A Filipina endured cruel and slave-like treatment from her employers for three years in Australia.
Hoping for a better life for her family, she went to Australia under a tourist visa and was recruited by the Sydney couple to work in Australia in 2013 as a cleaner and nanny of their children.
The couple, Shiela and Joshua McAleer, shouldered the travel expenses of the Filipina immigrant whose identity was not disclosed.
After her tourist visa expired, her passport was confiscated by her employer who told her she will not go home even if her family member went sick.
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Sheila, a distant relative of the victim, even said she will only pay her plane ticket home after five years, 7 News reported.
In 2015, the Filipina immigrant was forced to work and supervised the couple’s grocery and eatery stores six to seven days a week.
She managed to escape from them in 2016 but her employers tracked her down with the help of a private detective. She was then threatened that they would harm her or her family in the Philippines.
The Filipina said she felt like a slave but opted to keep quiet as she had no power to change her situation.
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“I did not know when I came that I would have to work 24 hours a day. I did not get paid for my work,” she recalled.
The couple pleaded guilty to charges such as conducting business involving forced labor, harboring an unlawful non-citizen and making a false statement for health benefits.
The couple will be sentenced in June and could face a maximum of 10 years in jail.
They already offered to pay $70,000 as compensation to their victim. (RA)
