Filipino migrants in Middle East systematically abused

Speaking in Rome ahead of Pope Francis’ current visit to the Philippines, which started on Thursday, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila said he hoped the visit would strengthen Filipinos in their missionary calling.  As well as doing something “in our own backyard”, he said, Filipinos could be “a beacon to Asia”.

The Middle East is “filled with Filipinos” he said, and bishops and priests say that, thanks to them, the Church is present. The numbers are indeed huge. Saudi Arabia has 1.25 million, the UAE just under one million, Kuwait and Qatar 200,000 each. Lebanon has between 30,000 and 50,000. However, migrants’ charities and non-governmental organisations are using the opportunity of the visit to draw attention to the appalling conditions in which Filipinos are forced to live in the region.

Migrant workers across the Middle East operate under the Kafala system, a set of strict rules tying workers to their employers. The employer exerts complete control over workers’ day-to-day lives, including any free time and their ability to socialise. Omar Harfouch, of Lebanon’s Migrant Workers Task Force, described the system as “deliberately infantilising, where your employer also becomes your parent, restricting your movement, what you do, what you eat”.

Hessen Sayah, head of migrant protection for the Catholic international charity Caritas in the Middle East, told The Tablet: “The Kafala system encourages abuse of migrants, especially among domestic workers.” Filipino women typically work in domestic roles, hidden in private homes where physical and sexual abuse is even more difficult to track.

Filipino workers face particular hardship in Saudi Arabia where freedom of religion is non-existent. The community in Lebanon can worship and a Beirut church introduced a daily 5 a.m. Mass in the run-up to the Pope’s Asian visit.