners, all countries which accept our
workers, to help us in shedding light on the Mayberry
testimony. Domestic laws could have been violated. The
travel and deployment ban to Iraq exists and is being
implemented, and violations to this ban have proven
detrimental to our migrant workers,” he said, noting the
two Filipinos who were killed in Baghdad this year.
The
Mayberry testimony came amid efforts of the Asean
leaders to adopt measures on how to protect millions of
migrant workers from the Asean countries. |
